In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we consider the importance of in-person experiences in building Jewish identity. We spotlight Seed the Dream Foundation’s role in helping to fund and build out Maccabi USA’s Israel Connection program, and report on New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s meeting with rabbinical leadership. We feature an opinion piece by Marshall Einhorn urging funders, federations and other Jewish organizations to take sports engagement more seriously as a tool for deep Jewish connection, and a piece by Jamie Simon continues our preview of essays from the latest edition of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education’s Peoplehood Papers series, “Cultivating Jewish Peoplehood at Camp,” produced in partnership with the Foundation for Jewish Camp; plus Keren R. McGinity spotlights a need for programming to support a more egalitarian approach to nurturing Jewish identity at home, particularly in intermarried households. 

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What We're Watching

The Mamram Alumni Association, which unites veterans of the Israel Defense Forces’ elite computing unit, will host an invitation-only founders meetup  today at Google in Tel Aviv, featuring a fireside panel with Israeli Mapped in New York’s Guy Franklin.

Jewish relief groups are beginning to provide emergency response services following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck western Colombia earlier this week…

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD FROM eJP'S JUDAH ARI GROSS

Face time isn't just an app on your phone -- it's a recipe for forging Jewish identity. Each in its own way, the news stories and opinion pieces making up today’s edition of Your Daily Phil demonstrate a profound, if somewhat banal, truth about the creation and reinforcement of Jewish identity: There is no substitute for significant in-person experiences. 

Lost in the shuffle in the debates about social media campaigns, the fights about effective messaging, the rise of artificial intelligence and internal ideological squabbles is the simple fact that study after study has shown that the more time that Jews spend with other Jews, the deeper their connection to their Jewish identity and the Jewish People will be.

This is clearest with Jewish day schools — it’s hard to beat roughly seven hours a day, five days a week, for 13 years. But, as the articles below argue, things like family life, sports, Israel travel and summer camps can do some heavy lifting as well.

Read the rest of ‘What You Should Know’ →

News

GOOD SPORT

When Marcy Gringlas and Joel Greenberg’s youngest child, Ellie, competed at the Maccabiah Games in Israel, Gringlas noticed that while some athletes stayed for a few days of touring, many flew home almost as soon as the medals were handed out. “We saw an unbelievable window and opportunity to build and deepen the connection these kids have to Israel,” Gringlas told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet. That revelation led to the creation of Israel Connect, a weeklong extension of the Games, allowing participants a chance to tour the country and interact with their peers off the court.

Planting a seed: “There's something really beautiful happening with this cohort of athletes coming together from around the world in Israel," Gringlas said. "That was the seed we started in 2017, and we've done it three times over the last nine years — each time learning and improving and listening to what the kids are saying, but also understanding that we're dealing with the realities of what's happening in Israel right now.”

Read the full report →

TRUST, BUT VERIFY

A roundtable with New York City rabbis held at City Hall on Monday gave participants a chance to voice growing concerns about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s Israel rhetoric they felt had before gone unheard — with several attendees saying that the strong collective message, and Mamdani’s reaction, gave them hope he would change tack, report Will Bredderman and Matthew Kassel for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Airing concerns: Howard Wolfson, a longtime advisor to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said that he was “glad” Mamdani had heard the feedback from Jewish leaders, but argued that “action, not just talk,” would help “create the conditions for a new relationship.” Wolfson added: “A good start would be to stop referring to American orgs that represent many Jews as monsters.”

Read the full report →

Opinion

A WINNING APPROACH

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Marshall Einhorn, CEO of Maccabi USA, reflects on the 2026 Maccabiah held last month in Jerusalem and highlights why sports are a particularly promising vehicle for Jewish connection for today’s young adults.

“[Y]oung Jews looking to engage are seeking nonpolitical spaces built on friendship, culture and community — somewhere to just be Jewish together, without first having to defend a position or choose a side. This is something many of our core institutions struggle to provide, but that is precisely what the Maccabiah offers.”

Read the full piece →

PEOPLEHOOD PAPERS

Foundation for Jewish Camp CEO Jamie Simon makes the case for Jewish camping as “one of the most effective, scalable and proven investments” in an essay to be featured in the latest edition of the Center for Jewish Peoplehood Education’s Peoplehood Papers, which was produced in partnership with the Foundation for Jewish Camp and previewed exclusively in eJewishPhilanthropy.

“Jewish teens consistently report that camp is the place where they feel most comfortable being their full, authentic selves. Surrounded by an immersive Jewish community, they experience the joy of Jewish life and a deep sense of belonging. That foundation of confidence and connection gives young people the courage to step forward, take responsibility and begin to see themselves as leaders.”

Read the full piece →

READER RESPONDS

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Keren R. McGinity, a research associate at the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute and author of two books on Jews, gender and intermarriage, responds to two recent op-eds in eJewishPhilanthropy focused on engaging men in Jewish life (“Engaging men and boys in Jewish life: What we know, what we don’t know and what we can do,” May 26; “What happens when students lead Jewish learning: An experiment in Jewish male engagement,” June 19).

“Jewish teens consistently report that camp is the place where they feel most comfortable being their full, authentic selves. Surrounded by an immersive Jewish community, they experience the joy of Jewish life and a deep sense of belonging. That foundation of confidence and connection gives young people the courage to step forward, take responsibility and begin to see themselves as leaders.”

Read the full piece →

Worthy Reads

The Rebbe’s Reach: In Jerusalem News Syndicate, Rebecca Szlechter examines the emerging partnership between Manhattan’s Park East Synagogue and the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. “‘This reflects Chabad’s growing integration into mainstream denominational Judaism in America,’ according to Adam Ferziger, a rabbi and a Jewish history professor at Bar-Ilan University… ‘The achievement of this merger with a historic mainstream, Modern Orthodox synagogue in Manhattan is a testament to Chabad’s evolution and integration.’”

Youth Movement: The New Yorker’s Bernard Avishai profiles Israeli satirist Lior Schleien, who through his “Free Israel” movement engages in dialogue with right-leaning young Israelis that is filmed and shared online. “But Schleien has empathy for his young audiences. They are, he says, sheltering from missiles and dealing with a government that incites them to hatred. ‘They’re told that, if we just keep bombing the whole Middle East, then God — who is Jewish and on their side — will fix everything. It’s hard on them.’”

Community Comms

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Major Gifts

Philanthropist David Rubenstein gifted the Anti-Defamation League an archival pigment print of the stone engraving of the Declaration of Independence, which is now mounted in the lobby of its New York offices…

Transitions

Michal Slawny Cababia, who recently completed her term as the North American representative of the World Zionist Organization, became a member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid Party following the resignation of Yoav Segalovitz…

Professor Cyrille Cohen, dean of Bar-Ilan University’s Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences, was elected today by the school’s Supreme Academic Council to serve as its next rector…

Monika Levin was hired by the Jewish Federation of Broward County to serve as its new chief marketing officer…

Eli Nagler, Emily Shteinhauz and Daniel Cohen joined the board of trustees of New York’s JCCA Services (formerly known as Jewish Child Care Association)… 

The New England Jewish Labor Committee announced Lauren Banister as its new executive director following the departure of Jonathon Feinberg…

Zenobia Fried joined Tamid Group as its new major gifts officer…

Word on the Street

Israel and Venezuela agreed to renew consular ties after nearly 17 years of estrangement, following a change of government in Caracas and Israeli earthquake aid that created the right environment for rapprochement between the once-friendly nations…

Colegio Moral y Luces Herzl-Bialik in Caracas has joined the World ORT network as the school repairs earthquake damage to its building… 

Clothing magnate Jay L. Schottenstein was spotted this week at the engagement party of the daughter of the controversial and influential Rabbi Yoshiyahu Yosef Pinto; in a show of respect, when Schottenstein, a major funder of religious initiatives, arrived at the event, Pinto was seen encouraging the patron to sit in the seat where he’d been sitting at the center of the table… 

Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun, the State Department’s antisemitism envoy, said last month that he would be able to resolve all remaining Holocaust restitution issues before the end of the Trump administration, two sources with knowledge of the remarks told Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod; his claim raised skepticism among experts in the field, as the U.S. has been working on the matter for decades…

The Washington Free Beacon reports that California's attorney general ordered Arc of Justice, the foundation of Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, to cease operations after it missed three straight years of tax filings and couldn't account for $51 million in assets…

Wiz co-founders Assaf Rappaport and Yinon Costica will finance the acquisition of Israel’s Reshet 13 television channel by themselves after other Israeli tech entrepreneurs floated as backers never transferred funds…

David Sacks’ Craft Ventures is seeking roughly $1 billion for its first fund since he left his White House AI post…

The University of Pennsylvania named a 19-member consultative committee of trustees, deans, faculty and student leaders, including trustee emerita Julie Beren Platt, to help guide the search for its 11th president as current President Larry Jameson prepares to step down…

The Lever profiles hedge fund manager Stephen Mandel, an increasingly powerful Democratic donor who has steered more than $24 million this primary season into groups that back centrist candidates against the party's progressive wing…

Ari Emanuel's events firm Mari agreed to buy West End theater owner ATG Entertainment in a deal the Financial Times valued at about £4.5 billion ($6.1 billion) ...

Janet Klein, a Philadelphia preservationist and philanthropist who served on the Fairmount Park Commission and the Philadelphia Historical Commission, died at 96…

Photo of the Day

MAAYAN TOAF/GPO

Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Emerita Shuly Rubin Schwartz presents an honorary doctorate to Israeli President Isaac Herzog today at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Herzog was meant to receive the degree at JTS’ commencement ceremony in May but was forced to cancel due to scheduling issues, his office said at the time.

“The State of Israel and Diaspora Jewry are both facing their own challenges, but the Jewish People have a shared destiny and a shared responsibility,” Herzog said at the ceremony. “The conferral of an honorary degree from the distinguished institution of JTS in New York upon the president of the State of Israel at the President's Residence in Jerusalem is not only a great honor for me but also an occasion that is in its very essence a bridge between parallel and complementary worlds. It sends a message from Jerusalem that we — on both sides of the ocean — are inseparable. We are one.”

Birthdays

PRESLEY ANN/GETTY IMAGES FOR THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Barry "Armyan" Bernstein, co-founder and chairman of the film and television company Beacon Pictures, turns 79

George Soros, Hungarian American investor, currency trader and political activist, born György Schwartz, turns 96

Sheldon Stanford Ellis, retired Beverly Hills, Calif., attorney

Gail Parent, Emmy Award-winning television screenwriter, television producer and author, turns 86

Martin Elias Peter Seligman, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and author of many self-help books, turns 84

Lester Scheininger, attorney in Ontario, Canada, who served as president of the Canadian Jewish Congress, turns 79

Karyn Allison Posner-Mullen, U.S. diplomat, turns 75

Fredi Bleeker Franks, member of Houston's Congregation Emanu El, she worked for more than 40 years at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

Stuart Steinberg, sales manager of Illi Commercial Real Estate in Woodland Hills, Calif.

Noah Gal Gendler, Israel's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Albania, turns 69

Haim Jelin, former member of Knesset from the Yesh Atid party, turns 68

David Horovitz, founding editor of The Times of Israel and formerly the editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, turns 64

Sir Bradley Fried, former chairman of Goldman Sachs International, now CEO of Ki Corporation, turns 61

Rachel Kadish, award-winning writer of fiction and nonfiction and the author of several novels and a novella, turns 57

Claudia Kreiman, senior rabbi at Brookline's (Mass.) Temple Beth Zion

Anya Hoerburger, chief strategy officer at NYC's Educational Alliance

Jay Chernikoff, Scottsdale, Ariz.-based real estate investor

David Fine, co-founder at Understory

Ariel Applbaum, head of strategy and innovation at EquipmentShare

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