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Good Friday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Iranian Jewish leaders in the United States about their hopes, fears and recommendations as the war against Iran approaches its second week. We spotlight an initiative connecting Ukrainian JCCs with those abroad, and speak with colleagues and relatives of Hebrew Union College’s pioneering Rabbi Andrea Weiss, who died this week at 60. We feature an opinion piece by Rabbi Yehuda Maryles that reframes gap-year programs from luxury items to an investment in the foundation of young Jews, and one by Rabbi Sid Schwarz about protecting the rights of those seeking or already granted asylum in the United States. Also in this issue: Noam Bettan, Zaki Djemal and Batia Ofer. 

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: American Jewry ‘Un‑Conference’ offers concrete plans for Jewish leaders to create new ‘golden era’; Iranian Jews in U.S. hope for a better future for their former homeland, fear regime survival; and Trump posthumously honors WWII Sgt. Roddie Edmonds for saving American Jews. Print the latest edition here.

With the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran now approaching its second week, many in the Iranian Diaspora community view the conflict as the culmination of nearly 50 years of hope for change. But with the ever-present memory of the regime’s brutal crackdowns — the stakes are high, particularly for its Jewish community and other minority groups. As the war continues, many diaspora Persians hope that this could be the moment that the regime finally topples, and worry about what happens if it doesn’t, report eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim and Jay Deitcher. 

"The most powerful guy in Iran died, so you cannot imagine what [the Islamic Republic is] going to do,” said Amir, an Iranian Jew who was granted refugee status in the United States slightly over a year ago and whose family still resides in Iran, referring to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who was killed last Saturday. “You cannot imagine what is going to be the reaction of the Muslims. Everything is possible.” If Iran is unable to target Israel, "they're gonna attack the Jews in Iran, because they are kind of hostages," he said. (To protect his family, Amir requested the use of a pseudonym.) 

Even laced with unease and uncertainty, this is primarily a moment of hope for the Persian Jewish community, according to Sharon Nazarian, vice chair of the board of directors of the Anti-Defamation League. And the broader Persian community, she said, is on the same page. “There's a lot of complexities [in the current war]. There's a lot of questions about what comes after. There's a lot of worry and concern about what tomorrow brings. All of that is a given, said Nazarian. “But the question of whether this regime should be toppled or should it be allowed to continue to strangle its own people, to bring havoc to the region and literally, the world, none of us are questioning that.”

While some leaders told eJP that materially supporting Iranians in Iran is beyond the reach of Jewish nonprofits and philanthropists, others believe the Jewish philanthropic world could play a part in transitioning the country to, hopefully, a more Jew-friendly tomorrow, one that is a close ally to the United States and Israel. 

“When [the Ayatollah was killed] we were all really excited, and now it's just setting in that, how far is this going to go?” Rabbi Tarlan Rabizadeh, vice president for Jewish engagement at American Jewish University, told eJP. “Are we going to actually be able to topple the regime? Is the administration going to keep moving forward? Or are they going to feel pressure from some of the American people internally, and Trump will say, ‘OK, let's make a deal. Let's not keep going.’ So that's kind of the feeling we're constantly feeling. It's almost like one of your relatives [is] in surgery, and you're sitting in the waiting room.”

Read the full report here.

Despite power shortages, lack of heating and destroyed infrastructure, Ukrainian participants in the JCC Global’s “Good to Great” program continue to show up for their regular monthly Zoom calls with their international partners, wrapped in blankets but eager to connect with other Jewish communities as the war in Ukraine has entered its fourth year. Launched in late 2024 in response to the continuing hostilities, the Good to Great program connects JCCs from Ukraine with counterparts in North America, Israel, Europe and Latin America supported by the Jewish Federations of North America reports Judith Sudilovsky for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Outside help: The idea for the program was first proposed some three years ago, with the goal of helping rejuvenate the Ukrainian Jewish community after the war. No one could have imagined then that the war would still be raging four years later, said Smadar Bar-Akiva, JCC Global executive director. “It became really like an existential need for them to connect with other communities,” she said. “It's four years into the war. In the last few weeks and months, we've seen a terrible situation in Ukraine. They have electricity [only] a few hours a day. Sometimes they don't have water, sometimes they don't have heating, so the situation deteriorated. This program has become their connection to the outside world, which at times feels like it has forgotten them.”

Read the full report here.

Rabbi Andrea Weiss, the first woman to ordain Reform rabbis and cantors, died on Tuesday at her home in Lower Merion, Pa., after a battle with lung cancer, a loss described by Reform movement leaders as “enormous.” She was 60. Weiss, a pioneer in the Reform movement, remains to this day one of the few female rabbis to have ordained Jewish clergy. She served for more than two decades as a professor of Bible, and later provost, of the movement’s flagship seminary, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where she was ordained in 1993, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy.

To know is to love: “If you knew Rabbi Dr. Andrea Weiss, z”l, then you loved her,” wrote Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the movement’s North American congregational arm. “Brilliant, kind, wise, and open only begin to describe this remarkable human. A generation of rabbis, cantors and educators were blessed to study [the] Hebrew Bible with her.” Her legacy extends beyond professional Jewish communal work, Weiss’ daughter, Rebecca Tauber, told eJP. “She could do everything,” said Tauber, a staff editor at The Athletic. “She would spend all day teaching and then she would cook us a homemade, very good meal for dinner and then she’d go back to her desk and work on a book introduction or a sermon and then she’d sit down with me and edit my high school English paper.” 

Read the full obituary here.

“Too many Jewish teens graduate high school with an emotional connection to Judaism but without Jewish literacy. They care about being Jewish, but cannot explain why. They feel pride, but lack historical fluency. They want to stand up for Israel, but have never deeply examined its history or their own relationship to it. And when identity without substance meets scrutiny, it shrinks,” writes Rabbi Yehuda Maryles, North America director of Olami Launch, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “If we want Jewish students to stand tall in contested spaces, they must first stand firmly in their own understanding.”

An upstream investment: “A post-high school gap year in Israel is not simply experiential travel. It is immersive formation, living within Jewish society and engaging deeply with Jewish history and contemporary moral complexity while building peer networks rooted in shared commitment. … Philanthropy has demonstrated its ability to mobilize in moments of crisis. The greater opportunity is to invest before crisis, strengthening Jewish literacy, resilience and conviction before Jewish identity is tested.”

Read the full piece here.

“My father left his family in Berlin in 1938 and sailed to the U.S. at age 16 on the last successful voyage of the St. Louis. A few years later, he returned to Europe in a U.S. Army uniform to help defeat the Nazis in World War II,” writes Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Md., and director of the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “I owe my life to an America that did not turn its back on a refugee, my father.”

Take a stand: “For decades, people fleeing persecution in their home countries could ask for protection at the border, be processed by U.S. officials and then have an asylum officer or immigration judge rule on their case based on whether the evidence presented showed that they were in danger of persecution or violence. … In the Book of Exodus, we read: ‘You shall not oppress the stranger for you were once strangers in the land of Egypt.’ America can never be ‘great’ as long as we demean, deport and close our doors to ‘the huddled masses yearning to be free.’ We must demand that our elected officials reclaim the spirit of welcome and compassion symbolized by the Statue of Liberty.”

Read the full piece here.

Overlooked Middle: In Capital Research, Michael E. Hartmann reviews Karl Zinsmeister’s book Sweet Charity: Why private giving is so important to America (and must not be wrecked by politics). “[Zinsmeister] notes that ‘liberals — with their visceral attraction to state-driven “change” — have been more willing to squeeze and shape charitable giving for political ends.’ Among critics of philanthropy, though, he thinks there’s a cross-ideologically mistaken analysis. ‘[C]ritics of left and right all make one massive misdiagnosis — which is to paint U.S. philanthropy as primarily a game of national manipulation played by “the billionaire boys” club.’ … It is continuous giving by more than a hundred million generous and sensible everyday Americans that constitutes the main branch of U.S. charity. Most of their donating is invisible and unappreciated because it takes place out of sight, beneath the visible surface, beyond the media glare, in small gifts. That’s middle-America in action, and it’s much larger than the attempted culture capture by woke tycoons and corporations.” [CapitalResearch]

More Pressure, Please: In The Chronicle of Philanthropy, Craig Kennedy advises that more aggressive media and government scrutiny, not new laws, is the way to curb the use of charitable dollars for political ends. “If funders and grantees on the left and right are fearful of being investigated by highly motivated journalists or hauled before an antagonistic congressional panel, they may be more cautious when undertaking projects that seek to shape public policy or influence the outcome of elections. … Negative attention can also disrupt the flow of charitable dollars to institutions under scrutiny as donors ponder the wisdom of supporting politically controversial causes. Wealthy individuals who still have active businesses may be especially cautious if they think that their charitable activities might disturb their livelihoods.” [ChronicleofPhilanthropy]

In 1492, the Alhambra Decree ordered the expulsion of Jews from Spain unless they converted to Christianity. Join Spertus Institute’s next free online session as Dr. Shai Zamir will examine how some baptized Jews observed Jewish traditions in secret, under the constant scrutiny of the Inquisition. Tuesday, Mar. 10, 12:30-1:30 CDT (on Zoom). Register here. 

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

Since the joint U.S.-Israeli operation against Iran began last Saturday, Jewish communities worldwide have seen an increase in threats and harassment — including a 95% rise in violent online posts targeting Jews, according to a new report from the Secure Community Network, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports… 

Far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson’s latest extreme rhetoric took aim at the Chabad Lubavitch movement, with sweeping conspiratorial language accusing the Hasidic sect of seeking to start a “religious war” amid the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. Carlson argued in an episode of his show that dropped late Wednesday night that Jews see the war against Iran as an opportunity to feud with Islam and to target Christians, with plans to destroy al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and build the Third Temple on top of their ruins…

Authorities in London arrested four men suspected of spying on British Jewish institutions on behalf of Iran… 

Following the advancement of the so-called “Farm Bill” through the House’s Agriculture Committee earlier this week, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger calls for Congress to do more to address hunger with the legislation…

Israel released the video “Michelle,” by singer Noam Bettan, for its official Eurovision Song Contest…

In a Times of Israel opinion piece, Attorney and author Menachem Z. Rosensaft warns that a conference scheduled today at the CUNY Graduate Center, titled “Palestinian history between past and present,” will amount to “anti-Zionism on steroids”...

Inside Philanthropy examines the recent growth in the number of 501(c)4 organizations that have been established by billionaire donors…

The Young Men’s and Women’s Hebrew Association of Washington Heights and Inwood in Manhattan will pay $100,200 as part of a settlement with a former Christian employee, who claimed that they had been subjected to religious discrimination…

The Jewish News Syndicate assesses that AIPAC and other pro-Israel political action committees have amassed more than $100 million for this year’s midterm elections…

The website for the Combined Federal Campaign, which encouraged and tracked charitable donations from government workers, shut down this week, which may indicate plans to close the entire program…

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency looks at how the arson attack that severely damaged Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Miss., affected the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life, which operates out of the same building…

Zaki Djemal, founder of the Fresh.Fund VC firm, a former head of North American operations for IsraAid and backer of the Israeli Gay Youth nonprofit, died suddenly this week at 38…

COURTESY

Israeli arts patron and philanthropist Batia Ofer shakes hands on Monday with King Felipe VI of Spain in Madrid after she received the Callia Foundation’s International Patronage Award, “in recognition of her outstanding commitment to the arts,” the Madrid-based foundation said. 

With her husband, Idan, Ofer, who serves as Chair of the Royal Academy Trust in the United Kingdom, supports a wide array of arts-related causes, including funding the Art Department at the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. The Ofers also founded the nonprofit Art of Wishes, which has raised some $22 million to fulfill the wishes of children with complex illnesses. 

“During the meeting, the king thanked Ofer for her efforts to make art accessible to the general public and for her broad philanthropic activity in the field,” a spokesperson for the Ofers told eJewishPhilanthropy. 

SCREENSHOT/JERUSALEM CENTER

Writer, lecturer and professor emeritus of Jewish communal service at HUC-JIR, Steven Windmueller turns 84… 

FRIDAY: Former chairman of the Federal Reserve for 18 years, Alan Greenspan turns 100… Television personality, author and libertarian pundit, John Stossel turns 79… Musical theater lyricist and composer, Stephen Schwartz turns 78… Member of the New York state Senate since 2018, Shelley Mayer turns 74… Actor, comedian and sports show host, Tom Arnold turns 67… Aliza Tendler… Senior leadership development manager at Momentum Unlimited (formerly known as Jewish Women's Renaissance Project), Judy Victor… Israeli swimmer who competed in several Summer Olympics, he is the founder of a sports ticketing and travel company, Yoav Bruck turns 54… Founder of Talenti Gelato & Sorbetto, which he sold to Unilever in 2014, he has since co-founded Iris Brands, Joshua Hochschuler turns 53… Head of innovation communication at Bloomberg LP, Chaim Haas turns 51… VP of philanthropic services at NYC-based Jewish Communal Fund, Michelle Lebowits… Former quarterback who played on six NFL teams, he is a member of the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, Sage Rosenfels turns 48… Israeli journalist and author of the book Revolt: The Worldwide Uprising Against Globalization, Nadav Asher Eyal turns 47… Managing director at Berkshire Partners, he was deputy chief of staff for former President George W. Bush, Blake L. Gottesman turns 46… Fourth-generation developer, owner, and operator of commercial real estate throughout the eastern U.S., Daniel Klein turns 45… Natalie Lazaroff… Israeli fashion model who has appeared in international campaigns for many worldwide brands, Esti Ginzburg turns 36… Associate at Freedman Normand Friedland, Riley Clafton… Film actor, he finished in second place on Season 27 of “Dancing with the Stars,” Milo Manheim turns 25… Sandra Brown… Freelance journalist and eJewishPhilanthropy contributor, Rachel Gutman…

SATURDAY: Nationally syndicated columnist for The Washington Times from 1984-2019, Suzanne Bregman Fields, Ph.D. turns 90… Former bureau chief for the Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur, New Delhi, London and Tokyo, now a journalism educator at George Washington University, Myron Belkind turns 86… Former chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company from 1984-2005, Michael Eisner turns 84… Geneticist and 2017 Nobel Prize laureate in Medicine, Michael Rosbash turns 82… Member of the Knesset for the Meretz party between 1992-1996, Binyamin "Benny" Temkin turns 81… Retired media executive, Ruth Barbara Jarmul… Chair emeritus and retired general trust counsel of Fiduciary Trust International, Gail Ehrlich Cohen… Award-winning freelance journalist, author and adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Anne Farris Rosen turns 70… Member of the House of Lords and longtime chair of the British Legal Friends of Hebrew University, Lord David Philip Pannick turns 70… Executive director of Academic Exchange, promoting understanding of the Middle East within the international academic community, Rabbi Nachum Braverman turns 68… Democratic political strategist, now the director of finance at Four Directions, Lewis H. Cohen… Professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, Yitzhak Yohanan Melamed turns 58… Academy Award-winning actress, Rachel Weisz turns 56… VP at NBC News and an adjunct professor of journalism at American U, Matt Glassman… Executive director of the Women's League for Conservative Judaism, Rabbi Ellen Wolintz-Fields… Administrative law judge at the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, Michael Tobman… President of the Council of Jewish Organizations Staten Island and EVP of the Rabbinical Alliance of America, Menachem "Mendy" Mirocznik turns 53… Consul general of Israel to the U.S. Midwest, Elad Strohmayer turns 45… Television news anchor and author of five best-selling finance guides, Nicole Lapin turns 42… Israeli actress and singer, Ester Rada turns 41… Author, popular science writer, spaceflight historian, YouTuber and podcaster, best known for writing Breaking the Chains of Gravity, Amy Shira Teitel turns 40… Climate deals reporter at Axios Pro, Alan Neuhauser… Attorney in Reno, Nev., Sasha Ahuva Farahi… President of Every Minute Communications, a women's sports marketing consultancy, Rachel Zuckerman… Senior vice president of communications at AIPAC, Cory Meyer… Comedian, actress, and screenwriter, known professionally as Sarah Squirm, now a regular on “Saturday Night Live,” Sarah Sherman turns 33… Jake Hirth… Yaakov Spira…

SUNDAY: Jazz pianist, composer, organist, arranger and music director, Dick Hyman turns 99… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (D-CA-47) from 2013-2023, Alan Stuart Lowenthal turns 85… Chair of the U.K.'s Office of Communications, Baron Michael Grade (family name Winogradsky) turns 83… Judaism and Science blogger, he is a retired attorney at Seyfarth Shaw, Roger L. Price turns 82… Lyricist, singer, songwriter and New York Times best-selling author, Carole Bayer Sager turns 79… Licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Mona Fishbane… Senior Fellow on national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, Alan Makovsky turns 76… Brenda Krantz… Former chair and CEO of MGM, he is now vice chair of DraftKings, Harry Evans Sloan turns 76… Public affairs producer and weekend assignment editor at KDKA News in Pittsburgh, Aviva Jayne Radbord… Former governor of Virginia and later U.S. senator, George Allen turns 74… Retired in 2016 after 29 years as the executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester N.Y., Larry Fine… Host and managing editor of the WNYC radio program "On the Media," which is syndicated nationwide to over 400 public radio outlets, Brooke Gladstone turns 71… Director of training and operations at Consilium Group, Bunny Silverman Fisher… President of the World Bank Group until 2023, he served as under secretary of the U.S. Treasury in the Trump 45 administration, David Malpass turns 70… DC-based labor and employment attorney at Bredhoff & Kaiser, Bruce R. Lerner… Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning actress, Camryn Manheim turns 65… Founder and CEO of 32 Advisors, LLC (advising on infrastructure), he was previously president of UBS Investment Bank, Robert Wolf turns 64… VP of talent acquisition at Sageview Consulting, specializing in placements at Jewish federations and nonprofits, Colorado Springs, Colo., resident, Carin Maher… VP for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Evan A. Feigenbaum turns 57… Incoming board chair of Hillel International and board chair of Jewish Federation of Broward County (Fla.), Doug Berman… Director of external affairs at Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, Zack Fink… Member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2017 (D-NJ-5), Joshua S. Gottheimer turns 51… Director of communications and membership at the National Communications Association, Alexis C. Rice… Executive director of Masbia, a soup kitchen based in Brooklyn and Queens that serves over 2 million meals per year, Alexander Rapaport turns 48… Social software creator, he was an early designer at Facebook and co-created the "Like" button, Jared Morgenstern turns 45… Director at PJT CamberView, Eric Louis Sumberg… Founder and CEO of Delta Flow Solutions and GlueLetter newsletter analytics, Jeff Sonderman… Actress best known as the perky store manager Lily Adams in AT&T commercials, Milana Vayntrub turns 39… Manager of health policy at the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare, David Streeter… Five-time BMI Songwriter of the Year award winner, known professionally as Benny Blanco, Benjamin Joseph Levin turns 38… Associate attorney at NYC's Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello, Nathaniel Jacob Sobel… Program analyst at Mathematica Policy Research, Karen Katz… Director of government affairs and corporate citizenship in the Washington office of PepsiCo, Taylor Jaye Lustig… Founder of Finally Get Your Book Done, Amanda Helen Botfeld… Tennis player, she has won 11 singles and 17 doubles titles on the ITF Women's Circuit, Jamie Loeb turns 31… Strategy and operations for integrated marketing communications at Ford Motor Company, Alexa “Lexi” Chavin… Special assistant at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Miriam Applbaum...