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Good Monday morning.

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on yesterday’s deadly shooting at the candle-lighting event in Sydney, Australia. We interview Julie Fischer, the incoming executive director of the Good People Fund, and spotlight Jewish military chaplains serving abroad. We feature an opinion piece by Marina Rosenberg about recent efforts to raise the alarm about antisemitism in Australia prior to Sunday’s deadly attack, and Dan Elbaum expresses concern about the increased politicization of aid to support the surviving family members of fallen IDF soldiers. Also in this issue: Rachel Goldberg-Polin, Sarah Milgrim and Levi Moskovitz.

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What began as a moment of joy and faith and community and public acceptance turned into a bloodbath as two gunmen opened fire on the masses gathered yesterday for a Chabad-led hanukkiah lighting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. At least 15 people, including a child, were killed, and scores more were injured. 

In the short time since yesterday’s terror attack — the deadliest antisemitic attack since the Oct. 7 massacre — much has been said and written on the subject, with a particular, deserved focus on the fact that the shooting came after two years of violent antisemitic incidents in Australia, including an arson attack on a Melbourne synagogue, when members were inside, one year ago. The writing for this deadly attack was on the wall, as Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president for international affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, wrote yesterday in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. See below.

Since the Oct. 7 attacks, security and combating antisemitism have been top Jewish communal priorities. With the ending of the war in Gaza — or at least a pivot to a less active form of conflict in the Strip — there were hopes that the Jewish community could shift to other priorities, which have been struggling to garner support for the past two years. Yesterday’s attack makes that far less likely. 

The Jewish communal world’s response to the attacks has been overwhelming: outpourings of support for Australian Jewry, condemnations for the terrorists and the atmosphere that has made these kinds of attacks more common, offers to help in whatever way possible, vows to hold yet more public candle-lighting events around the world as a sign of both solidarity and defiance. While those candle-lighting events have indeed still been held, Jewish security services have called for increased vigilance at them. In a joint initiative, the Jewish Federations of North America, ADL, Secure Community Network, Community Security Service and Community Security Initiative of New York issued a new eight-point security guideline for communal events. This includes coordination with law enforcement, only sharing event details with registrants and reinforcing security teams, both professionals and volunteers. 

Many Jewish leaders hailed the actions of Ahmed al-Ahmed, a 43-year-old Muslim father of two who barehandedly tackled one of the gunmen, likely preventing an even higher death toll. Investor Bill Ackman has even offered al-Ahmed a cash reward for his actions. 

Jewish organizations and communities around the world have also embraced the notion of “kol yisrael arevim zeh la’zeh” — all of Israel is responsible for one another — sending assistance to Sydney and to the Chabad movement that hosted the event. In the field of mental health, a team of trauma experts from Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem made contact with the Forum of Jewish Therapists in Australia in order to train local psychologists, social workers and therapists in the latest psychotrauma treatment, a field in which Israel is a world leader. 

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ here.

COURTESY/GOOD PEOPLE FUND

Eighteen years after founding the Good People Fund, Naomi Eisenberger is passing the torch to Julie Fisher, a nonprofit leader in her own right. Fisher founded the Consortium for Israel and the Asylum Seekers, which advocates for African asylum seekers in Israel, and served six years on the board of trustees of the Walworth Barbour American International School in Israel. Fisher is also a longtime mentee of Eisenberger’s. The two met at a Good People Fund event in Israel eight years ago, while Fisher’s spouse, Daniel Shapiro, was serving as U.S. ambassador to Israel. After returning to the United States, Fisher became GPF’s first director of engagement in 2023. Earlier this year, she was named associate executive director, and in July, she will assume the role of executive director, while Eisenberger transitions to executive director emeritus and “master mentor.” Earlier this month, Fisher spoke to eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim about the leadership transition, how to identify “good people” and the challenges both Israeli and American grantees have faced of late. 

ND: You started doing this work after moving to Israel, and have continued it after moving back to the United States. Can you compare those two experiences?

JF: It's been really interesting to have had the experience of being immersed in the philanthropic and humanitarian world in Israel for 12 years, and then to come back here and to work in an area that was newer to me on this side of the ocean. To have this incredible opportunity to use my passion for this work and to stay here in the U.S. and in Israel, and to be able to continue those strong relationships that I had developed when I was there for 12 years, and to also do some of the work of bridge building between the American Jewish community and and the Israeli community, which I did from that side. This work allows me to continue that journey. 

Read the full interview here.

COURTESY

From Germany to Poland, Jewish military chaplains are counseling soldiers, leading religious services and connecting Jewish troops to their heritage — often alongside non-Jewish service members. Rabbis Aaron Gaber, Aaron Melman and Laurence Bazer spoke to Gabby Deutch for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider about their drive to be ohr l’goyim, a light unto the nations.

New Year’s in the old country: Last year, Gaber volunteered to spend the High Holidays in Poland and Lithuania. He drove between several different bases to make sure Jewish soldiers had access to religious services, food and learning opportunities tied to the holidays. “I take the idea of ohr l’goyim, or bringing light to the world, I was able to bring light to the world,” Gaber told JI. “If I met 10 Jewish soldiers through the entire two weeks, that was a lot. So it was individual work.”

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

PETER HASKIN/ECAJ

“Only a few days ago, I was at Bondi Beach in Sydney,” writes Marina Rosenberg, senior vice president for international affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “I was part of a delegation of the J7 Task Force, a coalition representing the seven largest Jewish Diaspora communities. We came to Australia because we saw the red lights flashing — because the Australian Jewish community has been under siege since Oct. 7, 2023, facing a nearly fivefold increase in antisemitic incidents since Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel. ”

Prevent the next tragedy: “In meetings with high-level government officials and members of Parliament, our message was explicit and urgent… We demanded that the government implement the action plan to combat antisemitism prepared by their own special envoy almost six months ago. We demanded they treat this hatred as the national security threat it is. … Condemnations without concrete action are meaningless to the families burying their loved ones. We need proactive intelligence to dismantle violent networks. We need zero tolerance for incitement. We need leaders who will stop accommodating hate in the name of political expediency.”

Read the full piece here.

COURTESY/IDF WIDOWS AND ORPHANS

“‘Do you expect most of your donors to come from the political right?’ The question caught me off guard,” writes Daniel Elbaum in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “After more than 20 years in public-facing roles in the Jewish world, I’ve been asked just about everything. But this question, posed during an interview about my new position as executive director of IDF Widows and Orphans USA, landed differently.”

What’s at stake: “In recent months, standing in living rooms in Israel with widows and children whose lives have been shattered — families who never asked to become symbols of anything, families whose loss owes nothing to the left or the right — I’ve felt something dangerous creeping into our communal life: the sense that even this sacred responsibility is being filtered through ideological identity. And that worries me far more than any fundraising trend… If we begin to decide which parts of the Jewish story belong to us based on our politics, then we are in danger of something far more serious than a dip in donor diversity. … The moment we allow the politics of the hour to determine which Jewish obligations feel like ‘ours,’ we lose more than unity. We lose something essential to who we are.”

Read the full piece here.

Flicker of Light: In The Free Press, Rachel Goldberg-Polin reflects on the recently released video of her son, Hersh, and five other Israeli hostages commemorating Hanukkah while captive in Gaza nine months before they were killed by Hamas terrorists. “Seeing these young, vibrant, and luminous Jews keeping alive their over-2,000-year-old tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles, even when in the bowels of hell on earth, you cannot help but feel something. I won’t suggest what you should feel. … In these dark times, it is a flicker of light. The flame is whispering something. If you are quiet and you lean forward, you will hear it. Did you grasp it? The Beautiful Six did. It is hope. Hope! It’s not a suggestion, or advice. It is a command. Hanukkah teaches us there is light. Even in the darkest of times and the most upside-down of places. The camera sweeps by Hersh and he says, ‘Wishing you a Hanukkah of peace.’ From hell, without a hand, he wished us peace.” [FreePress]

Deja Vu: In The Jewish Independent, Melbourne, Australia, resident and avid ocean swimmer Sharon Berger shares her reaction to the attack at Bondi Beach. “For me it bought back too many memories of living in Israel during the second intifada. We had one particularly close encounter that I still remember vividly. We were just a few minutes behind driving through an intersection where a bus exploded killing kids and adults alike. I still remember them reporting on identifying the bodies by the swimsuits the kids had worn that day in anticipation of their upcoming fieldtrip. Seeing the images of people running from the beach in their swimsuits somehow reignited that morbid memory. … With the return of the remaining hostage corpses, bar the body of Ran Gvili, and a tentative ceasefire, it finally felt that there was a wisp of optimism in the air that things were starting to improve after two years of death and destruction in Israel and Gaza. Yet the attack at Bondi shows that it’s naïve to think that things will ever go back to a pre-October 7 reality.” [TheJewishIndependent]

In Case You’re Still Confused: In The Atlantic, David Frum calls out the anti-Israel rhetoric that has been excused for over two years for what it is: incitement to violence. “In a 2021 essay, the prominent anti-Israel academic Steve Salaita rejected those who ‘speak of rights and democracy and civil liberties and then superimpose those categories onto Palestine. It doesn’t occur to them that Palestine has its own vocabularies of freedom worth forcing into the American conversation.’ It is helpful to possess a lexicon of what is typically intended by these vocabularies. Armed struggle means shooting people or blowing them up with bombs. By any means necessary means targeting the most defenseless: children, the elderly, other civilians. Globalize the intifada means shooting or bombing people in Sydney, London, Paris, Toronto, Los Angeles, and New York City, as well as in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. From the river to the sea means the annihilation of a sovereign democratic state and the mass murder, expulsion and enslavement of much of its population.” [TheAtlantic]

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A new study from the Rockefeller Foundation found that nuclear power could provide up to 30% of emerging countries’ electricity need and could serve as a complement to — not a replacement for — renewably energy…

The friends of slain Israeli Embassy in Washington employee Sarah Milgrim are launching a new volunteering initiative in her honor next week, Sarah's Week of Service, beginning next Monday and ending on Dec. 29, when she would have turned 27…

Former Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi met former President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Philadelphia Eagles’ Sunday game against the Las Vegas Raiders…

The House Education and Workforce Committee announced on Friday that it’s opening an investigation into antisemitism in the American Psychological Association, a move that follows mounting reports of antisemitism and unaddressed discrimination inside the organization, which represents more than 170,000 individuals in the psychology field and is responsible for the accreditation of psychology professionals, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

The Canadian Jewish News interviews Levi Moskovitz, 17, the international treasurer of BBYO, who spearheaded the youth movement’s recent $1.6 million fundraising drive… 

In a Philadelphia Inquirer opinion piece, Jane M. Von Bergen spotlights the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia’s annual coat drive…

Harvard removed the head of its public health school, which had increasingly come under fire over what the school’s antisemitism task force described as programming and curricula that focused “heavily on Palestinians” and “also rarely presented Israeli points of view except those of the state’s harshest critics”...

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Rabbi Eliezer Diamond, a longtime professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary, died last Thursday at 73…

Rob Reiner, 78, the actor and director, was found dead at his Los Angeles home, along with his wife, Michele Singer Reiner; LAPD is investigating the deaths as homicides…

Sol Shabinsky, an Ottawa, Canada-based real estate developer, died last month at 93…Martin Rosen, a confidante of Simon Wiesenthal and a founding trustee of his eponymous center, who helped prosecute former Nazis and helped abolish the statute of limitations for Nazi war crimes, died yesterday at 100…

The John Templeton Foundation and Harvard Divinity School are issuing a $1.2 million grant to HDS professor Swayam Bagaria and University of London's Bhrigupati Singh to develop a program to better train mental health practitioners on issues related to religion and spirituality…

Three Pittsburgh-area Jewish day schools have received a $200,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to improve support for children with learning disabilities…

The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous announced grants totaling $380,000 for Righteous Gentile rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust living in 10 different countries; the organization told eJewishPhilanthropy that this represents its largest-ever one-time seasonal award…

Ben Black was ceremonially sworn in by President Donald Trump as CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation…

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Stephanie Shujman and Steven Paletz were selected to serve as the next co-chairs of the Jewish Federations of North America’s National Young Leadership Cabinet…

Joel Dinkin is retiring as CEO of Houston’s Evelyn Rubenstein JCC after 16 years in the role…

COURTESY/TREE OF LIFE

The Tree of Life, the foundation created to memorialize the deadly 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life congregation in Pittsburgh, installs a new banner around the synagogue’s fence to mark the start of a new campaign to combat antisemitism, dubbed “Rooted in Humanity,” which focuses on commonality and connection. 

“Countering antisemitism and hate requires removing barriers of isolation and division,” Carole Zawatsky, CEO of The Tree of Life, said in a statement. “The reality is that the more connected we are and the more we know our neighbors and celebrate our shared values, the stronger and healthier our communities will be.”

LEV RADIN/PACIFIC PRESS/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

Senior rabbi emeritus at Congregation Mt. Sinai in Brooklyn Heights and executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik turns 79… 

Former member of the New York State Assembly, attorney general of New York and member of the New York City Council, Oliver Koppell turns 85… Film, stage and television actress and voice artist, Melanie Chartoff turns 75… Owner of the largest construction company for gas pipelines in Russia, Arkady Rotenberg turns 74… University of Wyoming professor for over 20 years, now president of the Colorado Hebrew Chorale, Seth Ward turns 73… President and CEO at Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the Suncoast in Sarasota, Fla., Dr. Helene Lotman… Founder and former chairman of BizBash, David Adler turns 72… Sportscaster, he was the radio voice for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team for 36 years, Eli Gold turns 72… Executive chairman of South Africa's Resolve Communications, Tony Leon turns 69… Executive director at Silicon Couloir in Jackson Hole, Wyo., until 2024, Gary S. Trauner turns 67… Partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz specializing in M&A, Adam O. Emmerich turns 65… Actress, singer and songwriter, she appeared in the title role of the 1984 film "Supergirl," Helen Slater turns 62… Television and movie producer, screenwriter and executive, producer of the first eight seasons of the “Pokémon” TV series and writer of most of the “Pokémon” films, Norman J. Grossfeld turns 62… Rabbi serving communities in California's Central Valley including as a prison chaplain, Paul Gordon… Chicago-born stand-up comedian and author, Joel Chasnoff turns 52… Director of community relations and Israel affairs at the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, Tal Selinger Stein… Actor, writer and musician, he is known for his role as Seth Cohen on “The O.C.,” Adam Brody turns 46… Former mayor of Bal Harbour, Fla., he is an attorney and public speaker, Gabriel Groisman turns 45… Washington, D.C.-based chef and restaurateur, Spike Mendelsohn turns 45… Israeli singer-songwriter and actress, she played the role of Hila Bashan on Season 3 of “Fauda,” Marina Maximilian Blumin turns 38… Client solutions manager at Samsung Ads, Julie Winkelman Lazar… Musician and actress, her first major film, “Licorice Pizza,” was released in 2021, Alana Mychal Haim turns 34… Associate partner at Activate Consulting, Lily Silva… and her twin brother, a special policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security until earlier this year, Nicholas Silva… Figure skater who represented the U.S. at the 2014 and 2022 Winter Olympics, Jason Brown turns 31...