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Good Thursday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the reopening of the federal government and calls to prevent future cuts to SNAP benefits during shutdowns. We interview the head of the Nexus Project about its democracy-focused plan to combat antisemitism, and report on Jewish Federations of North America’s acquisition of the gratitude-focused One Mitzvah a Day initiative. We feature an opinion piece by Marcie Zelikow about approaching the generational divide over Israel within her own family, and one by Rabbi Josh Joseph about what professional development should entail at “for-purpose” organizations. Also in this issue: Barry Shrage, Eli Sharabi and Steve and Connie Ballmer.

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President Donald Trump signed a bill last night ending the government's 43-day shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — and reopening federal offices and restarting federal services, including food assistance benefits that have largely been frozen for the past two weeks.

Though funds from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should have been deposited on recipients' cards within hours of the government's reopening, other federal programs — such as the early childhood education Head Start — may take several weeks to fully reopen.

These past six weeks have placed major strain on the nonprofit sector and driven home the stark differences in scale between philanthropy and government, as ordinarily supplementary organizations have had to stand in for government programs with budgets that are orders of magnitude larger than their own. 

“We’re putting a Band-Aid on what is essentially a gunshot wound,” David Greenfield, CEO and executive director of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, told eJewishPhilanthropy earlier this week. “A lot of these times when we talk about a situation or a crisis, there’s folks who just assume, ‘Well, people will figure it out.’ There is no solution over here. There is no way to figure this out.”

While this government shutdown has come to a close, Jewish groups are already looking ahead to the possibility of another one. Jewish Federations of North America, whose members support many of the Jewish family services and food banks that have had to step in as SNAP benefits were halted, are now calling for legislation that will ensure that the food assistance program will continue even if the government shuts down again.

“The recent shutdown exposed how vulnerable children, people with disabilities and Holocaust survivors are when SNAP benefits are interrupted,” David Goldfarb, JFNA’s managing director of strategic health and public policy, said in a statement. “Access to food is a basic human need and a matter of dignity. No one should have to endure uncertainty about putting food on the table again.”

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When the Heritage Foundation released Project Esther last year — billed as a major counter-antisemitism strategy by the conservative think tank — the document was largely met with silence from the mainstream Jewish community, who opted not to participate in a project that was seen by many as highly partisan. The document did not refer at all to antisemitism on the right; it only addressed pro-Hamas, left-wing antisemitism. Now, the Nexus Project, a Jewish organization focused on combating antisemitism using a more liberal lens than the approach taken by the largest Jewish organizations, has released its own antisemitism strategy, dubbed the “Shofar Report,” as an equal-but-opposite response to the Heritage Foundation effort, reports Jewish Insider's Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Principles, not policies: The Shofar Report is more a statement of principles than a concrete guide to combating antisemitism, with policy recommendations like “provide resources for institutions to combat genuine harassment while maintaining open intellectual environments” and “focus enforcement on clear discrimination and harassment while protecting political expression and academic freedom.” The Shofar Report describes the Trump administration's antisemitism policies as authoritarian in nature and argues that the best way for Americans to counter antisemitism is to resist such efforts and support democracy. “Protecting democracy seems like the most important thing for fighting antisemitism, and so our plan focuses on that and very specifically on what can be done to protect democracy and to counter the attempts to undermine democratic institutions,” Jonathan Jacoby, Nexus’ president and national director, told eJP. 

Read the full report here.

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A year ago on a visit to Washington, Iranian-American businesswoman, Mandana Dayani, met with a close friend who worked in Congress. Against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war, the topic of rising antisemitism came up. Her friend felt it was important to be an ally of the Jewish community, but felt it was a thankless job. That interaction sparked the idea for One Mitzvah a Day, a project Dayani developed to express gratitude to those who ally with the Jewish community, she told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. Through a mobile text-based platform Jewish community members are provided with a daily task — like sending thank-you messages to public figures who show support. Now nearly a year later, the initiative has been acquired by the Jewish Federations of North America, JFNA’s executive vice president, Shira Hutt, told eJP. 

Power of thanks: According to Hutt, as a grassroots platform with a broad reach, the potential to grow One Mitzvah a Day was compelling to JFNA. According to Dayani, the One Mitzvah A Day team hopes to leverage the reach of local federations to develop community events with impact. “I think what's really powerful about it is the act of being thanked, the act of expressing gratitude and receiving gratitude. It’s not bound by geography, so regardless of where you live, you can thank someone for doing something that deserves gratitude,” Hutt said.

Read the full report here.

AMIR GOLDSTEIN

“Across the American Jewish world, families are divided over Israel, often along generational lines. I know, because it’s true in mine,” writes Los Angeles-based philanthropist and lay leader Marcie Zelikow in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Too often, Jewish philanthropy has mirrored our family arguments, more sledgehammer than bridge. We fund projects younger Jews feel they cannot support in good conscience, then wonder why they drift away.”

Bridging the gap: “In conversations with my grandson, I discovered a different path. He agreed to go to Israel, but not on a packaged trip. So I reached out to Daniel Sokatch of the New Israel Fund, and asked him to connect me with activists on the ground working for democracy, equality, compassion and a shared Jewish-Arab future. I wanted my grandson to see the country through their eyes. And he did. Through the New Israel Fund’s grantees, he met Israelis with whom he could see eye-to-eye: human rights defenders, advocates for Palestinian citizens of Israel, entrepreneurs fighting for the rule of law, LGBTQ activists. That trip changed him. For the first time, he saw Israelis who shared his values, who were fighting for an Israel he could believe in. And in that moment, I realized: maybe the bridge between our generations isn’t to convince them of ‘our Israel,’ but to show them the Israelis working to build theirs.”

Read the full piece here.

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“At a professional development day earlier this year, Yeshiva University President Emeritus Richard Joel, one of my earliest and most insightful mentors, asked during an armchair discussion with me if perhaps we would be better off thinking of ourselves as ‘for-purpose’ rather than not-for-profit,” writes Rabbi Josh Joseph, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Orthodox Union, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Implications: “In the for-purpose world, professional development isn’t — or at least shouldn’t be — just a tool to help staff members progress in their careers or improve their performance at work. Instead, it’s an opportunity for an authentic assessment of whether and how the day-to-day tasks of everyone in the organization, at any level, actively serve the underlying values and objectives that each organization strives to embody. … It’s about making sure the mission of the organization pervades all aspects of the job, so that its overarching purpose doesn’t just compel people to start working there but ultimately makes them want to stay — and grow.”

Read the full piece here.

Matchmaker, Matchmaker: In Sapir, Barry Shrage reflects on a career in Jewish communal service spanning over five decades. “The more time I spent in the Jewish organizational world, mostly in the Federation system, raising and allocating financial gifts like the one that had changed the course of my own life, the more I came to realize how little the Federation’s mission had to do with fundraising. This may sound paradoxical, but after 31 years as head of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies in Boston, I can tell you that the primary role of a Federation is to mobilize the community’s enormous human resources as well as its financial, intellectual, and political influence, in the service of the Jewish people and Jewish meaning. The job of a Federation leader is to be an organizational matchmaker for Jewish enterprise, bringing Jewish organizations and community members together in shared purpose and activity.” [Sapir]

Out of the Margins: Images and recollections of Jewish children and young adults are some of the most iconic symbols of the Holocaust, yet elderly Jews were among those most likely to die, Meilan Solly notes in Smithsonian Magazine. “‘Eldercide: Older Jews and the Holocaust,’ a new exhibition at the London library, shines a spotlight on this oft-forgotten demographic. Co-curated by [Christine E.] Schmidt and [Dan] Stone, the show draws on photographs, documents, rare recordings and family heirlooms to illustrate the richness of its subjects’ lives, which started in the shadow of the Industrial Revolution and, for many, ended in Nazi gas chambers. ‘Eldercide’ also examines the unique predicaments that older Jews faced both during and after the war.” [SmithsonianMagazine]

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Atra Center for Rabbinic Innovation surveyed some 1,500 non-Haredi rabbis to better understand the so-called “rabbinic pipeline,” amid a sharp decline in the number of non-Orthodox rabbinical students…

A new study by the Anti-Defamation League found that antisemitism is on the rise within 20 major U.S.-based professional academic associations, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

After a spate of violent attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters there is “some concern about events in the West Bank spilling over and creating an effect that could undermine what we’re doing in Gaza”...

Time magazine selected freed hostage Eli Sharabi’s memoir, Hostage, as one of its 100 "must-read" books of the past year…

Chutzpah Coffee Co. announced a partnership with imadi, a Greater Washington and Baltimore-based organization supporting children with complex pediatric illnesses or genetic conditions…

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel toured sites and communities attacked by Hamas in the Oct, 7, 2023, attacks, including a visit to the home of Amir Tibon, Haaretz journalist and author of The Gates of Gaza, a book about the attack on his kibbutz, Nahal Oz. Merkel was in Israel to receive an honorary doctorate from the Weizmann Institute of Science…

Steve and Connie Ballmer’s philanthropic foundation, The Ballmer Group, announced that it is donating $170 million per year for the next decade to fund 10,000 free preschool slots in Washington state’s Early Childhood Education Assistance Program…

The Arthur Blank Family Foundation donated $2.5 million to humanitarian aid efforts in the Caribbean following Hurricane Melissa…

Melinda French Gates is donating $250 million to 80 nonprofits around the world that provide health care to women…

Sam Aboudara, formerly COO and executive director of NJY Camps, has been named the organization’s interim CEO… 

The Republican Jewish Coalition announced yesterday that it had elected to its board of directors Dan Conston, the former president of the Congressional Leadership Fund; Charlie Spies, a veteran elections attorney; and philanthropist David Gemunder, Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs reports… 

Philanthropy Roundtable hired Matt Warner as its next chief operating officer, and Claudia Cummings will join as senior vice president…

IDF Arabic-language spokesperson Col. Avichay Adraee is set to retire soon, after 20 years of service. He is expected to be replaced by Maj. Ella Waweya, one of the most senior female Arab Muslim officers in the IDF…

COURTESY/LIVNOT U’LEHIBANOT 

Three volunteers from Argentina hold up pieces of tin as they help rebuild homes in the northern Israeli community of Moshav Avivim last week as part of an initiative organized by the Israeli nonprofit Livnot U’Lehibanot (“To build and to be rebuilt”).

They and nearly 30 other people from the South American country were visiting Israel as part of “Volunteer in Israel,” a joint initiative by Birthright Israel and the Jewish Federations of North America.

COURTESY

Former president and COO of the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, who serves on the boards of many Jewish organizations and founded the Jewish Future Promise, Mike Leven turns 88…

Israeli industrialist with holdings in energy, real estate and automobile distributorships, Gad Zeevi turns 86… Chairman of the Israeli car importer Colmobil Group, Shmuel Harlap… Chief rabbi of Rome, Rabbi Dr. Shmuel Riccardo Di Segni turns 76… Publisher of the independent “Political Junkie” blog and podcast, Kenneth Rudin… U.S. attorney general throughout the Biden administration, Merrick Garland turns 73… Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner turns 71… Managing director of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge, Sharon Freundel… Former president of the D.C. Board of Education, Ruth Wattenberg… Former editor-in-chief of British Vogue for 25 years, she is a strategic advisor to Atterley, an Edinburgh, Scotland-based fashion marketplace, Alexandra Shulman turns 68… Producer and writer, he has written for ten television shows, Matt Weitzman turns 58… San Jose, Calif., resident, Katherine (Katya) Palkin… Somali-born activist who has served in the Dutch parliament, she is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, Ayaan Hirsi Ali turns 56… Former Israeli government minister for the Shas party, he has served as minister of communications and then minister of sousing, Ariel Atias turns 55… Founder of Pailet Financial Services, a predecessor agency of what is now the Dallas office of Marsh & McLennan, Kevin Pailet… Rabbi Andrea Dobrick Haney… President and CEO at the U.S. Travel Association, Geoffrey Freeman… Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Meirav Ben-Ari turns 50… Television journalist employed by Hearst Television, Jeff Rossen turns 49… President of baseball operations for MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, Andrew Friedman turns 49… Israeli rapper and record producer, generally known by his stage name "Subliminal," Yaakov (Kobi) Shimoni turns 46… CEO of the JCC of Greater Baltimore, Paul M. Lurie… Judoka who won three national titles (2000, 2002 and 2004), she competed for the U.S. at the Athens Olympics in 2004, Charlee Minkin turns 44… Senior director of policy and communications at Christians United For Israel, Ari Morgenstern… Political communications consultant, Jared Goldberg-Leopold… PR and communications consultant, Mark Botnick… Professional soccer player, then a soccer coach and now a sales account executive at Les Friedland Associates, Jarryd Goldberg turns 40… Michael Schwab… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (R-OH), one of four Jewish Republican congressmen, Max Leonard Miller turns 37… Former relief pitcher in the Colorado Rockies organization, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, now an EMT in Los Angeles, Troy Neiman turns 35… Staff attorney for the ACLU's voting rights project, Jonathan Topaz… Israeli film, television and stage actor and model, Bar Brimer turns 28… J.D. candidate at University of Houston Law Center, Cole Deutch… Vice president of Israel and global philanthropy and director of Christian Friends of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Danielle Mor...