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Good Friday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we speak with friends and colleagues of Rabbi Moshe Hauer about his legacy. We spotlight the Jewish diversity nonprofit Be'chol Lashon as it undergoes a revitalization and interview two of Nelson Mandela’s granddaughters during their recent visit to Israel and the Gaza Strip. We feature an opinion piece by Will Eastman about sustaining the sense of urgency in Jewish philanthropy and one by Rabbi Rick Jacobs about his friendship with Hauer. Also in this issue: Jack Wertheimer, Joel Holsinger and Erik Ludwig.

Shabbat shalom!

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For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: Israel’s conflict in Gaza may be winding down, but for reservist families, the battle continues; Jewish self-protection initiative offers gateway into larger community, volunteers say; and With new higher ed compact, Trump’s antisemitism crusade broadens to fight academic bias. Print the latest edition here.

Since Rabbi Moshe Hauer’s death was announced on Wednesday, tributes have poured in for the Orthodox Union executive vice president from across the Jewish world, from peers within the Orthodox community to leaders of different Jewish movements, from politicians to leaders of other faiths. Hauer’s legacy within the OU and the greater Jewish world is one of valuing and respecting diverse perspectives during a period marked by growing polarization, friends and colleagues told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.

This kind of openness to differences of opinion was “countercultural,” Rabbi Josh Joseph, executive vice president and chief operating officer of OU, told eJP. “Early on, we were putting together our first-ever strategic plan, and we talked about being the voice of the Orthodox world,” Joseph said. “[Hauer] said, ‘How about a voice. There are lots of voices out there.”

Hauer was also a member of the executive council for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, serving as a voice of reason at weekly meetings, William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents, told eJP. “When Rabbi Hauer spoke, everyone listened,” he said, “and it was clear that he wasn't speaking to hear himself speak or to score political points or to check a box, but rather, when he spoke, it was because he had something meaningful to say. So whether people agreed with him or disagreed with him, they paused to listen, and he would always bring a clarity and a calm strength to the conversations that he was engaged in.”

After becoming CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs right before the Oct. 7 attacks, Amy Spitalnick frequently found herself at the same table as Hauer at the White House and in federal agencies. As Orthodox Jews are disproportionately targeted for hate crimes because they are visibly Jewish, “he was able to clearly advocate on behalf of the Orthodox community, but in a way that never lost sight of the greater Jewish community as well,” she said. “That would come through in every remark I heard him make around one of those federal agency tables or frankly anywhere.”

Hauer traveled to Israel nearly a dozen times post-Oct. 7, “meeting with the president, meeting with the prime minister, meeting with the different Diaspora ministries and the ministers of finance, trying to help bridge divides within Israeli culture and mediate issues that were tearing Israeli culture apart,” Joseph said.

Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields, executive director of the Women's League for Conservative Judaism, who worked closely with Hauer and considered him “my own personal Orthodox rabbi,” hopes that others learn from him that “we can continue such open dialogue and support each other because it's all about our love for Israel and the Jewish people. He radiated that: his love for Torah, God and Israel. We held the whole same values from different perspectives at times.”

Hauer’s funeral was held yesterday morning in Baltimore, and he was buried today at Har Hamenuhot Cemetery in Jerusalem.

Read the full report here.

COURTESY

Every year, more than 200,000 fanboys and fangirls surge into Manhattan’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the East Coast’s biggest ode to pop culture: New York Comic Con. When comic creator Julian Voloj accepted a position at the Jewish diversity nonprofit Be'chol Lashon in 2017, he had an idea in the back of his mind — a comic anthology showcasing diverse Jewish stories. He was yearning for the right moment to release the project. Last weekend’s NYCC was it, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.

From West to East: The comic serves as a catalyst for what Voloj is calling Be’chol Lashon 2.0, a reinvention of the nonprofit, whose name is Hebrew for “in every language.” Originally launched in California in 2000, Be’chol Lashon is known for its multicultural summer camp, which will continue, along with studies in Jewish diversity. But the new iteration, which will now be based in New York, will add an emphasis on storytelling as a way to celebrate and uplift diverse Jewish voices. Another new core program is its artist incubator, which offers fiscal support and mentorship to creatives.

Read the full report here.

COURTESY

“What has emerged from all my conversations is that the yearning for peace is very intense,” former South African President Nelson Mandela, visiting Israel in 1999 as part of a broader Middle East, said as he reflected on his meetings with leaders across the region. More than a quarter century later — despite the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, the degradation of Iran and its proxy network and numerous wars between Israel and its neighbors — that peace remains elusive. It was against that backdrop that two of Mandela’s granddaughters, Zamaswazi (Swati) Dlamini-Mandela and Zaziwe Dlamini-Manaway, traveled to Israel and the Gaza Strip earlier this month. Dlamini-Manaway and Dlamini-Mandela spoke to Melissa Weiss for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider about their trip.

Mutual motivation: “For us, it’s important to actually go and actually experience the story for yourself,” Dlamini-Mandela said of the trip, which was organized by the National Black Empowerment Council and included meetings with Israeli hostage families and survivors of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, as well as a day on the ground in Gaza where Mandela’s granddaughters assisted the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in its efforts to distribute aid in the enclave. “Coming from a high-profile family like ours, and also living in the media for years, all our lives have been pretty much lived in public, it’s very interesting what type of bias or viewpoints the news can take. So we always felt like, ‘Let’s go and see for ourselves. Let’s experience for ourselves, and let’s actually go on humanitarian missions to try and understand and really get to know what’s going on.’’

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

FANDSRABUTAN/GETTY IMAGES

“When I was a freshman football player, I had a coach from South Jersey whose accent sounded more like the Deep South. Whenever he thought we weren’t giving enough effort, he’d bark, ‘You gotta have a sense of UR-GEN-SEEE!’ I’m still not sure if he added or removed a syllable, but the point always landed: urgency is required in both quiet and active times,’’ writes Will Eastman, chief development officer of NJY Camps, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

From the sprint to the marathon: “Since Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish community has responded with remarkable urgency. Philanthropy rose to meet the moment… We built one of the fastest and most effective Jewish relief operations in modern history. But as the crisis phase gives way to something that looks like normalcy, we cannot afford to let the urgency fade. Because the truth is: the emergency isn’t over. … That means continuing to fund the professionals and organizations that proved their worth under pressure, keeping emergency infrastructures in place and building the next generation of Jewish connection with the same energy we brought to defending it.”

Read the full piece here.

AMIT ELKAYAM

“Earlier this week on Simchat Torah, we read the Torah’s final description of the biblical Moshe’s life of inspired leadership: ‘There never arose another one like Moshe’ (Deuteronomy 34:10),’” writes Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

A personal connection: “These words carry poignant resonance as our Jewish community mourns the sudden death of our beloved sage, Rabbi Moshe Hauer, z”l. Many Jewish leaders talk about the need for Jewish unity during this time of intense polarization, but Rabbi Hauer actually built Jewish unity. Since he became the leader of the Orthodox Union, Rabbi Hauer became my friend and trusted colleague — even while also an occasional sparring partner.”

Read the full piece here.

Back to (a Better) Reality: In his Substack “Orthodox Conundrum Commentary,” Rabbi Scott Kahn observes a connection between the events in Parshat Bereishit and the Jewish community’s return to “real life” after Tishrei’s holiday marathon. “[T]he Jewish people have spent the past weeks in a type of paradise — this one in time, rather than in physical space. … But soon, the holidays are over; we reluctantly leave the perfection of our temporal Garden. For that reason, we read the story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden on the very first Shabbat after Simchat Torah. They, too, departed from the Garden — and from that moment on, the real work of human life began: to make our own world a replica of the Garden of Eden, where goodness and joy reigned and the presence of God was clear and obvious. … It is a very, very difficult task, but it remains incumbent upon all humanity to do whatever we can to bring God back into our world in a tangible way…” [OrthodoxConundrumCommentary]

Lay of the Land: In Mosaic, Jack Wertheimer examines the Jewish community’s efforts to combat antisemitism, interviewing dozens of communal professionals throughout the country. “[A] few clear lessons present themselves from my research. First, alliances are critical; as a small minority, Jewish actors alone cannot corral their enemies and put them on the defensive. … Second, local politics must be reprioritized. … Third, pundits and other external critics within the Jewish world need to display a little more understanding. For all their flaws and failures, the establishment organizations are indeed capable of self-criticism. … Fourth, for precisely these reasons, it’s important and beneficial that there are a range of organizations engaged in the fight against anti-Semitism, taking different approaches. … Lastly, American Jews will have to come to terms with the probability that neither educational activities, nor intergroup dialogue, nor lawsuits will provide quick relief from the ravings of conspiratorial anti-Semites. … The tasks of educating and rallying those forces, while simultaneously shoring up the resilience of American Jewry, remain the great challenges confronting the Jewish people in our time.” [Mosaic]

A Name for Yourself: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Michelle Flores Vryn argues that nonprofits need to do a better job of marketing themselves as the field faces growing scrutiny. “The nonprofit sector touches one in four Americans and employs 12 million people but still operates in the blind spot of national consciousness. When a bank falters, for example, politicians and the public debate regulation. When a nonprofit collapses, they debate whether it should exist at all. … To weather this storm, the sector must fundamentally rethink how it operates. That means investing in a chronically undervalued piece of infrastructure: brand. … Because brand isn’t just a logo or marketing fluff. It’s a nonprofit’s reputation, visibility, and values, which together promote the trust people place in its work.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

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The right-leaning Philanthropy Roundtable responded to the Trump administration’s plans to crack down on progressive foundations, issuing a statement expressing support for government oversight of charitable giving while at the same time emphasizing philanthropy’s status as a form of free association and free speech…

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), who on Wednesday announced a primary challenge to Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), announced yesterday that he was returning donations he has received from AIPAC and will reject further donations from the group, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Associated Press interviews Joel Holsinger about his initiative Promote Giving, which gets investment funds to donate at least 5% of their performance fees, also known as the “promote,” to charities…

Warner Bros. Discovery rejected calls for the media company to boycott Israeli film institutions, saying that such a move would run afoul of its nondiscrimination policy…

The Times of Israel interviews former Israeli Science and Technology Minister Izhar Shay, whose son was killed in the Oct. 7 attacks, about his project, Next October, which supports early-stage startups on the condition that they commemorate one of the more than 2,000 people killed in the attacks and the ensuing war…

Harvard University political philosophy professor Michael Sandel was selected as the 2025 laureate of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy & Culture, which comes with a $1 million cash prize…

The Jewish News of Northern California spotlights the early childhood education initiative EarlyJ, following its latest round of grants to local preschool programs…

Pomona College opened an investigation on Thursday after an on-campus event held Wednesday commemorating the second anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks was disrupted by four masked and keffiyah-clad individuals who barged in chanting “Zionists not welcome here,” Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency interviews Wesleyan University’s Jewish president, Michael Roth, who has spoken out against the Trump administration’s higher education policies…

The owners of the Washington-area vegetarian chain Shouk, which served Israeli fare in the capital region for a decade, closed all its locations, citing financial losses resulting from a sustained boycott of the chain…

Australia’s National Gallery of Victoria quietly restituted a 17th-century Gerard ter Borch painting to the descendants of Max Emden, a Swiss-German art collector who was forced to sell some of his pieces under financial duress in the lead-up to World War II…

The Washington Post spotlights the difficult and traumatic conditions, including beatings, starvation and uncertainty over the fates of their loved ones, that the last group of living Israeli hostages, who remained in Gaza until earlier this week, endured while in captivity…

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh have launched a new partnership, Unity in Community, aimed at connecting their respective populations…

Jewish Federations of North America announced the lineup of next month’s General Assembly, which will focus on “rebuilding Israel, community security and driving Jewish engagement.” Speakers include: former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, podcaster Dan Senor and Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, among others…

Susan Stamberg, an early employee of NPR who hosted its “All Things Considered” from 1972 to 1986, died yesterday at 87…

Arts journalist Milton Esterow, whose investigations focused on artwork looted by the Nazis, died on Oct. 3 at 97…

The David and Nicole Tepper Foundation donated $5 million to the University of South Carolina, which will rename its department of sport and entertainment management for the couple…

The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida announced that it has raised more than $1 million this year through donations of $150,000 or more…

Erik Ludwig was hired as CEO of Jewish Long Beach (Calif.)...

Rabbi Daniel Novick is moving to George Washington University Hillel as its executive director in December, after leading the George Mason University Hillel for the past four years… 

Michael Ratney, Nimrod Novik, Farah Bdour, Ibrahim Dalalsha, Elisa Ewers, Garrett Nada and Neri Zilber were named as members of a new Israel Policy Forum policy council…

 CARLOS JASSO/POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks to members of the Jewish community at the Community Security Trust in northwest London yesterday, discussing his government's response to this month’s terror attack at the Heaton Park synagogue in Manchester. Starmer was joined by Britain's Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood (third from left) and Community Security Trust CEO Mark Gardner (right), among others.

During the briefing, Starmer announced a record $13.4 million in funding for Jewish communities. He also told the community that he had ordered a review of antisemitism within the country’s National Health Service, citing “too many examples, clear examples, of antisemitism that have not been dealt with adequately or effectively.” 

In addition, the prime minister, whose wife and children are Jewish, condemned the decision by Aston Villa to prohibit attendance by Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters at an upcoming match in Birmingham and called on the football club to reverse the decision, which the team said was due to “a number of physical and safety factors.”

MANOLI FIGETAKIS/GETTY IMAGES

Chair emeritus of the board of directors of NYC's 92nd Street Y, Jody Gottfried Arnhold turns 82... 

FRIDAY: Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 1999, Ronald Murray Gould turns 79... Filmmaker and novelist, Michael L. Tolkin turns 75... U.S. district judge for the District of Connecticut since 1994, he took senior status in 2017, Robert Neil Chatigny turns 74... Movie and television producer, Lawrence Bender turns 68... Rochester, N.Y., resident, Peggy Futerman... Number theorist and professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, he has written a highly critical report on the world's leading Holocaust deniers, Jeffrey Shallit turns 68... Partner in Becker & Poliakoff, she has been a member of both houses of the Florida legislature, Ellyn Setnor Bogdanoff turns 66... Rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University, he is a son of professor Isadore Twersky and a grandson of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, he also serves as the Rebbe of the Talne Hasidic dynasty, Rabbi Mayer E. Twersky turns 65... Former Northwest regional director of J Street, Andrew Straus... Professor of economics at Harvard, he served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Jeremy Chaim Stein turns 65... Ramsey, N.J.-based licensed professional counselor, Shemsi Prinzivalli... Member of the California State Senate until last November, Josh Newman turns 61... Co-founder of AQR Capital Management, Cliff Asness turns 59... Jerusalem bureau chief of The New York Times, David Halbfinger turns 57... Founder of Maniv Investments in 1997 and Maniv Mobility, Michael Granoff turns 57...  CEO and founder of Crosscut Strategies, a D.C.-based public affairs firm, Kenneth Baer... Rheumatologist and director of the rehabilitation division of Arthritis and Rheumatism Associates in the D.C. area, Dr. Shari B. Diamond... Author and staff writer at The New Yorker magazine, Ariel Levy turns 51... VP and head of U.S. public policy at TikTok, Michael Beckerman turns 47... Los Angeles-based consultant to the beauty industry and former CEO of several companies, Jessica Goldin turns 46… Emmy Award-winning film and television music composer, Nicholas Britell turns 45… CEO at Citizen AI, Tomer Kagan turns 42... Washington-based director of federal affairs for New York University, Katharine Nasielski... Co-founder and executive director at the Constructive Dialogue Institute, Caroline Mehl... Member of the Maryland State Senate since early this year following seven years in the Maryland House of Delegates, Dalya Attar turns 35... Staff software engineer at Zocdoc, Adam Greenspan…

SATURDAY: Co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, Irwin M. Jacobs turns 92... Former mayor of Amsterdam and leader of the Dutch Labour Party, Marius Job Cohen turns 78... Linguist, he is a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, Victor A. Friedman turns 76... Former U.S. ambassador to Morocco, he is president of the Coalition for a Safer Web, Marc Ginsberg turns 75... Physician and political activist In Henrico County, Va., Dr. Max S. Maizels turns 74… Professor of intelligence and global security studies at Capitol Technology University, Joshua B. Sinai, Ph.D.... Bakersfield, Calif.-based attorney focused on adoption and reproductive law, Marc Dennis Widelock... Television director, writer, producer, composer and actor, Chuck Lorre (born Chaim Levine) turns 73... Film producer and founder and head of Dimension Films, Robert "Bob" Weinstein turns 71... President of the Economic Future Group, a consulting firm, Jonathan Bernard Yoav Tasini turns 69... Award winning illustrator and writer of books for children, Eugene Yelchin turns 69... Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission during almost all of the Biden administration, Gary Gensler turns 68... Retired NFL running back, he writes of his conversion in From Rose Bowl to Rashi: My Unique Journey to Judaism, Leon Calvin (now Yosef) Murray turns 67... Israeli journalist, political commentator and author of two books highly critical of PM Benjamin Netanyahu, Ben Caspit turns 65... Retired in 2021 after 20 years as the director at Rutgers Hillel, followed by a year at Harvard Hillel, Andrew Getraer... Founder of Coalesce Advisors, he is a former president at Birthright Israel Foundation, David Fisher... Professor and director of Jewish studies at the University of Pennsylvania, Steven Phillip Weitzman turns 60... Weather anchor for NBC 4 New York, David M. Price turns 59... Former ESPN television host, sports reporter and anchor, Rachel Nichols turns 52... CEO of Future Today Strategy Group, she is an adjunct professor of strategic foresight at NYU, Amy Lynn Webb turns 51... Fashion designer, stylist and art director, Maryna Asauliuk turns 45... Senior vice president and COO at the American Enterprise Institute, Suzanne Gershowitz... Academy Award-winning screenwriter and author, Graham Moore turns 44... Founding partner and Washington correspondent for Puck News, Julia Ioffe turns 43... Congressional correspondent for The New York Times, Annie Karni... Support team leader at Moovit, Ayal Kellman... Popular Israeli singer, Idan Yaniv turns 39... Staff writer at The New Yorker, Emma Green…

SUNDAY: Professor emeritus and first-ever Jewish president of the University of Minnesota, Kenneth Harrison Keller turns 91... CEO of Aramark Corporation for 34 years ending in 2014, he is a past chairman of the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees, Joseph Neubauer turns 84... Founder and former ringmaster of the Big Apple Circus, Paul Binder turns 83... Pulmonologist in Plano, Texas, he is also the author of six mystery novels, Dr. Kenneth L. Toppell turns 83... Writer, scholar and former Israeli ambassador, Yoram Ettinger turns 80... Obstetrician and gynecologist at the Center for Fetal Medicine in Los Angeles, Lawrence David Platt, MD... Retired hospitality executive, Michelle Fischler... Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, she directed the journalism program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology until this past July, Deborah Blum turns 71... Founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist turns 69... Retired supervisor for Minnesota's Pollution Control Agency, David Alan Cera... Israel's minister of the economy and former mayor of Jerusalem for ten years, both positions following a successful high-tech career, Nir Barkat turns 66... Co-owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers and English soccer club Manchester United, Avram A. "Avie" Glazer turns 65... Social psychologist and professor at New York University, focused on the psychology of morality and moral emotions, Jonathan David Haidt turns 62... Canadian business executive and board member of Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital, David Cynamon turns 62... Chief rabbi of Ukraine, Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich turns 61... Founder of Global Policy Associates where he is now an advisory board member, he was the White House Jewish Liaison in the Clinton administration, Jay Footlik... Ritual coordinator at Congregation Emanu El in Houston, Shira Kosoy Moses... Actor, director, producer and screenwriter, his television production company is Golem Creations, Jon Favreau turns 59... Former mayor of Portland, Maine, now a nonprofit executive, Ethan King Strimling turns 58... Technology journalist and record producer, Joshua Ryan Topolsky turns 48... Film director, screenwriter and producer, Jason R. Reitman turns 48... Chief growth officer at itrek, Evan Majzner... Executive at Nefco, David Ochs... Pittsburgh-based founder and CEO of Mamalux, Lindsay Applebaum Stuart... Founder of iTrade[dot]TV, equities trader and financial marketer, Elie Litvin... Infielder in the Athletics organization, he played for Team Israel in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, Zack Gelof turns 26… Jim Vespe…