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Good Tuesday morning! 

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on a $3 million grant from the Marcus Foundation to the Jewish Fertility Foundation amid a spike in demand, and on a new endowment by Zach and Max Bruch for trips to Poland for young Jewish adults. We also examine a new poll showing that American Jews are split on the efficacy of Israel-related political advocacy. We feature an opinion piece by Orly Gal spotlighting how to better help Holocaust survivors and other elderly people in Israel during times of conflict; and Or Caduri illustrates an approach to addressing ideological tensions in the workplace. Also in this issue: Justin Hayet, Dianne Taube and Adrienne Petrook.

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As demand for its in vitro fertilization grants has spiked in recent years, the Atlanta-based Jewish Fertility Foundation has received a $3 million grant from the Marcus Foundation, the largest single gift in the fertility treatment funder’s history, Elana Frank, founding CEO of JFF, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.

The funding from the Atlanta-based Marcus Foundation, a longtime donor to JFF, will primarily go towards the “less sexy stuff,” Frank said, such as employee salaries, benefits, professional development, academic research and marketing expenses.

“We always have relied on the Marcus Foundation to pay for the less sexy stuff. They've been instrumental in helping to offset the cost of salary and benefits and professional development,” Frank told eJP. “At the end of the day, they want to see more Jewish babies, and so they're helping us with increasing our fertility grant allocations, and other things that we're going to be doing.”

JFF, which was launched in 2015, is currently experiencing its third “spike” in demand for IVF grants in the last few years, Frank said. The first followed the Oct. 7 terror attacks, as some Jewish couples sought to expand their families in response. A second came last year after federal layoffs buffeted government workers, some of whom were in the process of IVF treatment. This third spike has been more sustained, said Frank, who attributed it to both growing awareness of the foundation within the Jewish community and an increase in those using assisted reproductive technology overall.

The grant also comes as JFF, supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, pilots a program to give grants of between $20,000-$25,000 to offset the cost of gestational surrogacy for LGBTQ+ Jewish families, and others who require surrogates to start families.

JFF’s existing model has been to fund fertility treatment through local donors and partnerships with clinics within its 10 locations nationwide. With the $3 million gift coming as the organization faces increased demand, some of the grant will also be allocated towards creating a “national pot of money” to serve those who need grants independent of the donor base in an individual city, said Frank. 

Read the full report here.

Ahead of Yom HaShoah, technology entrepreneurs and brothers Zach and Max Bruch, who co-founded the online gambling site MyPrize, have donated a $360,000 endowment to Olami Manhattan, funding its annual Poland trip for young Jewish adults, which will be renamed the Bruch Family Foundation Poland Trip, the organization told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher. 

Return on investment: The relationship between Olami, the Jewish engagement organization, and the Bruch brothers began when Max’s rabbi at the University of Michigan introduced him to Rabbi Avi Blachman, director of education for Olami Manhattan. Since then, Max and Blachman have met weekly, studying Jewish philosophy and holidays.“I met a guy [who’s] very much devoted to his Jewish connection,” Blachman said. When Max was told he was going to be honored with the organization’s Young Leadership Award at this year’s Olami Manhattan Gala, held in March at Manhattan’s One State Street Plaza, he told the rabbi, “We're going to give this big, big donation because we want to make sure that people would be inspired to give.”

Read the full report here.

A recently conducted survey assessing how Jewish voters view leading Israel advocacy groups finds that public opinion is divided over the effectiveness of outside engagement in American elections, reports Josh Kraushaar for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider. The Mellman Group poll, commissioned by the Jewish Electorate Institute and released last week, surveyed 800 registered Jewish voters between March 13-23. 

Survey says: It found a narrow 39% plurality agreed that it “was more important than ever” for pro-Israel groups to play a leading role in speaking out against candidates who oppose a close U.S.-Israel alliance, while 37% of respondents feared that such advocacy risks making things worse. The split largely was along partisan lines: While two-thirds of Jewish Republicans and 59% of Jewish independents backed strong pro-Israel political advocacy, just 28% of Democrats shared the same view. A near-majority (46%) of Democrats feared that pro-Israel electioneering could turn voters against Israel. 

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

“Israel once again finds itself under fire, and much of the public conversation is rightly focused on children, families and young soldiers. They are our future, and in times of crisis it is both natural and necessary to direct attention and resources toward protecting tomorrow,” writes Col. (res.) Orly Gal, CEO of Amcha, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. At the same time, a society “is measured not only by how it invests in its future, but by how it cares for those who have carried its past.”

The survivor experience: “For many older adults, the sirens, explosions and sudden need to evacuate are not simply present-day events. They are direct triggers of deeply embedded traumatic memories. … The question is not only what role older adults play in the recovery of society, nor only what the cost of neglecting them might be. It is whether their lives and their suffering are recognized as deserving of attention in their own right.”

Read the full piece here.

“In Jewish organizations today — day schools, synagogues, federations, nonprofits — the default response to Israel-related tensions, antisemitism flare-ups and political polarization is often the same: ‘Let’s bring in “difficult conversations” training,’” writes educator and consultant Or Caduri in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. “It’s not a bad idea. These programs can teach valuable skills — active listening, ‘I’ statements, suspending judgment. Many teams feel better after the workshop. For a short while. But too often, the underlying tensions don’t disappear — they simply go underground.” 

The missing element: “Neutralizing political and ideological tensions in the workplace takes more than better dialogue skills. It requires clarity of purpose — relentlessly returning to the organization’s core mission — coupled with clear boundaries, specifically, the courage to set and enforce them with kindness.”

Read the full piece here.

What We Owe Them: In an opinion piece for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, genocide law expert Menachem Z. Rosensaft shares his most personal connection to the Holocaust. “My grandparents and my 5-year-old brother were murdered in an Auschwitz gas chamber because they were Jews. Their memory inspires and compels me to do everything in my power to prevent their fate from befalling anyone else, whether Jewish, Muslim, Tutsi, Rohingya, Uyghurs, Roma or members of any other targeted group. … The Jews murdered in the Holocaust were more than just 6 million individuals. Together they constituted a glorious civilization that was annihilated. We cannot save any of them or bring them back to life, but by remembering them on Yom HaShoah and throughout the year, we ensure that they and the many worlds they represented remain an integral part of our collective consciousness.” [JTA]

The Memory Mirage: In The Times of Israel, Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler confronts the intersection of memory and manipulation, arguing that the rise of generative AI threatens to dissolve the very foundation of historical truth and, with it, memory. "We must ask ourselves what Holocaust memory will look like in an era in which the very ability to distinguish between testimony and its artificial fabrication is being undermined. Historical memory does not exist only through stories, but first and foremost through the capacity to distinguish between truth and fiction. When that capacity erodes, memory itself becomes vulnerable. This is not because there are no witnesses, but because there is no clear criterion for what counts as testimony. In a world where every image can be rendered with near-perfect accuracy, every voice can be reconstructed, and every story can be reassembled, truth loses its advantage and becomes just one possibility among many. [TOI] 

Tacit Approval: In The Free Press, Haviv Rettig Gur dives into the history, internal cleavages and political alliances of Israel’s settler movement, untangling the nuances and optics of a deepening crisis. “Though it is true that these extremists make up a tiny fraction of the settlement movement, the silent majority is not without blame. …. In part, this tolerance flows from a profound psychological shift pollsters have repeatedly measured among Israelis (and a parallel one among Palestinians) after October 7: a sense that the Palestinian political world has only ever offered them violence and brutality, so there’s little point in cracking down on the violent elements in their own camp. Why undertake internal dissension for a Palestinian entity that offers Israeli Jews only neverending death and war? This isn’t agreement with the violence, but it’s nevertheless a kind of embittered shrug that enables the problem to grow and intensify." [TheFreePress]

Israel is an integral part of Jewish identity and education. Yet, conversations within Jewish educational settings about Israel often surface profound disagreements or are avoided altogether. Spertus Institute’s 2026 Critical Conversations will focus on why these conversations are so difficult and how we can teach, learn, and lead around Israel. Monday, May 11, 12:00-1:30 p.m. CDT (on Zoom).Register for this free online event.

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President Donald Trump signed a bill extending the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act, which will make it easier for the descendants of Holocaust survivors and victims whose art was looted by the Nazis to recover the works; the legislation passed the House of Representatives last month and the Senate in December…

The National Concert Hall in Dublin abruptly canceled a planned fundraiser for Magen David Adom, saying that the venue “does not host political events”...

In the wake of Péter Magyar’s victory against Viktor Orbán in Hungary’s recent election, Haaretz explores the dual sense of hope for democratic renewal and anxiety over shifting security policies towards Israel and Hungarian Jews… 

“The Pitt” actor Noah Wyle, whose father was Jewish, talked to the U.K.’s Jewish Chronicle about his time on the show and his first experience playing a Jewish character…

Ynet reports on a collection of over 20 rare drawings by French Resistance fighter Marcel Roux, depicting the atrocities of the Langenstein-Zwieberge concentration camp, that has been revealed for the first time at Manhattan University after being found in a private New York home… 

Former Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot and his wife, Rebecca, announced on the six-month anniversary of Bohbot’s release from Gaza that they are expecting their second child…

Facing declining enrollment and a substantial tax increase on private schools, Immanuel College, London’s only Jewish private day school, announced it will close its doors this summer after 35 years… 

Low-cost carrier Wizz Air canceled plans to restart flights to Ben Gurion Airport on April 25 and said it now plans to resume flights on May 4… 

Israeli VC Fund Iron Nation, which was founded following the Oct. 7 terror attacks with the goal of supporting Israeli startups affected by the war, announced a new $60 million fund...

Robin Hood inked a lease on a 53,000-square-foot building near Union Square in New York City…

A-list Hollywood stars and directors alike voice public opposition to Paramount pending deal with Warner Brothers Discovery… 

Arthur Schechter, prominent Houston attorney, philanthropist and former U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas, died at 86…

Justin Hayet is joining eJewishPhilanthropy as its first Israel editor… 

The California-based Taube Philanthropies named Dianne Taube as its next chair and chief executive officer..

David Kurzmann joined Shalom Hartman Institute of North America as its new managing director of regional funder engagement 

Aaron Melman was hired by AIPAC to serve as a director in Chicago… 

Dan Fleischman was appointed president and CEO of Jewish Family Services of Milwaukee... 

Israel-based Hanna Schlager takes on a new role at UJA-New York of New York as its director of donor Israel experiences…

NIRA DAYANIM/EJEWISHPHILANTHROPY

Some 40 people crowd into Caffe Aronne on New York City’s Upper East Side yesterday to hear Holocaust survivor Adrienne Petrook share her family’s story on Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. 

The event, titled “Sip & Listen,” was part of a three-part pilot series co-sponsored by the Yad Vashem USA Foundation and The Blue Card to create more interactions between young people and survivors as awareness of the Holocaust decreases among younger generations, a spokesperson for the initiative told eJewishPhilanthropy.

JESSE GRANT/VARIETY VIA GETTY IMAGES

Film, television and theater producer, his credits include the widely acclaimed 2016 film "La La Land," Marc Platt turns 69... 

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