View this email in your browser 

Good Monday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Sylvan Adams about his $100 million donation to Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center as part of a major Israeli government-backed reconstruction and expansion project. We speak with members of Schusterman Family Philanthropies’ ROI Community after the foundation announced the program’s impending closure last month, and interview Barak Sella, the editor of a new English translation of a book of poetry and prose on the assassination of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 30 years ago tomorrow. We feature an opinion piece by Sam Wineburg and Max. D. Baumgarten about the necessity of digital literacy education, and one by Edmund Case on the experiences of interfaith  families in the Jewish community and communal settings. Also in this issue: Yair Netanyahu, Jesse Eisenberg and Ben Pery.

Spread the word! Invite your friends to sign up.👇

Canadian Israeli philanthropist Sylvan Adams committed $100 million to help rebuild the southern Israeli city of Beersheva’s Soroka Medical Center, which was seriously damaged this summer in an Iranian missile strike. The donation, which was announced on Sunday during the Israeli government’s weekly meeting,  matches a commitment by the Israeli government and one by Clalit Medical Services, the health-care provider that runs the hospital, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. 

Adams told eJP that the Health Ministry’s director-general, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, approached him about making a donation to the hospital, which had been searching for funders in the wake of the June 19 attack. “[Soroka] was already in desperate need of modernization, and then it was partially destroyed by an Iranian ballistic missile. The serious condition of Soroka became critical,” Adams said on Sunday. “We began a dialogue. [I had the] opportunity to be the catalyst for two others to join: the government and Clalit,” he said. “This is a beautiful public-private partnership of an enormous size.”

The collective $300 million will go primarily toward the construction of a new fortified hospitalization tower. In addition, $50 million will be dedicated to rebuilding and modernizing hospital infrastructure, and $50 million will be allocated for “expanding emergency capacity, modernizing critical and maternal care, integrating AI-based diagnostics, precision medicine and next-generation imaging technologies,” according to a statement from Adams’ office.

The gift is also part of Adams’ broader effort to energize southern Israel, both to help it recover from the Oct. 7 attacks and as part of the vision of Israel’s founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, to “make the desert bloom,” he said.

Adams noted that he also recently announced support for an ambitious initiative to encourage 1 million people to immigrate to Israel in the next five years. “How are we going to bring 1 million new immigrants if we don’t have economic opportunity for them?” he said.

Read the full report here.

ROI COMMUNITY

In 2006, Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies held its first ROI conference in Israel. In the mid-aughts, it was “a revolutionary act to bring together 120 Jews from all over the world,” Shawn Landres, an ROIer and the co-founder of Jumpstart Lab, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. “And not to pursue a specific policy agenda.” Since that first meeting nearly 20 years ago, Schusterman Family Philanthropies has invested in over 1,700 innovators — activists, social entrepreneurs and other early-career Jewish professionals — gathering them for yearly summits and offering microgrants to fund their projects, with the expectation that there would be a substantial “Return on Investment,” or ROI. Today, ROIers are leaders across the Jewish world, in organizations big and small, and in the wider world as well.

ROI legacy: After Schusterman announced last month that it would shutter ROI on July 1, 2026, to focus more on grant making, after one final summit next spring, many ROIers worry that there will be less support for innovators outside of the U.S. and Israel, but say that the effects and network ROI built will continue to be felt for years to come. Without ROI, “the world would be a different place,” Elad Caplan, an ROIer who is CEO at Ne’emanei Torah Va’Avodah-Kolech, a progressive religious organization in Israel, told eJP. “Every single monumental change [that] has happened in Israeli society to do good in the world, if you dig a bit under the surface, you'll find more ROIers who are doing wonderful work, so I think that will live on well after the program is closed.”

Read the full report here.

COURTESY

The assassination of then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, 30 years ago tomorrow, remains one of the seminal moments in Israeli history. It represents the peak of domestic Israeli political violence and the beginning of the end of a two-state solution-based peace process. Rabin was also the last left-wing politician to be elected to lead the country. 

A new English translation of poetry wades into this complexity. Based on an anthology that was first published in Hebrew in 2012, Class of 95 presents 40 poems and prose that grapple with the event and its aftermath from different perspectives. eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross spoke with Barak Sella, the anthology’s editor and an American Israeli educator and community organizer, about the book and his goals for it, why the assassination is not widely memorialized, particularly outside of Israel, and about the particular dangers of political violence in a country like Israel. 

JAG: What is your goal with this book? Who is the target audience? 

BS: The target audience is Jews living around the world who don't speak Hebrew, first and foremost. And I would say above that, the target audience is Jewish educators, rabbis, anyone who this book could serve as a tool to educate and speak about the assassination in a way that's thoughtful and supports the idea of open conversation. But it’s not only for educators. I think anyone who wants to learn about the event — but also figure out what they're feeling about it and what's their part in the story — can find a lot of value in this book. 

The way I see it, the Rabin assassination is one of the most important events in Israeli history, but also in Jewish history in the last century. And it really matters how we remember this event. First of all, that we actually even remember and commemorate it, but it matters how we remember that event and what kind of shared narrative and story we tell.

Read the full interview here.

CREATTIE/GETTY IMAGES

“Funders within and beyond the Jewish world have a direct stake in ensuring young people can distinguish fact from fabrication online,” write Sam Wineburg, co-founder of the Digital Inquiry Group, and Max D. Baumgarten, director of North American operations at the Diane and Guilford Glazer Foundation in Los Angeles, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.  

Hostile environment: “Today’s teens spend upwards of eight hours a day online, with nearly half reporting they are ‘almost constantly’ connected. Short-form videos, not traditional news sources, are their window to the world. Because these digital natives have been scrolling since diapers, one might assume they’d be wise to the wiles of online scammers, hate mongers and conspiracy peddlers. But they aren’t — and the stakes couldn’t be higher.”

Read the full piece here.

KMSP/GETTY IMAGES

“In recent years, local community studies by Jewish federations in cities across the country have noted high rates of interfaith marriage. According to a 2021 Los Angeles study, for instance, the majority of Jewish households with married or partnered couples in the community were intermarried households,” writes Edmund Case, president of the Center for Radically Inclusive Judaism, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “The authors of these studies emphasize that engaging interfaith families is important to address Jewish population loss, and that because interfaith families do not feel very connected, engaging them requires ‘clear communication that these families are a valued part of the Jewish community.’” 

An engagement opportunity: “The Center for Radically Inclusive Judaism’s new review of a dozen years’ worth of national and local quantitative and qualitative studies of interfaith couples and families delves into the details behind why Jews and their partners in interfaith relationships feel far less of a sense of belonging in Jewish communities than in-married Jews. … While some intermarried couples are simply not interested in Jewish life and community, the research is replete with statements that people in interfaith relationships want to feel like part of a community — to be embraced, fully seen and accepted — rather than feel excluded and ‘less than.’” 

Read the full piece here.

Don’t Declare — Demonstrate: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Mark Lipton distinguishes between sharing a vision statement and a “vision story” and advises organizations to opt for the latter. “Is it easy to guess which large, well-known national human-services nonprofit has the vision statement ‘every person has the opportunity to achieve his/her fullest potential and participate in and contribute to all aspects of life’? It’s nearly impossible — and that’s the problem. Like so many others, this statement lacks specificity. … The irony is that most nonprofits — including the one in the example above — do incredible, targeted work. Yet too many vision statements revert to abstractions rather than embracing the specificity that motivates action.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

Without Warning: In Devex, Elissa Miolene reports on the impact of Trump administration cuts to foreign aid on previously U.S.-funded peacekeeping programs focused on using early-warning systems to identify rising tensions and deploy local agencies before things escalate. “By night’s end, roughly 200 people would lose their lives in Yelwata, a region in Nigeria’s Middle Belt where Muslim herders and Christian farmers have long clashed over land. Hundreds were burned alive in their homes. Market stalls were torched to ashes. And nearly 4,000 people fled — with security forces only arriving long after the attackers had left. … Search for Common Ground had been operating a program to deter these types of attacks… but in January, Search’s program was one of thousands terminated as the U.S. Agency for International Development collapsed — leaving communities without the early warning system that might have stopped the massacre in its tracks.” [Devex]

Off the Clock: In The New York Times, Corinne Low proposes a hard stop at the end of the professional workday as essential to work-life balance, particularly for women. “After a year of exhaustion and regular illness, I… started introducing myself differently: My name is Corinne, and I eat three meals a day and sleep eight hours a night. … The data tells me that women, and especially mothers, don’t necessarily need remote work. We don’t need so-called flexible work schedules. What we need are plain old boundaries — jobs where work stops at a set time and allows other parts of life to exist without interruption.” [NYTimes]

Be featured: Email us to sponsor content with the eJP readership of your upcoming event, job opening or other communication.

Ed. note: Due to a technical error, an opinion piece by Rabbi Cantor Hillary Chorny, “Jewish worship: It’s time for some creative disruption,” which appeared in Friday’s edition of Your Daily Phil, was not accessible through the provided link. Read it here.

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to continue paying SNAP benefits despite the ongoing government shutdown. Read eJewishPhilanthropy’s coverage about Jewish nonprofits’ preparations for the potential shuttering of the food assistance program here…

A growing number of right-wing Jewish figures are condemning and breaking ties with Heritage Foundation after its president, Kevin Rogers, defended far-right influencer Tucker Carlson for hosting neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes on his show…

The bodies of three Israelis were repatriated to Israel and identified overnight as dual American Israeli citizen Capt. Omer Neutra, Col. Asaf Hamami and Staff Sgt. Oz Daniel; the exchange came a day after Israeli forensics determined that three bodies given to Israel by Hamas on Friday evening did not belong to any of the remaining hostages…

The Conservative movement, to which Neutra belonged, issued a statement this morning welcoming his repatriation and praying “that laying Omer to rest and honoring his life among his people brings a measure of comfort and closure” to his family…

Chanteuse Billie Eilish called on billionaires to donate more of their fortunes to charity — and criticizing those who have not done so — in her speech accepting a WSJ. Magazine Innovator Award at a ceremony last week; at the event, Eilish announced a $11.5 million donation to causes addressing food equity, climate justice and reducing carbon pollution…

Actor Jesse Eisenberg is donating one of his kidneys to a stranger…

The Houston-focused news outlet Chron. examines Dr. Miriam Adelson’s interest in a Texas state Senate race, to which she has donated the bulk of Republican candidate John Huffman’s campaign funds; Adelson has grown increasingly involved in Texas politics as her casino company looks to set up new properties in the state…

A spokesperson for Zohran Mamdani said that the New York City Democratic mayoral candidate, if elected, would reassess the partnership between the Roosevelt Island campus of Cornell University and Israel’s Technion…

In the Jewish News Syndicate, William Daroff and Betsy Berns Korn, respectively the CEO  and chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, raise concerns about New York City mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdami over what they describe as his demonstrated “hostility toward the concerns of the Jewish community and contempt for the broader public interest” ahead of tomorrow’s election… 

Rabbi Angela Buchdahl sharpened her critiques about Mamdani in a Friday night sermon, while refraining from endorsing another candidate or explicitly calling for congregants not to vote for the Democratic candidate…

Jewish Insider interviews Gordon Gee, who has served as president of several American universities, about the fear that he says is motivating academic leaders today…

The University of Delaware’s Hillel, the Kristol Center for Jewish Life, broke ground on a new $12 million building last month as part of a long-planned expansion…

The Claremont Colleges are preparing to open their first stand-alone Hillel this spring…

Two American Jewish women were banned from Israel for 10 years after taking part in an olive harvest in a Palestinian village in the West Bank through the Rabbis For Human Rights nonprofit, which Israeli authorities said violated an order declaring the area a closed military zone…

Hersh’s Fridge, an initiative to provide kosher food to people in need in Skokie, Ill., opened last week; the project is named for slain American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents are from the Chicago area…

Judith Shapiro, who served on the board of multiple Philadelphia-area Jewish communal organizations, died on Friday at 88…

Norman Levin, a founding partner of a Chicago-area real estate firm who served on the boards of several local institutions, died last Wednesday at 97… 

Dutch-Jewish resistance member Selma van de Perre, who forged and delivered documents and helped Jewish families seeking shelter, died at 103…

The New York Times published a belated obituary for World War II partisan fighter and poet Hannah Senesh as part of the paper’s “Overlooked No More” series; Senesh was executed at age 23 after being captured by the Nazis in 1944…

Ben Pery starts today as the next CEO of the American Friends of Tel Aviv University; Pery joins the organization following a 14-year term as CEO of Momentum…

The Sid Jacobson JCC in Greenvale, N.Y., hired Michael Schlank as its next executive director beginning today; Schlank previously served as CEO of NJY Camps…

Michael Abraham was appointed the next chair of Aish U.K., succeeding Asher Steene…

COURTESY/TIKKUN OLAM MAKERS

Nicole, a student at iHOPE Academy in New York City, which educates students with disabilities, goes trick-or-treating last week in a specially designed costume that turned her wheelchair into a princess’ carriage. 

The costume was the result of a project led by the Tikkun Olam Makers nonprofit, which designs open-source objects for people with disabilities, with the Parsons School of Design, the Adaptive Design Association and Materials for the Arts.

“You could see the excitement on the kids’ faces when they saw the costumes for the first time,” Chau Nguyen, an occupational therapist at the academy, said in a statement. “For them to have a say in their costumes and helping in the creation of their costume is really meaningful for them. Whatever ideas they had, TOM and the volunteers made that a reality.”

COURTESY/JTS

Chancellor emeritus of the Jewish Theological Seminary where he also served as a professor of Jewish history, Ismar Schorsch, Ph.D., turns 90… 

Senior U.S. District Court judge in California, he is the younger brother of retired SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer, Judge Charles Breyer turns 84… Resident of Great Barrington, Mass., and a part-time researcher at UC Berkeley, Barbara Zheutlin… Winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine, professor at Yale University, James Rothman turns 75… Rabbi emeritus at Temple Anshe Sholom in Olympia Fields, Ill., Paul Caplan turns 73… Actress, comedian, writer and television producer, best known for the long-running and award-winning television sitcom "Roseanne," Roseanne Barr turns 73… Comedian, talk show host, political and sports commentator, Dennis Miller turns 72… Manuscript editor and lecturer, author of books on the stigma of childlessness and on the Balfour Declaration, Elliot Jager turns 71… Award-winning Israeli photographer whose works have appeared in galleries in many countries, Naomi Leshem turns 62… Regional director of development for The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Jeanne Epstein… Podcaster and clinical professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, Scott Galloway turns 61… Co-founder and former CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, now CEO of Dreamhaven, Michael Morhaime turns 58… Entrepreneur-in-residence at Loeb Enterprises, he was previously co-chair of the board of the Yeshiva University Museum, Edward Stelzer… Vice president for federal affairs at CVS Health, she was the White House director of legislative affairs in the last year of the Obama administration, Amy Rosenbaum turns 54… Director of development for States United Democracy Center, Amie Kershner… Partner at political consulting firm GDA Wins, Gabby Adler… Agent at Creative Artists Agency, Rachel Elizabeth Adler… Actress who won three Daytime Emmy Awards for her role on ABC's “General Hospital,” Julie Berman turns 42… Director of corporate responsibility, communications and engagement at Southern Company Gas, Robin Levy Gray… Senior managing director at Guggenheim Securities, Rowan Morris… General manager of NJ/NY Gotham FC, a women's soccer team based in Harrison, N.J., Yael Averbuch West turns 39… Former captain in the U.S. Marine Corps, he is a co-founder of D.C.-based Compass Coffee, Michael Haft turns 39… New York state senator, Michelle Hinchey turns 38… Deputy coordinator for global China affairs at the U.S. Department of State, Julian Baird Gewirtz turns 36… Recent MBA graduate at The Wharton School, Ben Kirshner turns 33… Marketing manager at American Express, Caroline Michelman turns 33… Founder and CEO of Noyse Publicity Management, Noy Assraf turns 30… Actress and model, Diana Silvers turns 28… Stu Rosenberg...