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Good Wednesday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the latest Bank of America Study of Philanthropy and speak with organizers of memorials for the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks about the complexities they are facing this year. We spotlight the efforts by the family of a man killed in last month’s terror attack in Jerusalem to honor his memory by completing his final charity project, and report on the Anti-Defamation League’s deletion of its popular Glossary of Extremism following pushback over its entry about Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi David Stav about finding a pathway to forgiveness during times of social division and deep hurt, and one by Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach with a message of hope for 5786 from the front lines of Israel’s health-care system. Also in this issue: David Tepper, Libby Lenkinski and Steven Malter.

Ed. note: In observance of Yom Kippur, the next edition of Your Daily Phil will arrive on Monday, Oct. 6.

Gmar chatima tova and Shabbat shalom! 

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Personal connections are a potent force in philanthropy, increasing both the likelihood of charitable giving and the amount, according to the latest Bank of America Study of Philanthropy, a biennial report on the field, which was released yesterday. 

The study found that affluent Americans — defined as those with a net worth of more than $1 million (excluding primary residence) and/or an annual household income of $200,000 — are continuing to volunteer more, following a COVID-19 dip, with 43% of respondents saying that they did so last year, compared to 37% in 2022 and 30% in 2020. The two most common forms of volunteering were distributing basic goods and working with a religious organization. The study, which surveyed 1,514 affluent households, found that people who volunteer are more likely to give to charity than those who don’t and that on average, their donations are 2.5 times higher than non-volunteers.

Donors are also mainly driven by their beliefs and values, with 63% saying that these are their reasons for selecting causes to support, as opposed to 47% who said that it was because of perceived needs of the organization or field. The survey also found that nearly 80% of donors give to causes within their local communities, principally those focused on providing basic needs and religious services. 

The Bank of America study offers a window into the philanthropic habits and motivations of wealthy households, some of which will be well known to regular eJewishPhilanthropy readers — such as the ongoing trend of more money being given by fewer, wealthier donors — while others have not been tracked by similar studies, such as the annual Giving USA report.

For instance, the Bank of America study, which was conducted with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, found that family collaboration is a critical tool but one that is vastly underutilized. While roughly half of respondents, 46%, said that they consult their spouse about every philanthropic gift, a sizeable majority of donors — 82% — said that they do not involve relatives from other generations in those decisions. This is despite the fact that 75% of donors reported planning to leave their estates to their children and grandchildren. 

Donors are also increasingly savvy about how they donate funds, with 18% making donations through a “giving vehicle” — as opposed to a direct donation — including donor-advised funds, private foundations, wills, endowment funds, giving circles, charitable LLCs and others. This represents a 64% increase from nine years ago, and is likely to continue increasing, particularly among the wealthiest of donors. Among those with $5 million-$20 million in assets, nearly half said they either had a “giving vehicle” or planned to establish one within the next three years.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here. 

COURTESY/NLI

As the second anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks approaches, Jewish organizations and their supporters are planning programming to mark the day. But with Israel’s war with Gaza still raging amid growing international denunciations, 48 hostages still held captive and uncertainty about whether Hamas will accept President Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan, organizers say they are navigating fraught territory on multiple levels, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.

Mourning in a ‘joyous’ time: This year, even the timing of memorials is complicated by the fact that Oct. 7 falls on the first day of the weeklong Sukkot holiday, which is liturgically described as “zman simchateinu,” or “the time of our joy,” an idea that is at odds with communal mourning. For some, there is ambiguity about what exactly should be memorialized: just the attacks themselves — the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — or also the past two years of war, which has resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians. For many, the answer is the former, while others, particularly those in progressive communities, will incorporate the latter as well. Some Jewish organizations are avoiding the matter altogether and refraining from memorializing the attacks to avoid arguments and communal tensions.

Read the full report here.

COURTESY

As his multiple honorifics attest, Rabbi Dr. Mordechai “Mark” Steintzag lived an accomplished life, which was cut short last month at 79 when he and five other people were shot dead in a terror attack at a bus stop in Jerusalem’s Ramot neighborhood. Born in Belarus, he trained as a cardiologist before immigrating to Israel after the fall of the Soviet Union, establishing a popular commercial bakery, “Dr. Mark’s Bakery,” and eventually becoming a rabbi. But according to his family, he will be best remembered for his charity. "We didn't realize the extent of the chesed [charity] he did. We learned how he had touched dozens, probably hundreds of people he helped, and everything was done with modesty, without any fanfare," Steintzag’s grandson, Ophir Ospovat, told Rachel Gutman for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Finishing his work: Now, Ospovat and his mother, Tanya, are looking to honor Steintzag by completing the final charitable project that he started two weeks before his death: having a new Torah scroll written for his synagogue in Ramot. "At the funeral, I immediately understood that we had to finish his work," Tanya Ospovat told eJP.

Read the full report here.

ARI PERILSTEIN/GETTY IMAGES

Under pressure from Elon Musk, Donald Trump Jr. and prominent right-wing activists in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the Anti-Defamation League is removing from its website the Glossary of Extremism and Hate, one of the organization’s signature anti-hate resources, report Emily Jacobs and Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Scrubbing the site: The database identifies over 1,000 terms relating to extremist ideologies and groups, and it has faced scrutiny in recent days after viral social media posts revealed that the Glossary of Extremism included an entry about the slain Turning Point USA founder and his organization. An ADL spokesperson confirmed to JI that the organization removed the glossary entirely and that it does not consider TPUSA an “extremist group.” The glossary no longer appears on the ADL website. The ADL’s webpage about Kirk, which remains active, still says that Kirk “created a vast platform that was used by numerous extremists and far-right conspiracy theorists. A number of such individuals speak and attend his annual AmericaFest and other events sponsored by TPUSA.”

Read the full report here and sign up for Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff here.

RAPIDEYE/GETTY IMAGES

“As the Jewish people approach Yom Kippur, the day of the year most connected with forgiveness, we find ourselves in a period of deep internal tension,” writes Rabbi David Stav, chair of Israel’s Tzohar Rabbinical Organization, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Forgiveness is certainly one of the hardest qualities to embrace. Feelings can legitimately be hurt for all sorts of reasons. … But forgiveness is critical; it is central to our ability to grow as individuals, as communities and as a nation.”

For our future’s sake: “To be clear, forgiveness need not mean forgetting or ignoring the injury. As a society, we certainly cannot afford to forget the mistakes of the past. Indeed, we have an obligation to learn from those mistakes to ensure they are not tragically repeated. But forgiveness means that we are prepared to accept the failings of others — and only when we do that will others be prepared to accept our own failings. Israel and the Jewish people are amidst deeply challenging days. … We must appreciate that even while we are a diverse people, we don’t have the luxury to be a divided people.”

Read the full piece here.

ODED ANTMAN

“The High Holy Days are a season of renewal. Our tradition teaches that Rosh Hashanah is not only the beginning of the year but the anniversary of Creation itself, the day when possibility was born. This is the spirit we must carry with us now,” writes Dr. Osnat Levtzion-Korach, CEO of Shamir Medical Center in Be'er Yaakov, Israel, and chair of the Governmental Hospital Directors Forum, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Turning a corner: “The coming year will demand courage from our leaders, generosity from our friends and communities and resolve from each of us as individuals. However, if we embrace the mission of healing together — physically, emotionally, psychologically and societally — then 5786 will not be remembered only as another year of challenge. It will be remembered as the year when Israel turned a corner, when resilience gave way to recovery and when the health of a people became the foundation for the renewal of a nation.”

Read the full piece here. 

Not ‘That’ Jew: In The Atlantic, Sarah Hurwitz writes about the evolution of her relationship with Judaism. “I was proud to be Jewish, taking satisfaction in my people’s survival and success despite the attempts to annihilate us. But I was also embarrassed by what I perceived as Judaism’s weirdness and obsolescence: all those nitpicky laws, and that implausible, reward-and-punishment God I thought was portrayed in the liturgy. … Then, about a decade ago, I started studying Jewish tradition. What I found was nothing like the Judaism I had known, and it turned out to be an answer to the question that I and many others would be asking years later, about how to be a Jew in a time of rising antisemitism.” [TheAtlantic]

The Three-Stranded Cord: In the Jewish News Syndicate, Betsy Berns Korn calls for the reclamation of an integrated Jewish identity. “To speak of Jewish peoplehood … is to embrace a living covenant that binds faith, land and people into a single story. Each pillar strengthens the others. Our spiritual tradition shapes our moral vision; our connection to the Land anchors our history and hope; our sense of peoplehood ensures continuity across generations and continents. Reclaiming this integrated identity is not merely an act of remembrance but a commitment to the future. By drawing strength from all three, we can sustain a Jewish community that is resilient, unified and positioned to contribute meaningfully to the world.” [JNS]

You Are How You Eat: In the Chicago Tribune, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz encourages people to take this season of introspection to reflect on the ethics around what they eat. “As consumers committed robustly or loosely to kashruth, we need to demand that kosher certification include a higher standard of humane conditions for animals — not just in how they die, but in how they live — and higher standards of labor and life conditions for workers responsible for every step of the process. … As we make our way through every day doing what we can to repair a broken world, let us make sure we are nourishing our bodies with food that demonstrates our compassion for all life.” [ChicagoTribune]

Close to Home: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Seth D. Kaplan encourages funders to consider the changemaking potential of philanthropy focused on local communities. “Why do neighborhoods matter so much? For residents, they determine day-to-day relationships, offer help when trouble hits, and provide networks and knowledge for everything from raising children to advancing in a career. Not surprisingly, indicators like life expectancy, crime rates, student test scores, and social mobility correlate with the strength of a neighborhood. Yet neighborhoods have influence beyond the individual. They affect cities and society as a whole. Good ones can attract talented people, boost the local asset base (and tax revenue), and mold civic habits, norms and expectations. Collectively, they play central roles in the country’s well-being, determining whether it’s economically dynamic, socially vibrant, and equitable.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

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MICHAEL GILADI/FLASH90

Municipal workers gather palm fronds on Tuesday in the northern Israeli town of Katzrin for local residents to use as s’chach, the natural coverings placed on top of sukkahs, which are traditionally built the day after Yom Kippur.

COURTESY/ISRAEL POLICY FORUM

Chief policy officer at the Israel Policy Forum, Michael Koplow…

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