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Good Wednesday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on how Jewish organizations are preparing for federal SNAP food benefits to expire in two days because of the ongoing government shutdown, and on the German government’s latest reparations agreement with the Claims Conference, including more than $1 billion for home care for Holocaust survivors. We also cover the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. We feature an opinion piece by Eszter Neuman about the interplay between Jewish fluency and Jewish nostalgia. Also in this issue: Rachel Sumekh, Bill Ackman and Debra Feinberg.

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Soon after the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, the Jewish Family and Children's Service of Long Beach and Orange County (Calif.) realized that funding for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, would run out by the end of the month. Knowing that people who rely on SNAP would need help from local food banks if that dried up, the agency preemptively doubled its food budget for November. That decision has proved prescient as the shutdown persists and those SNAP benefits are poised to dry up in two days, report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim and Jay Deitcher.

“I think people are going to be surprised if they're not following the news that all of a sudden, you know, starting on Saturday, there's nothing left on their card,” Trip Oldfield, CEO of JFCS of Long Beach and Orange County, told eJP. “And I think that's when we're going to start getting calls.”  

Unless a federal budget is passed, come Nov. 1, some 42 million Americans could see a pause in SNAP benefits — the food assistance program that provides roughly $190 per person each month. An initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, funding for SNAP depends on annual congressional approval. Amid the ongoing budget impasse, that approval process has been halted. According to experts in Jewish philanthropy, the resultant demand would likely overwhelm existing philanthropic infrastructure. 

“It's going to create a tremendous burden and strain on the Jewish Family Service system, and we have serious concerns about the agency's ability to meet this, like, seemingly overnight,” Ruben Rotman, president and CEO at Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies, told eJP. “If the government doesn't reopen, things are only going to go from bad to worse — and to like, really, really worse — very quickly.”

Read the full report here.

OHAD KAB/DADA STUDIO

Germany increased its reparations for Holocaust survivors, providing nearly $1.1 billion for home care for the aging population, following negotiations this summer with the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the organization said on Wednesday. Berlin will also allocate more than $200 million to Holocaust education, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.

More, then less: According to Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat, special negotiator for the Claims Conference negotiations delegation, the need for home care has ballooned since he joined the organization in 2009. Funding to meet the growing need is expected to rise for the next few years, as older survivors require more and more care, before declining sharply as the survivors die off. “When I started…the worldwide home care budget 2009 was 34 million euros, or about $40 million. For fiscal year ‘26, it’s going to be [over] $1 billion… I mean, that’s a quantum increase, an enormous increase, and it demonstrates that the priorities of the Claims Conference changed with the changing status of survivors,” he told eJP.

Read the full report here.

COURTESY/PERRY MENDELBOYM

The Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture has gone through multiple iterations in its 60 years. First the organization, which was founded by Nahum Goldmann with German reparations, focused on reconstructing Jewish cultural life in the wake of the Holocaust and then pivoted to a broader focus on Jewish Peoplehood. More recently, the foundation has started working to prepare the younger generation with resiliency tools to confront growing antisemitism worldwide. “We want to be that organization that fosters Jewish life, that increases the number in quantitative and qualitative approach of Jewish intellectual production,” said Fernando Lottenberg, chair of MFJC’s executive committee. “I think we can be an important actor in expanding the knowledge about us in the Jewish and non-Jewish world.” Lottenberg made his remarks in Jerusalem, along with MFJC President Jonathan Arkush, and CEO Rabbi Jeni S. Friedman, where they had traveled to mark the foundation’s 60th anniversary celebration on Sunday at the National Library of Israel, reports Judith Sudilovsky for eJewishPhilanthropy from the event. 

The people, yes: “The key motif of what my predecessors and I set out to create is to exemplify Klal Yisrael, the notion of Jewish Peoplehood: the idea that we may come into sharp disagreement with some other Jews but we’re all part of the Jewish People,” said Arkush. “We are all going to look out for each other. We may not agree on the answers to every question, but we are all part of the same whole with a destiny. I am confident that in the future we may have to adapt to different circumstances. But the motif of Klal Yisrael will continue to inspire what we do.”

Read the full report here.

ASHOK SINHA/ADOBE STOCK

“I first pondered the term ‘Jewish fluency’ after I watched writer and podcaster Dan Senor’s 45th annual State of World Jewry address in May,” writes Eszter Neuman, school board chair of Sinai Akiba Academy in Los Angeles, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

A package deal: “Like most people with ties to Jewish day schools, I was pleased to hear Senor’s specific comments about Jewish day schools, namely that they are vital for building ‘Jewish muscle memory; and creating a strong sense of Jewish community and pride. While I couldn’t agree more with his strong support for Jewish day schools, I think that the future of these institutions, particularly those affiliated with the Conservative movement in the United States, rests not only on this idea of Jewish fluency but also on Jewish nostalgia. To preserve Jewish fluency, we need Jewish nostalgia; at the same time, Jewish nostalgia can only take us so far without Jewish fluency.”

Read the full piece here.

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How to Save a Life: In The Times of Israel, Seth Eisenberg calls for emotional literacy education to combat the spike in suicides among IDF soldiers. “We’ve long praised our soldiers for their strength. But what if our definition of strength is part of the problem? When ‘strong’ means suppressing emotion, not asking for help, and disconnecting from pain — we’re teaching our heroes to bury the very wounds that need healing. … To every soldier who ever felt that ending their life was the only way out — your pain matters. Your life matters. And it’s never too late to come home to yourself. Let’s not wait for another report. Let’s act — as families, communities, and a nation — to teach what was never taught. Because love is not just a feeling — it’s a skill. Connection is not a miracle — it’s a practice. And these are skills we can learn, teach, and pass on.” [TOI]

What About Financial Security?: In an opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rachel Sumekh proposes that communal leaders look beyond locks and metal detectors when considering how to keep their communities safe and thriving. “Twenty-nine percent of Jews say they are struggling or just barely making ends meet, up from 20 percent in 2020. … [W]hile 66% of Jews with financial stability believe the community takes care of people in need, only 39% of low-income Jews agree. We are a community that prides itself on mutual responsibility, but we are falling short. … Our rabbis, our philanthropists, our institutions, and yes, our government partners must all widen the definition of Jewish security.” [JTA]

Change the Narrative: In Nonprofit Quarterly, Emi Aguilar and Trevor Smith encourage funders and organizations to do more to strengthen “movement infrastructure” and shift the narrative of philanthropy from one of competition for scarce resources to connecting for positive change. “Discussions about ‘infrastructure’ in both philanthropy and movement spaces often revolve around legal counsel, strategic planning, cybersecurity, and fundraising. These supports are necessary, particularly for small or young nonprofits, but they’re far from sufficient to meet the challenges and fractures movements face today. … When we write about movement infrastructure, what we mean is the connective tissue that links organizations into movements, strengthens bonds among leaders, and fuels the cultural power required for transformation. Without movement infrastructure in place, fragmentation remains the rule; narratives of scarcity and division continue to dominate…” [NPQ]

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The nonprofit OpenAI has restructured itself to more closely resemble a for-profit organization, potentially laying the groundwork for a lucrative initial public offering; the firm will act as a public benefit corporation, with its nonprofit arm owning a $130 billion stake in the for-profit company…

Jewish Insider reports on a panel discussion involving Jewish leaders and tech experts that was hosted by Jewish Federations of North America about what the sale of TikTok might mean for combating antisemitism on social media, with some hopeful and others skeptical…

A coalition of seven charitable foundations established a Literary Arts Fund that will distribute a minimum of $50 million over the next five years to independent publishers and literary nonprofits…

Bar-Ilan University has become Israel’s second-largest research university, behind only Tel Aviv University, according to the latest data on university enrollment from Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics…

The Circuit interviews Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, about his confidence that the Kingdom is moving closer to establishing formal links with Israel in light of the Gaza ceasefire…

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), who is mulling a bid for governor of New York, is releasing a book that does a deep dive into what she describes as “far-left indoctrination, division, and moral rot” in higher education; Poisoned Ivies, which was born out of Stefanik’s now-viral grilling of university presidents during a December 2023 Capitol Hill hearing, will be published in April 2026…

An anti-Israel activist who attacked Jews at Israel demonstrations in New York City on three separate occasions over the last two years was sentenced to 17 months in prison…

Authorities in Alabama arrested a man who had issued threats against Jewish institutions in the state; officials said Jeremy Wayne Shoemaker had been stockpiling ammunition, body armor and “other items related to the plans of violence”...

Several members of the Muslim Student Association at a Fairfax County, Va., high school were suspended following an outcry over the group’s posting of videos of students imitating hostage-taking…

British Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis spoke to Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday outside of the Vatican as the Holy See marked the 60th anniversary of the Nostra Aetate that reshaped Catholic-Jewish relations…

The children of a Jewish-German couple that fled Nazi Germany in 1936 and was unable to recoup the proceeds of the sale of their art collection, which was forfeited to the Nazis, are suing the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Greek museum over Vincent Van Gogh’s 1889 “Olive Picking,” which had belonged to their parents and is now on display at the Goulandris Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens…

Rabbi Alvin Kass, the chief chaplain of the New York Police Department, died last night at 89...

The Washington-based Abrahamic House interfaith nonprofit hired Debra Feinberg as its next executive director…

Simmy Allen was hired as the next international spokesman of the United Hatzalah emergency response service; Allen previously served in communications roles at the Yael Foundation and Yad Vashem…

The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law recently hired five new employees, including Evan Slavitt as its general counsel and Joel Taubman as its director of student programs and staff attorney…

COURTESY/FANEFOTO[DOT]COM

Russell F. Robinson, CEO of Jewish National Fund-USA, embraces former Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei on Sunday at the JNF-USA Global Conference in Hollywood, Fla. Mollaei fled his native Iran after revealing that he had been pressured to throw a match in order to avoid facing an Israeli opponent, which resulted in Iran being banned from the International Judo Federation. 

Nearly 3,000 people attended the four-day conference, which focused on the organization’s activities in Israel post-Oct. 7 and on “celebrating Jewish resilience [and] Zionist pride,” JNF-USA said.

“At a time when Israel and the Jewish people face unprecedented challenges, nearly 3,000 voices rose together in solidarity, purpose and hope,” Robinson said in a statement. “This was not just a conference — it was a movement. Together, we are building Israel’s future, from the Negev and Galilee to every corner of the Jewish world.”

COADY PHOTOGRAPHY/CHURCHILL DOWNS

Jockey who has won more than 1,740 races with earnings of more than $67.6 million, David Cohen turns 41...

Haifa, Israel-born director and screenwriter of animated and live-action films including “The Lord of the Rings,” Ralph Bakshi turns 87... Dean emeritus of the Yale School of Management, he has served in the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations, Jeffrey E. Garten turns 79... Academy Award-winning actor, who played Yoni Netanyahu in the 1976 film “Victory at Entebbe,” Richard Dreyfuss turns 78... Retired CEO of the Center for the National Interest and publisher of its namesake foreign policy magazine, The National Interest, Dimitri Simes turns 78... Former director of the social justice organizing program at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Mordechai Eliyahu Liebling turns 77... Pulitzer Prize-winning author and editor of The New Yorker since 1998, David Remnick turns 67... Bernard Greenberg... Rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom in Phoenix, Dana Evan Kaplan turns 65... Author, satirist and public speaker, Evan Sayet turns 65... Classical pianist, Susan Merdinger turns 63... Sports agent who has negotiated over $10 billion of player contracts, Drew Rosenhaus turns 59... Actor who appeared in 612 episodes of daytime soap opera “As the World Turns,” his mother, Rina Plotnik, served in the IDF, Grayson McCouch turns 57... Screenwriter and film director based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Andrea Dorfman turns 57... Mathematician, cryptologist and computer scientist, Daniel J. Bernstein turns 54… Emmy Award-winning television producer, writer and actor, best known for NBC's "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation," Michael Schur turns 50... Israeli collaborative artist, designer and photographer, Moshe Hacmon turns 48... VP for strategic communications and business development at Anchorage-based Northern Compass Group, Rachel Barinbaum... Marketing director for Fox Lifestyle Hospitality Group, Leigh Shirvan Helfenbein... Senior product manager at Audible, Samantha Zeldin... Former national spokesperson for the Harris Walz campaign, now an AVP for public affairs at the NYC Economic Development Corporation, Seth Schuster... Ph.D. candidate in Russian and East European history at Harvard, Leora Eisenberg... Booking producer at NBC Universal's "The Beat with Ari Melber," David Siegel...