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Good Friday morning! 

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine a new analysis by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy on how the One Big Beautiful Bill is likely to affect charitable giving and report from the Stardust Fertility Foundation’s gala last night in New York City. We feature an opinion piece by Michal Cohen making a case for prioritizing investment in Israel’s North, and one by Rebecca Van Wagner about taking adults without children into consideration in the infrastructure Jewish communal life. Also in this issue: Masua Sagiv, Rabbi Kenneth Brander, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.

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: Squeezed by BDS, Nazarians shift USC endowment to Judaic studies, with HUC antisemitism program; After relaunch, PJ Library’s Get Together microgrant program sees spike in interest; and Netanyahu has less than two weeks to pass a budget — or go to early elections. Print the latest edition here.

Charitable giving is expected to drop by $5.69 billion this year, even as the total number of donors is expected to rise by some 8 million households, in light of changes to the tax code made under the White House’s One Big Beautiful Bill, according to a new analysis by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and the management and consulting firm CCS Fundraising released this week. A similar drop in charitable giving was attributed to the tax cuts that were implemented in 2017 during the first Donald Trump presidency.  

“The Philanthropy Outlook: Estimating Effects on Charitable Giving from the One Big Beautiful Bill” is one of the first reports to examine the effects of the bill. In a conversation with eJewishPhilanthropy, Doug London, a managing director and partner at CCS, and Jackie Nelson, the firm’s vice president of field marketing, expanded upon details beneath the report’s marquee findings, which could have significant ramifications for fundraising professionals, donors and the Jewish nonprofit sector in general.

Since the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, 90% of taxpayers take the standard deduction and only 10% itemize on their taxes, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. The authors of “The Philanthropy Outlook” estimate that the OBBB’s capped universal charitable deduction (UCD) for households that don’t itemize — a $1,000 deduction for individual filers and $2,000 deduction for those married and filing jointly — will both increase the number of households that give and increase total giving by approximately $4.39 billion annually (1.1% of total household giving). Nonprofits could benefit by educating these non-itemizers about the UCD, London and Nelson said. 

At the same time, because only charitable giving that exceeds 0.5% of income can be deducted by households that do itemize, giving by this group is estimated to fall by approximately $2.43 billion (0.6% of total household giving). Additionally, the 35% cap on all deductions for households in the top 37% income tax bracket — including for charitable giving — is estimated to decrease household giving by $6.1 billion (1.6% of total household giving). Finally, the 1% floor on corporate charitable deductions is estimated to decrease total corporate giving by approximately $1.55 billion annually. 

London predicts that with decreased incentive to give, corporate donors will be more likely to spend their money on “things like tables at galas” rather than programming — they’re looking for a certain type of benefit and recognition, he said.

Corporations and high-income households may also choose to “bunch” their gifts to clear their deduction threshold, meaning they could be giving the same amount overall but not giving every year, Nelson explained. This could require organizations to reconsider how they incentivize major gifts fundraisers, who are generally operating on an annual cycle, she said. London also pointed out that without clear communication between donors and development offices, organizations that depend on these donors when planning their annual budgets could face unpredictable influxes and shortfalls. “Organizations should unabashedly ask for mission support, because organizations need it,” London said. 

London and Nelson both discussed the potential of transparency: Development professionals working with wealthy donors can communicate the impact of bunching, and donors can be transparent with their usual recipients about anticipated changes to gift timing, enabling organizations to plan accordingly. “I think it goes back to the need to have relationship-based fundraising,” London said.

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

Early in her fertility journey, hoping to eliminate a problematic genetic match, Jen Leffel and her husband went to get IVF testing. After getting the necessary bloodwork, Leffel discovered that in addition to the match, she had a low ovarian reserve. What was initially expected to be a several-week treatment turned into one lasting several months. Four years ago, that experience morphed into a yearslong journey, when Leffel, along with Alyssa Kolatch and Alex Peyser, co-founded the Stardust Fertility Foundation, a nonprofit providing financial support for Jews in the New York tristate area hoping to start families. “Fast forward, after I was pregnant with my third son, all I could keep thinking was, like, who's helping all these Jewish people have babies that need to do IVF?” Leffel told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim. 

Many babies later: On Thursday night, four years — and 31 babies — later, Stardust hosted its fourth annual gala, drawing 300 well-turned-out people to Chelsea Piers for drinks and dinner. Unlike many Manhattan philanthropy galas, many of the attendees of this candlelit soirée were young children, including some born with the help of the foundation’s grants (the candles were kept on high surfaces). 

Read the full report here.

“This message was supposed to be delivered in person. The Rashi Foundation was planning to attend the 2026 Jewish Funders Network conference in San Diego — to sit across from peers, share what we're seeing on the ground, and have the kinds of conversations that only happen face-to-face. We didn't make it. The situation in Israel made that impossible. So consider this our dispatch from the field,” writes Michal Cohen, CEO of the Rashi Foundation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Overlooked no more: “Long before Hezbollah fired a rocket in the current war, the Galilee faced structural challenges that often plague rural regions everywhere – brain drain, underinvestment, and a quiet exodus of the talented young people every community needs to flourish. It’s a region of enormous potential, held back by decades of neglect and a shortage of the skilled, committed workforce that the modern Zionist economy requires. And since Oct. 7, 2023, the challenges are coming from every direction at once. … This renewed assault creates an existential question for the future of the region. Three factors will determine that answer, after the security question: meaningful employment, robust education and unwavering community resilience. These are foundations of demographic renewal and regional strength.”

Read the full piece here.

“From brit milah to bar mitzvah, wedding to family programming, much of Jewish institutional life is structured around the family structure and children’s growth and education,” writes Rebecca Van Wagner, a senior rabbinical student at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Yonkers, N.Y., and rabbinic intern at Goucher Hillel, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “Too old for the post-college programming, too non-parent for the family offerings and too young for the older-adult options, Jewish adults in their late 30s, 40s and 50s have distinct experiences of identity and belonging, and their needs in these areas warrant attention and support.”

Belonging is an active experience: “In researching the feelings of belonging of Jewish adults ages 35-40 in the Philadelphia Jewish community for my master’s thesis, I found that participants simultaneously felt ‘a part of’ and ‘apart from’ the community. … Some demonstrated confidence in seeking out what they needed; others spoke of the difficulty of entering already-formed circles. Several participants noted that they intentionally seek out environments where they could be known, recognized and valued — spaces where their contributions mattered and their identities were respected. Participants shared a foundational belief that community is essential for Jewish flourishing and that belonging is not a passive condition but something actively experienced, negotiated and cultivated.”

Read the full piece here.

Wisdom of the Heart: In the Jewish Journal, Masua Sagiv reflects on the divide between Jewish Americans and Israelis over the U.S. and Israel’s war with Iran. “I am not trying here to resolve those arguments. I want instead to ask what kind of Jewish posture might allow us to live with them without further tearing the fabric between us. For that, we need what the Torah calls chokhmat lev: wisdom of the heart. … The mind is usually associated with knowledge, the heart with emotion. But wisdom of the heart suggests that true discernment is not only technical or intellectual. It is the ability to understand what another person is carrying – their fear, vulnerability and burden – and to respond without dismissing them. It is neither agreement nor compliance. It is the capacity to let another person’s reality register, even when one remains unconvinced by their conclusions.” [JewishJournal]

Not in Our Name: In The Times of Israel, Avidan Freedman shares his impressions after traveling with other Orthodox Jewish Israelis to visit Arab victims of settler violence. “I saw in their eyes what it feels like to know that, in this place, your blood is hefker, worthless, ownerless. There is no one to protect you, and no way to protect yourself. While most Russian Jews went elsewhere, the early waves of the First and Second Aliyah were made up of Jews who took this feeling with them to Israel (then Palestine), with the dream of building a home where we would not feel this way. Is this part of that dream? Is this what we came here for? To erase our own feelings of helplessness by forcing them onto someone else?” [TOI]

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In The Times of Israel, Rabbi Kenneth Brander of the Ohr Torah Stone network calls on Jewish educators and rabbinic leaders to harshly condemn the rise in extremist violence against Palestinians… 

In a letter to the leaders of the House Appropriations Committee, a bipartisan group of 150 House members asked the committee to provide $1 billion in funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program in 2027, a massive expansion of the program and an unprecedented increase in their request level, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, once an AIPAC donor and board member, criticized the pro-Israel lobby’s heavy spending in Illinois primary races as improper political “interference,” saying the group has strayed from its bipartisan roots…

The New York Times does a postmortem on AIPAC’s spending in the recent Illinois primaries, as the group — and Israel — faces diminishing support from Democrats…

Later this month, the Jewish Family Services of Dallas will be shifting its operations to a new $40 million building, expanding both its floorplan, and offerings…  

The University of California Board of Regents reached a settlement with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights over what Jewish students said was the University of California, Berkeley’s failure to address campus antisemitism; under the terms of the settlement, the school will implement mandatory campus-wide antisemitism and anti-discrimination training, and hire a Title VI coordinator…

Palestinian American author Susan Abulhawa criticized American Jews and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani — who distanced himself and his wife, who illustrated one of Abulhawa’s books, from the author over her numerous antisemitic comments — saying that “Jewish Americans are the most privileged demographic in this country … no terrible words should be spared for these monsters, because they are monsters”...

JCC Chicago — the largest Jewish community center in North America — announced a $20 million naming gift from the Hecktman Family Foundation. The donation established a permanent endowment to expand Jewish programming across Illinois, and the JCC will now be named for the Penny and Jeffrey Hecktman Family…

EMILY ELCONIN FOR TEMPLE ISRAEL/FACEBOOK

A photo display of generations confirmation classes, some of the photographs melted and charred beyond recognition, was among the images included in a Facebook post on Thursday by Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich.

“We have chosen thus far not to make public photos of the devastation of our building,” said the post, published one week after Ayman Mohammad Ghazali crashed a pickup truck packed with fireworks and flammable liquid through the synagogue doors. “This week, several videos and photos have made their way into the media, which have caused considerable harm to the survivors of last week's attack. Today, we are sharing some images taken by our friend, Emily Elconin, to take back control of our narrative. We share these images because our community deserves to see our building through eyes of love, not through the lens of spectacle. This is our sacred space, and we will be the ones to tell its story.”

ASTRID STAWIARZ/GETTY IMAGES FOR WOMEN'S ENEWS

Founder and executive director at WomenStrong International, Susan Morton Blaustein turns 73 on Sunday… 

FRIDAY: Retired consultant on public policy issues to IBM, Ford and Citicorp, among others, he was the chair of the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights, Norman Ira Gelman turns 97… Rabbi and human rights activist, he has served for over 60 years as the senior rabbi of NYC's Park East Synagogue, Arthur Schneier turns 96… Stage and screen actor, television director and musician, best-known role for his role as the title character in the television comedy series "Barney Miller," Hal Linden (born Harold Lipshitz) turns 95… Pioneer of financial futures, he is the chairman emeritus of CME Group (formerly the Chicago Mercantile Exchange), Leo Melamed turns 94… Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences as a geologist and oceanographer, but known popularly as poet and performer, Alexander Gorodnitsky turns 93… Australian award-winning writer of Portuguese Sephardi descent, author of fiction, nonfiction, screenplays and poetry collections, David George Joseph Malouf turns 92… Senior advisor to the family office of Charles Bronfman, he was previously senior vice president and COO of UJA-Federation of New York, Dr. Jeffrey R. Solomon turns 81… Senior lecturer of Talmud at Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Rabbi Tzvi Berkowitz turns 75… Award-winning author of 26 children's books, Louis Sachar turns 72… Owner of Baltimore-based Diamond Point Metals, Jack Zager… Former professional tennis player, Bruce Manson turns 70… Philanthropist, leader in corporate social responsibility, formerly CEO of family-owned Timberland, Jeffrey Swartz turns 66… Retired as Israel's chief of police in 2018 after a 27-year prior career at the Shin Bet, Roni Alsheikh turns 63… Host of “Time Team America,” a PBS program, she also produced and directed a feature-length documentary titled “Our Summer in Tehran,” Justine Shapiro turns 63… Chilean businessman with substantial mining interests, in 2014 he donated seven newly written Sefer Torah scrolls to synagogues on six different continents, Leonardo Farkas turns 59… Former member of the Knesset for the Blue and White alliance, he served as minister of justice, Avraham Daniel “Avi” Nissenkorn turns 59… Journalist, author and lecturer, he is an editor-at-large for Esquire, Arnold Stephen "A.J." Jacobs turns 58… Actor, podcast host, director, comedian and advocate for Israel, Michael Rapaport turns 56… First-ever Jewish mayor of Lansing, Mich., now in his second term, Andy Schor turns 51… Award-winning Israeli actress, her credits include a role in “Fauda,” Netta Garti turns 46… Actor, music video director and writer, he is the son of Dustin Hoffman, Jake Hoffman turns 45… Head of global strategic partner sales within the financial services group at Amazon Web Services, Daniel M. Eckstein… Senior writer and messaging strategist for Apple, Matt Finkelstein… Senior editor of politics, policy and ideas at Vox, Benjamin “Benjy” Sarlin… Director of real estate development for a N.Y.-based hedge fund, Jason Lifton… Comedian, writer and actress who gained popularity through her comedy videos on YouTube, Joanna Hausmann turns 37… NYC-based comedian, his most recent show centers on a meeting of neo-Nazis that he attended incognito in Queens, Alex Edelman turns 37… Talmud teacher and secretary of the committee of Jewish law and standards at the Rabbinical Assembly, Max Buchdahl… Technical program manager at Bugcrowd, Tatiana Uklist turns… Ehud Lazar…

SATURDAY: Rabbi emeritus of Manhattan's Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun and former principal of the Ramaz School, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein turns 94… Harvard professor, biochemist, physicist, molecular biology pioneer and winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Walter Gilbert turns 94… Scholar of Jewish mysticism and a retired dean at the Hebrew College in Boston, Arthur Green turns 85… Far Rockaway, N.Y., resident, Samuel Gross… First Jewish member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire until 2011, he is of counsel to the law firm of Shaheen & Gordon, Paul Hodes turns 75… Former executive director of The Charles Bronfman Prize, Jill Collier Indyk… Chabad rabbi, martial artist and chaplain for 13 years in the Israel Prison Service, Fishel Jacobs turns 70… President of NYC- and Singapore-based KWR International, Keith W. Rabin… Retired director general of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was previously Israel's ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem turns 67… Istanbul-born entrepreneur, hotelier and real estate developer, he is president of NYC-based Alexico Group LLC, Izak Senbahar turns 67… Co-founder of Wynnefield Capital Management, Joshua H. Landes… Award-winning film, stage and television actor and singer whose roles include the title role in “Ferris Bueller's Day Off,” Matthew Broderick turns 64… Israeli rock musician and record producer, he is best known for being the guitarist and one of the songwriters in the rock band Mashina, Shlomi Bracha turns 64… Hedge fund manager, philanthropist and former chairman of the board of the New York City Opera, Roy Niederhoffer turns 60… Partner in the Los Angeles office of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, Michael Blacher… Founding editor of The Dispatch and author of three NYT bestsellers, Jonah Goldberg turns 57… James Beard Foundation Award-winning chef from Miami, Michelle Bernstein turns 56… Emmy Award-winning CNN anchor, John Berman turns 54… IDF general, he is one of the highest-ranking Druze ever in the IDF, Ghassan Alian turns 54… President and founder of Bully Pulpit International, Andrew Bleeker… Stage and voice actress, Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld turns 39… Board member at Shefa: Jewish Psychedelic Support, Hadas Alterman… Staff attorney at Fair Shake Environmental Legal Services in Cleveland, Addison Caruso…

SUNDAY: Professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, E.D. Hirsch turns 98… “Star Trek’s” Captain Kirk, in 2021 he flew to space aboard a Blue Origin sub-orbital capsule, William Shatner turns 95… Born in Iran, twice elected as mayor of Beverly Hills, he is a past president of Sinai Temple, Jamshid "Jimmy" Delshad turns 86… Dentist, born in Tel Aviv and raised in NYC, he practiced in Norwalk, Conn., Murray Bruckel, DDS… Academy Award-winning screenwriter, his work includes "Forrest Gump" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Eric R. Roth turns 81… Israeli viola player and teacher, she has performed as soloist with many orchestras world-wide, Rivka Golani turns 80… Senior principal of the law firm of Neuberger, Quinn, Gielen, Rubin & Gibber, Isaac M. Neuberger turns 79… One of the principal anchors for CNN, Wolf Blitzer turns 78… Aviation and aerospace professional, Mike Orkin… Mayor of the 16th arrondissement of Paris until 2023, now a member of the upper house of the French Parliament, Francis Szpiner turns 72… Popular musical entertainer in the Orthodox Jewish community, his stage name is Avraham Fried, Avraham Shabsi Friedman turns 67… Director of marketing and communications at Dorot, Andrea Glick… Senior vice president and general counsel at Hertz Corporation until 2014, J. Jeffrey Zimmerman… Chabad rabbi in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, he is a frequent guest on “Fox News at Night,” Chaim Mentz… Hedge fund manager, he sold a majority stake in the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning during 2024 but he continues to control the team, Jeffrey N. Vinik turns 67… Retired Israeli basketball player, she is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most points (136) ever scored in a women's professional game, Anat Draigor turns 66… Author, journalist, soldier and award-winning defense correspondent who has covered Israel and the Middle East, Arieh O'Sullivan turns 65… Journalist and author, Debra Nussbaum Cohen… Head of real estate for Mansueto Office, Ari Glass… Member of the U.K. Parliament until 2024 as a member of the British Conservative Party, Robert Halfon turns 57… Partner at Mercury Public Affairs, Jonathan Greenspun… SVP at HCA Healthcare, Jeff E. Cohen… Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, she is a member of Adas Israel, a Conservative Washington synagogue, Judge Neomi Rao turns 53… Internet celebrity, pizza reviewer, blogger and founder of Barstool Sports, David Portnoy turns 49… Visuals editor at The City (dedicated to in-depth local reporting in NYC) and adjunct professor at CUNY, Ben Fractenberg… VP of communications and public policy at Antora Energy, Adam Perecman Frankel… Founder and CEO of beauty and cosmetic firms Into The Gloss and Glossier, Emily Weiss… Creator of the Yehi Ohr program at Jewish Community Services of South Florida, now a real estate agent, Zisa Levin… Retired MLB first baseman after seven seasons, he starred for Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, Isaac Benjamin "Ike" Davis turns 39… Communications director for then-Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), Sarah Alice Frank Feldman… Energy policy and climate change reporter for Politico, Joshua Adam Siegel… Director of the Dan David Prize (an international award headquartered at Tel Aviv University), Charlotte Hallé… Director of communications at the U.K.'s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, James Sorene… Beatrice Stein...