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Good Tuesday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover last night’s UJA-Federation of New York Wall Street Dinner. We speak with the executive director of a new Portland, Ore.-based foundation focusing on Jewish seniors as it issues its inaugural grants, and highlight the concerns of Jewish medical professionals who are warning of growing anti-Zionism in the field. We feature an opinion piece by Randy Spiegel about an initiative at Bar-Ilan University seeking to cultivate resilience and a culture of care in Israeli society. Also in this issue: David Rubenstein, Julie Menin and Michael and Susan Dell.

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Apollo Global Management CEO and UJA-Federation of New York Chair Marc Rowan declared New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani an “enemy” of the Jewish community on Monday night, vowing that his organization would “call him out,” at the group’s 50th anniversary Wall Street Dinner, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the event.

In his speech, Rowan discussed the recent demonstration outside a local synagogue that was hosting an event encouraging immigration to Israel, or aliyah, in which protesters yelled "death to the IDF." Rowan noted the “intensity of the rhetoric, the hateful chants” in what he described as “Mamdani’s New York City.”

“We should make no mistake, we face challenges at home. I don’t think we have to wait to know. Someone who uses antisemitism in their campaign and normalizes antisemitism, he is our enemy,” Rowan said. “We need to be the ones to call him out. We need to say it. And I know that UJA, as it relates to the Jewish community, is going to do that.”

The event, which drew nearly 2,000 attendees, raised $57 million, marking a single-night record for the federation. At the dinner, the organization also honored Rowan and Julie Solomon, who received Gustave L. Levy Award and the Alan C. Greenberg Young Leadership Award, respectively. 

A new award, the Wesley M. LePatner Emerging Leadership Award, was also launched in memory of LePatner, the Jewish philanthropist and Blackstone executive who was killed by a shooter at her firm’s headquarters in July. LePatner, a board member at UJA,  received the Greenberg Award in 2024 during the first dinner after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. 

“I was proud to be onstage introducing this 5-foot-tall giant who represented the very best of the Jewish people. As always, Wesley showed her fair sense of purpose, speaking with passion, instructing us to use our voices to forge ahead in support of Israel, regardless of what stones came our way,” said Jon Gray, president and COO of Blackstone, in a speech memorializing LePatner. “I still have trouble with the idea that someone who burned so brightly could suddenly no longer be with us.”

Read the full report here.

COURTESY/ARIK SHRAGA/JDC

The Robison Foundation for Jewish Elders awarded its inaugural round of grants this week, allocating some $340,000 in funds to 17 local nonprofits, both to support the field of Jewish elder care and as a learning tool as the newly launched philanthropic organization charts its path forward, the group’s executive director, Sonia Marie Leikam, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.

Trust-building exercise: The Portland, Ore.-based Robison Foundation was founded some 14 months ago with funds from the sale of the city’s Cedar Sinai Park facility, which was forced to close down due to financial troubles following the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Leikam, who was hired in August, the process of identifying grantees was rapid as the organization “really wanted to get money out the door” before the end of the year. This was made more complicated by the High Holy Days, she said, but the foundation was determined. “We saw two paths that folks who have done this have taken in the past. The first path was to hold onto the money and take time to intentionally plan. The other one was to start giving out money as a learning tool,” she said, adding that the organization opted for the latter. “We really saw this as a way for us to learn and for the community to build trust with us.”

Read the full report here.

MICHAEL M. SANTIAGO/GETTY IMAGES

Jewish medical practitioners have faced “two years of near-constant abuse and a far longer erosion of professional norms,” according to an open letter published this week decrying the reach of anti-Zionist ideology in the medical field. More than 1,000 health-care professionals signed onto the letter, the latest of several similar attempts by Jewish doctors, therapists and nurses to garner attention about the exclusion and harassment that many say they have faced in their fields since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel two years ago, reports Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. 

Wider worries: But in this latest missive, its authors and signatories allege that anti-Zionism is a problem unto itself in the medical field — an argument that comes as many people who face accusations of antisemitism defend themselves by saying they are merely opposed to Israel, and not to Jews. The letter marks a rhetorical shift by medical professionals that reflects a broader set of concerns about the influence of anti-Israel ideas in medicine. Anti-Zionism, the letter’s authors write, presents a risk not just to Jewish patients but to the medical field’s integrity.

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

N SUMA/UNSPLASH

“[Since Oct. 7, 2023,] Bar-Ilan University students, faculty, staff and their families have lost homes, loved ones, limbs and independence. Bar-Ilan's support teams, even as they face their own struggles, continue to serve in hospitals, rehabilitation centers and surrounding communities,” writes Randy Spiegel, CEO of Canadian Friends of Bar-Ilan University, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Seeding a culture of care: “The hamniya (sunflower) is a symbol of hope — always looking upward, following the sun and drinking in resources to sustain and nurture growth. Sunflower: The Center for Academic Resiliency, launched with direct support from Canadian Friends of Bar-Ilan University, aims to weave resilience into the very fabric of university life and to extend that strength outward into Israeli society. The Sunflower Center builds resiliency in three circles of impact: personal resilience, institutional resilience and societal resilience. … This work is grounded in Jewish values of arevut, mutual responsibility, and in the eternal teaching of refuat hanefesh alongside refuat haguf, healing the soul as well as the body.”

Read the full piece here.

People Power: In USA Today, Sarah Cross offers a message of hope (and a little musar) for GivingTuesday. “As America gets ready for our 250th birthday in 2026, the country feels like it’s in crisis. Yet people have forgotten that solving our nation’s biggest problems depends on everyday people. … A [2024] Pew Research Center study found that more than half of Americans no longer believe we can solve big challenges. It’s a reasonable worry: How can one person move America forward? But we aren’t talking about one person. We’re talking about 340 million Americans, all of whom can make a massive combined impact. … Americans must reclaim this culture of individual action before our country’s many big challenges really do consume and cripple us. As our nation prepares for the next 250 years, it’s no exaggeration to say that our future is on the line.” [USAToday]

No Rest for Rubenstein: In The Atlantic, Michael Powell presents a wide-ranging profile of billionaire investor and philanthropist David Rubenstein, 76, from his upbringing in Jewish Baltimore to his journey from politics to private equity to his present-day skirmishes with President Donald Trump. “Rubenstein has, for decades, converted his extraordinary wealth into soft power, cultivating an ostensibly apolitical brand. He calls himself a practitioner of ‘patriotic philanthropy,’ with a stated mission to remind Americans of their heritage and history in service of a strengthened democracy. As part of that mission, Rubenstein has given away more than $1 billion. His name is stamped all over the Washington region. … A boulder outside his mansion in Nantucket, where he rarely sleeps, is inscribed I’D RATHER BE WORKING. ‘I want to get it done before I die,’ he said of philanthropy and empire building. He calls it his ‘sprint to the finish.’” [TheAtlantic]

Source of Distortion: In Inside Philanthropy, founder and Editor-in-Chief David Callahan argues that funders on both the sides of the political aisle are disrupting American democracy. “When we think of ‘money in politics,’ we tend to think of campaign spending and lobbying. But these parameters are way too narrow. The main reason people give to candidates or hire lobbyists is to get the public policy outcomes that they want. But there are many other ways to do that, some of which are more effective than campaign giving or lobbying — and have the added benefit of being tax-deductible. … The left warns us about the malevolent clout of donors like Charles Koch and the Bradley Foundation, while the right depicts George Soros and the Ford Foundation as enemies of the American way of life. Meanwhile, almost nobody spotlights how charitable rules allow politicized 501c3 funders on all sides to operate with extremely wide latitude.” [InsidePhilanthropy]

Practice being open to what data can do to enhance your work at Spertus Institute’s next free online workshop, Building Your Curiosity Around Data. Thursday, Dec. 18, 12:30-1:30 CDT (on Zoom). We’ll explore data collection, data neutrality, and how to ask the right questions. Reserve your spot.

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Politico looks at concerns among Republican Jewish donors over increasing antisemitism on the right, including their efforts to build ties with Vice President JD Vance…

Elon Musk appeared on the WTF podcast, in which he discussed his struggles with philanthropy because it is “very difficult to give away money well”... 

The Associated Press examines the informal “mutual aid practices” that have emerged in recent years, driven by government funding cuts, inflation and political uncertainty…

The Chronicle of Philanthropy looks at how the government shutdown and federal funding cuts are forcing the nonprofit sector to prepare to make due with less… 

Julie Menin, a moderate Jewish Democrat from Manhattan who last week declared an early victory in the New York City Council speaker race, is widely expected to serve as an ideological counterweight to the incoming administration of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Kassel reports…

Sam Altman’s OpenAI is taking an ownership stake in Josh Kushner’s Thrive Holdings and will integrate its AI tools into Thrive’s companies, which were acquired with an eye toward consolidating them and incorporating AI into their processes… 

A synagogue and memorial in Rome to a 2-year-old Jewish victim of terror were vandalized earlier this week, drawing condemnations from the city’s Jewish community and Italy’s foreign minister, who called the vandalism “unacceptable”…

Colombia expelled more than two dozen members of the Lev Tahor cult, including 17 children, after a raid on the hotel in which they were staying…

A Haifa-based nonprofit that supports Holocaust survivors, Yad Ezer L’Haver (Helping Hand to a Friend), purchased many of the personal artifacts of Holocaust victims that recently went up for auction in Germany, bringing them to Israel where they will be displayed at a Haifa museum…

Howard Halpern, an Atlanta-based restaurateur and philanthropist, died last month at 85…

Michael and Susan Dell announced today that they are depositing $250 in individual investment accounts for 25 million American children; totaling $6.25 billion, it is one of the largest-ever direct philanthropic gifts…

John and Laura Arnold, through their philanthropic foundation, Arnold Ventures, have partnered with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on a $4.5 million investment to increase entry-level employment in skilled trades in the state…

The Movement for Progressive Judaism — the newly formed union of the British Reform and Liberal Judaism movements — raised £2.2 million ($2.9 million) at its launch dinner this weekend…

COURTESY/TOM

Tikkun Olam Makers, which creates open-source products for people with disabilities, unveiled a new fully 3D-printable wheelchair for children on Sunday, dubbed 3DTMT, which was co-developed in partnership with MakeGood and LINK PBC. This is a new version of its original wheelchair for children, which was primarily made with plywood boards. 

“The original TMT improved the lives of hundreds of families and thousands of children. The 3DTMT dramatically expands that reach by enhancing accessibility and affordability,” Michelle Levy, TOM’s head designer, said in a statement. "It is one of TOM’s most promising and innovative early-development solutions.”

RYAN EMBERLEY/GETTY IMAGES FOR HEXCLAD

Canadian fashion designer and entrepreneur, he is best known for launching the Club Monaco and Joe Fresh brands, Joe Mimran turns 73… 

Former director of the Mossad and then head of the Israeli National Security Council, Efraim Halevy turns 91… Professor of rabbinic literature at Yeshiva University's Gruss Institute in Jerusalem, Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff turns 88… Real estate executive and founder of the Sunshine Group, she was an executive vice president of The Trump Organization until 1985, Louise Mintz Sunshine turns 85… Sociologist and human rights activist, Jack Nusan Porter turns 81… Partner at Personal Healthcare LLC, Pincus Zagelbaum… Former drummer for a rock band in France followed by a career in contemporary Jewish spiritual music in Brooklyn, Isaac "Jacky" Bitton turns 78… Executive vice president at Rubenstein Communications, Nancy Haberman… Author of more than 15 volumes of poetry, he is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Pennsylvania, Bob Perelman turns 78… French historian, professor at Sorbonne Paris North University and author of 30 books on the history of North Africa, Benjamin Stora turns 75… Retired associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, Barbara A. Lenk turns 75… Professor emerita at Montana State University, she was a member of the Montana House of Representatives and a board member of Bozeman's Congregation Beth Shalom, Franke Wilmer turns 75… Partner in the Madison, Wis., law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, she is a class action and labor law attorney, Sarah Siskind… Rabbi of Baltimore's Congregation Ohel Moshe, Rabbi Zvi Teichman… Celebrity physician and author of diet books, he is the president of the Nutritional Research Foundation, Joel Fuhrman turns 72… Advertising account executive at the Los Angeles Daily Journal Corporation, Lanna Solnit… Cleveland resident, Joseph Schlaiser… Emmy Award-winning actress, Rena Sofer turns 57… Publisher and CEO of The Forward, Rachel Fishman Feddersen… Identical twin sisters, known as The AstroTwins, they are magazine columnists and authors of four books on astrology, Tali Edut and Ophira Edut turn 53… Lecturer of political science at Yale, she was formerly a White House staffer, Eleanor L. Schiff turns 49… Television writer and producer, Murray Selig Miller turns 49… Former member of the Knesset and then Israel's ambassador to the U.K., Tzipi Hotovely turns 47… Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation, Annie Fixler… Actress best known for playing Special Agent Kensi Blye in 277 episodes of CBS' "NCIS Los Angeles," Daniela Ruah turns 42… Managing director with Alvarez & Marsal in Atlanta, she was a sabre fencer at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Emily Jacobson Edwards turns 40… Actor, best known for playing Trevor in the coming-of-age film "Eighth Grade," Fred Hechinger turns 26...