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Good Friday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the responses to a new multimillion-dollar ad released by Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance in the wake of New York Times columnist Bret Stephens’ recent remarks about the Anti-Defamation League. We spotlight the Iranian Jewish diaspora in America’s solidarity with the protest movement in Iran and their hopes for regime change and report on a bipartisan Congressional letter expressing concern about conditions attached to federal nonprofit security grants. We feature an opinion piece by Betsy Stone about decentralizing acts of service in our communities, and one by Sierra Weiss for Jewish Disability Awareness and Inclusion Month about the JCC movement’s approach to taking inclusion from principle to practice. Also in this issue: Yehuda Kurtzer, AJ Edelman and Rachel Roth.

Shabbat Shalom!

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For less-distracted reading over the weekend, browse this week’s edition of The Weekly Print, a curated print-friendly PDF featuring a selection of recent eJewishPhilanthropy and Jewish Insider stories, including: Inside the Roadburg Foundation’s $37M donation to Israel’s newest and northernmost university; PRECEDE works to raise awareness — and optimism — among Ashkenazi Jews predisposed to pancreatic cancer; Yael Foundation expected to double budget next year with big bets on Jewish education, identity. Print the latest edition here.

There have always been grumblings and mumblings and rumblings about the efficacy of the Jewish community's efforts to combat antisemitism. But over the past two-plus years, in the wake of the wave of antisemitism that has swept the globe since the Oct. 7 terror attacks in Israel and Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, those disagreements over tactics, policies and strategies have reached a fever pitch, particularly this week. 

This comes in light of two nominally distinct events: one being a speech by New York Times columnist and Jewish thought-leader Bret Stephens at the 92nd Street Y in which he called to “dismantle the Anti-Defamation League”; and the other being the release of a new commercial from Robert Kraft's Blue Square Alliance aimed at combating antisemitism, which has, perhaps unsurprisingly, drawn fierce criticism. What is more surprising is that the criticism of the commercial has come from all sides of the Jewish world. Stephens’ comments also caused no small amount of ripples.

Those on the left criticized the commercial, which will air during Sunday’s Super Bowl broadcast and during the Winter Olympics, for using what appears to be a token Black character to address antisemitism. It raised the ire of those on the right for its portrayal of Jews as weak victims needing non-Jews to protect them, as opposed to the Zionist vision of Jews being self-reliant and strong. Then there were the many people in the middle who perhaps did not take such a fierce ideological opposition to the commercial but took issue instead with its price tag — somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 million — and questioned the efficacy of such campaigns.

For many Jews, Stephens’ call to dismantle the ADL draws on long-standing issues with the organization and more generally with the Jewish community’s overall strategy vis-a-vis antisemitism. Yet it is clear that the Jewish community is facing growing calls to reform its overall strategy and not just the efforts of one particular organization, prominent as it may be, such as the ADL.

It is mistaken, in this reporter’s opinion, to attribute all of these issues and the global rise of antisemitism to the actions or inactions of these organizations, particularly when there are national and global megatrends at play, many of them reinforced by nation-states with budgets that far outweigh that of the Jewish community. Qatar is the most obvious of these, but investigations have shown that China, Russia, Iran and other countries with significant financial means have also been part of the efforts to advance antisemitism and extremism in American and global discourse. 

However, a growing body of research, much of which has been covered in these pages, shows that the “combating antisemitism complex” is in disarray. A recent study by the Jewish Funders Network shows that there is a clear lack of clear data and goals for these organizations; there are significant redundancies, overlap and misspending; and there is a lack of coherent overall strategy to inform the field as a whole. 

But there is a difference between mumblings and grumblings and rumblings of opposition and a clear-cut plan. Those that want to see significant change in this field need to take the responsibility of putting forth viable alternatives — and use the momentum from the past week in order to advance them.

Read more ‘What You Should Know’ here.

Iranian Jews living in the U.S. — many with memories of life in Iran before the Islamic Revolution, others raised here as the children of ex-pats who fled the country — are closely watching the negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials in Oman with both hope and trepidation, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports. Initially optimistic when millions of Iranians took to the streets in protest starting in December, many Persians in the diaspora experienced the subsequent government crackdown as a gut punch — one raising concerns for remaining family and friends in the country, and serving as a reminder of their own exile.

Hand-in-hand: For many Iranian Jews who left the country unaware they would not be able to return, the possibility of visiting Iran again or showing it to their children for the first time if the regime is overthrown has been a widely shared dream since the protests began. “I seriously believe that the Persian Jewish Diaspora and the non-Jewish Diaspora are holding hands, and believe, hand-in-hand, that there should be a change,” Farhad Novian, president of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills, Calif., and son of Iranian Jewish immigrants, told eJP. “We're all here, and we're here as a consequence of what happened there; and I think, for a lot of us, we'd like to go back. I'd like to go back and take my children there.”

Read the full report here.

A bipartisan group of 82 House legislators wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday urging her to roll back new conditions placed on applications for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program amid rising antisemitic attacks, reports Marc Rod for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Not a tool for leverage: The letter notes that new conditions issued by the Department of Homeland Security in April 2025 may compel religious institutions to cooperate with immigration enforcement activities and eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The letter said the “new compliance requirements” may “restrict the religious conscience of synagogues, schools, and other institutions pivotal to our communities,” and that security grant funds should not be used “to reinforce other policy priorities.”

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

“In the current ‘Money’ issue of the online journal Sapir, Cindy Greenberg of Repair the World makes an impassioned argument for service as a central form of tzedakah,” writes consultant Betsy Stone in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “She tells us that what we do for others has begun to take a back seat to what we give to others, but that doing matters. Service builds community, connection and identity, she says.” 

Let’s get involved: “What happens when we centralize care may actually diminish care. If I expect the rabbi to visit the sick members of the congregation, does that exempt the rest of us from these visits? Does the meal train, which is obviously a blessing, allow me to defer my concern until it’s my date? Do all these efficiencies make us less connected? … If we rely on Jewish professionals to create community for us, we abrogate our responsibility to one another.”

Read the full piece here.

“A recent study conducted by Matan found that people with disabilities and their families participate in Jewish communal life at far lower rates than at secular counterparts. The report reveals a striking mismatch: While most Jewish organizations and communities describe inclusion as a core value, far fewer have the necessary systems, training or policies to put that value into practice … [The report suggests] that a significant source of this problem is inclusion work that relies on a single role or person, creating bottlenecks, siloing the work and preventing systemic change,” writes Sierra Weiss, director of inclusion and JCC Maccabi Access at the JCC Association of North America, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

A whole-cloth approach: “As the largest platform for Jewish engagement in North America, with nearly 150 JCCs and JCC camps serving 1.5 million people weekly, the JCC movement has spent several years addressing these structural barriers. What we’ve learned is simple: inclusion is possible when shared, systematized and woven into the fabric of an entire movement, not maintained by a sole person or department. … With centralized leadership and shared language, frameworks and responsibility, we all can expand inclusion efforts and empower each other to join in this vitally important work.”

Read the full piece here.

Imaginary Numbers: In his Substack “Identity/Crisis,” Yehuda Kurtzer responds to Bret Stephens’ call during his “State of World Jewry” address this week to spend less philanthropic dollars on fighting antisemitism and more on Jewish education. “It appears that the Jewish community is overspending in the fight against antisemitism and underspending in Jewish education based on the finite amount of dollars going to Jewish causes, but this is wildly inaccurate. It appears this way because Jewish communal discourse is dominated by the fight against antisemitism and because the ADL, the AJC, JewBelong, the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, and a handful of other outlets are noisy and raising more dollars than ever before. The Mind Share of antisemitism and the fight against it in the public imagination is out of proportion; the Market Share of philanthropic dollars is not.” [Identity/Crisis]

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A 19-year-old Sydney, Australia, man was granted bail after being arrested on Wednesday for allegedly making death threats against Israeli President Isaac Herzog on social media last month ahead of Herzog’s visit to the country this weekend…

Posters depicting one of the men accused of carrying out the Bondi Beach terror attack along with the word “AUSSIE” in bold were discovered on Tuesday plastered across parts of Melbourne’s city center; the imagery is being described as mirroring a 2017 poster campaign spotlighting historical figures who were immigrants to Australia. Vic Alhadeff, former chief executive of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, described the posters as “beneath contempt”...

With Dr. Miriam Adelson in attendance, Bar-Ilan University held a cornerstone-laying ceremony on Thursday to launch Israel’s first Institute for the Synthesis of Smart Materials… (Read more about the Adelson family’s 2025 donation to sponsor the research hub’s creation here.) 

Jewish Insider looks at Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun's plans as the newly confirmed U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism… 

UJA-Federation of New York, the New York Board of Rabbis and the Anti-Defamation League have pulled out of sponsoring an upcoming interfaith breakfast with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani; the organizations have been sponsors of the annual event, which draws hundreds of faith leaders, for years…

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro condemned a pro-Hamas rally that took place in Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square last weekend, a spokesperson for the governor told Jewish Insider on Thursday…

Columbia University students and faculty held a joint anti-ICE/anti-Israel protest yesterday, blocking the road outside the entrance to the campus on Broadway and 116th Street…

A video created by CAM en Español in response to a musical theater performance that featured antisemitic lyrics during Carnival celebrations in Uruguay’s capital has gone viral…

MetroWest Jewish Day School in Framingham, Mass., will close at the end of the current school year; administrators from the school, which has served the Boston area for more than 20 years, said the decision to close was a financial one…

A North Carolina man who sent threatening antisemitic messages to a Jewish state representative and a rabbi in Georgia was sentenced to five years in prison, the state’s new statutory maximum for hate crimes…

The New York Times spotlights former Washington Post reporter Martin Weil, who worked on the Post’s local news desk for more than 60 years before he was laid off this week among hundreds of other staff members… 

The Associated Press profiles Israel’s first-ever Olympic bobsled team, and The New York Times interviews team captain AJ Edelman about his role in the team’s journey to the Winter Games in Milan. 

Team Israel released its roster for the upcoming World Baseball Classic…

Over 300 people attended the official inauguration of a new Maccabi sports club in Barcelona…

Rachel Roth has been named CEO of American Conference of Cantors…

COURTESY/PRIZMAH

One hundred heads of school met in Houston on Wednesday for an exclusive biennial retreat hosted by Prizmah, a network for Jewish day schools and yeshivas across North America. Presentations covered topics such as addressing affordability, navigating leadership challenges and opportunities, developing artificial intelligence strategies for schools and more. 

SCREENSHOT/EVIATAR BANAI/INSTAGRAM

Popular Israeli musician, singer and songwriter, Eviatar Banai turns 53 on Sunday…

FRIDAY: Israeli pediatric endocrinologist, winner of the 2009 Israel Prize, in 1966 he described the type of dwarfism later called Laron syndrome in his name, Dr. Zvi Laron turns 99… Advertising entrepreneur and founder of Global Water Resources, William Levine turns 94… Member of the New Jersey Senate for 17 years including 10 years as majority leader, Loretta Weinberg turns 91.. Rosalyn Kaplan… Cantor of Congregation Hugat Haverim in Glendale, Calif., Harvey Lee Block… Syndicated columnist for The Washington Post for 43 years (ending in 2019), he had worked at the Post since 1968, Richard Martin Cohen turns 85… Actor, best known for his role in the 172 episodes of the television series “L.A. Law,” Michael Tucker turns 81… Pulitzer Prize-winning author and vice chairman of S&P Global, Daniel Yergin turns 79… Professor at McGill University since 1975, Yitzchak M. "Irv" Binik turns 77… Louisiana commissioner of administration for eight years, after serving as lieutenant governor of Louisiana for the prior six years, Jay Dardenne turns 72… Professor concurrently at both Harvard and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Michael Pollan turns 71… Past chair of the board of UJA-Federation of New York and a part owner of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks, David Lewis Moore… Los Angeles attorney specializing in criminal and civil appeals, Paul Kujawsky… President of Brown University since 2012, Christina Hull Paxson turns 66… Former longtime foreign correspondent for NPR in many capitals including Jerusalem, author of the New York Times bestseller The Geography of Bliss, Eric Weiner turns 63… Special events producer at Ballas Bloom Creative, Jacquelyn Ballas Bloom… NFL long snapper for 18 seasons between 1994-2011, David Aaron Binn turns 54… Television and film actress, writer and producer, best known for her role as Pepper in the FX series "American Horror Story," Naomi Grossman turns 51… Rabbi and author of eight books, Danya Ruttenberg turns 51… Former tenured professor at MIT, she is the co-trustee of the Pershing Square Foundation with her husband, Bill Ackman, Neri Oxman turns 50… Israeli-French singer-songwriter whose hit single "New Soul" was used by Apple in a 2008 advertising campaign for its MacBook Air, Yael Naim turns 48… Equestrian show jumper who competes for Israel, Danielle "Dani" Goldstein-Waldman turns 41… Vice president for national political campaigns and strategy at AIPAC, Stephen Knable… Investigative journalist, his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and many other outlets, he is also a data science manager at EDO, Steven I. Weiss… Deputy director of foreign affairs at the Israeli Ministry of Health, Adam Cutler… Member of the Australian parliament, Joshua Solomon Burns turns 39… Corporate procurement director for IKO North America, Yadin Koschitzky...

SATURDAY: Director of training for the Bulfinch Group, a financial planning firm based in Needham, Mass., Michel R. Scheinmann turns 78… Rabbi emeritus of Beth Tzedec Congregation in Toronto, Baruch Frydman-Kohl turns 75… U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) turns 74… Majority leader of the Illinois House of Representatives, Robyn Gabel turns 73… PFAS practice group leader at Sundance Consultants and part time instructor at Carnegie Mellon University, Rick Wice… American businessman and investor arrested in Bolivia in July 2011 and held for 18 months without charges, freed through public outcry and the efforts of Sean Penn, Jacob Ostreicher turns 67… Actor, humorist, comedian and writer known for his “TV Funhouse” cartoon shorts on “Saturday Night Live,”  Robert Smigel turns 66… President of The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, Dr. David L. Reich turns 66… Baseball columnist for the New York Post and a baseball insider for MLB Network, Jon Heyman turns 65… Director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2020-2023, Alon Ushpiz turns 60… Former professional hockey player who played in 418 regular and post-season games in the NHL spanning 13 seasons, Mike Hartman turns 59… Rabbi at Beth Chai Congregation in Bethesda, Md., and author of nine Jewish children's books and teen novels, Deborah Bodin Cohen… Principal consultant at Saxon Strategies, Jennifer Diamond Haber… Author of 24 fiction and non-fiction books, some of which have been made into feature films, Ben Mezrich turns 57… Executive director of the UJA and JCRC-NY's Community Security Initiative, Mitch Silber turns 56… Israeli actor, model and musician, he played Yonatan Netanyahu in the 2018 film "Entebbe," Angel Bonanni turns 54… Executive director of the Aviv Foundation (Chani and Steve Laufer), Adam Simon… Senior vice president at Material+, Jonathan Weiss… Chassidic singer and recording artist, Shloime Daskal turns 47… Former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Mark Ifraimov turns 45… MLB pitcher from 2005-2017, he played for the Rangers, Cubs, Orioles, Astros, Blue Jays and Reds, he is now an angel investor in the San Francisco area, Scott Feldman turns 43… Professional basketball player in Germany, Italy and Israel, he is now a vice president at Lightspeed Venture Partners in Menlo Park, Calif., Dan Grunfeld turns 42… NFL player for six seasons until 2015, he is now the safeties coach for the Washington Huskies, Taylor Mays turns 38… Senior director of advancement field services for Hillel International, Rachael Fenton… David Israel… Michael Harris...

SUNDAY: Boston attorney, author and podcast host, his 2013 book on Jews and baseball was turned into the 2016 play "Swing, Schmendrick, Swing," Larry Ruttman turns 95… Winner of 25 Emmy Awards as a broadcast journalist, best known as the anchor of ABC's Nightline from its inception in 1980 until his retirement in late 2005, Ted Koppel turns 86… Stage, television and film actor, stand-up comedian and singer, Robert Klein turns 84… Chair of the Morris A. Hazan Family Foundation, Lovee Arum turns 82… Therapist and life coach based in Wake County, N.C., Sheila Kay… Columbus, Ohio-born attorney and president of Schottenstein Legal Services, James Mark Schottenstein turns 79… Former CEO of the Jewish Federation of Northeastern New York (Albany), now an executive coach and nonprofit consultant in Venice, Florida, Rodney Margolis… Village justice in Red Hook, N.Y., Judge Jonah Triebwasser turns 76… CEO of NYC-based Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, owner of more than 12 million square feet of office space and design centers, he also produces films and owns theatres, Charles S. Cohen turns 74… Active private investor and business operator, he is on the board of Tel Aviv University, Marc Lauren Abramowitz turns 73… President of NYC-based BlackRock, the world's largest asset management firm, he is a past chair of the board of UJA-Federation of New York, Robert S. Kapito turns 69… Chief rabbi of the IDF, Brig. Gen. Eyal Moshe Karim turns 69… Senior director of synagogue affiliations and operations for United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Barry S. Mael… Chair of the board of trustees of the Hudson Institute, Sarah May Stern… British businessman and former longtime chairman of the Premier League's Tottenham Hotspur, Daniel Levy turns 64… Former member of the Knesset for the Jewish Home and New Right parties, Shulamit "Shuli" Mualem-Rafaeli turns 61… Chairman of Andell Inc., a private investment firm and family office he controls with his wife, Ellen Bronfman Hauptman, Andrew Hauptman turns 57… Chess grandmaster, then derivatives trader, now a retirement planner, Ilya Mark Gurevich turns 54… Attorney, rabbi and New Jersey political consultant, Benjamin G. Kelsen… Actor and filmmaker, Seth Benjamin Green turns 52… Member of the Knesset for the Labor party until 2021, he is now director-general of the Israeli office of the UJA-Federation of New York, Itzik Shmuli turns 46… Founder of DC-based JTR Strategies, she is the former head of aviation and international affairs at USDOT under President Barack Obama, Jenny Thalheimer Rosenberg… Senior advisor in the office of the Inspector General at USAID, Adam Kaplan… Partner at Sidley Austin, he was previously chief of staff to then-Attorney General Bill Barr, William Ranney Levi… Retired professional ice hockey center for five NHL teams, now a real estate executive, Trevor Smith turns 41… Synchronized swimmer on behalf of Israel at the three Olympic games: 2004 (Athens), 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London), Inna Yoffe turns 38… Yale Law School graduate, she clerked for Judge Marsha S. Berzon on the 9th Circuit and is now a senior attorney at Public Justice, Alexandra Brodsky… Vice president of policy and government affairs for AIPAC, Celia Glassman… Canadian jazz-pop singer-songwriter, who performed at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics, Nicole "Nikki" Rachel Yanofsky turns 32… Pitcher for Team Israel in the 2020 Olympics as well as the 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classics, Jake Layton Fishman turns 31… Associate attorney in the NYC office of Heidell, Pittoni, Murphy & Bach, Samantha Grosinger… Director of global brand and marketing at Olami, Michal Nordmann...