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Good Friday morning! 

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the interim report released yesterday by Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion that was launched in response to December’s terror attack. We spotlight the Community Security Service as it graduates its latest class of volunteer security professionals, and report on recent financial struggles at Aish, which the group says are being brought on by the strengthening shekel, and on the passage of $300 million for the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program. We feature an opinion piece by Michael Gencher about investing in Jewish identity to develop resilience; another by Rabbi Amitai Fraiman about what the recent debate around American aliyah demonstrates about Israel-Diaspora relations; and one by Rabbi Daniel Brenner on what Jewish educators can still learn from Janus Korczak. Also in this issue: Abby J. Leibman, Beth Rolansky and Nimrod Goor and Maria Cancian

Shabbat shalom!

Today’s Your Daily Phil was curated by eJP Managing Editor Judah Ari Gross, Opinion Editor Rachel Kohn and Israel Editor Justin Hayet. Have a tip? Email us here.

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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: From wartime deficits to workforce integration: Aaron Institute’s Eckstein examines Israel’s economy; In new book, Rachel Goldberg-Polin recounts the before and after (and ever after) of her son’s life and death; and Adeena Sussman’s new cookbook spotlights simple cooking for complicated times. Print the latest edition here.

A glaring disparity — between safety and perceptions of safety — lies at the center of the interim report released yesterday by Australia’s Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, the inquiry launched in response to December’s deadly terror attack at a Hanukkah event at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. 

This distinction, seen in the gap between the Jewish community’s warnings ahead of the event and local law enforcement’s assessments of those warnings, has far-reaching implications outside of Australia’s borders, both for state security services and Jewish communal groups.

As violent antisemitism rises around the world — seen most apparently in this week’s stabbing attack in a heavily Jewish suburb of London and in last month’s attempted terror attack at Temple Israel outside Detroit — recognizing the difference between feelings of safety and actual safety becomes critical. The increasing isolation, exclusion and discomfort that many Diaspora Jews have reported feeling over the past 2 ½ years are serious concerns for the long-term health of the community. But conflating those social and psychological issues with physical safety concerns runs the risk of having those security threats be dismissed or discounted.

The commission noted that the local Jewish security organization, Community Security Group New South Wales, warned the local police days before the event that the threat level was “high” and that “a terrorist attack against the NSW Jewish community is likely [emphasis theirs] and there is a high level of antisemitic vilification.” 

Yet the police dispatched just three officers and a supervisor to the event — and just for part of it. “No need to stay the entire duration, but your presence will ensure the community feel safe,” an email to the officers read.

While it is easy to say with the benefit of hindsight, the Jews gathered at Bondi Beach did not need to “feel safe,” they needed to be safe, and they weren’t. Armed with rifles and handguns, two gunmen killed 15 people at the candlelighting event, including a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl, and wounded dozens more.

Jeremy Liebler, president of the Zionist Federation of Australia and whose law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler is representing Australian Jewish communal organizations in the commission proceedings, told eJewishPhilathropy that while the police were wrong in their assessment, it was also understandable why — to at least a certain extent — given the unprecedented nature of the attack, one of the deadliest in Australian history. “If you had asked me if something like this was going to happen, I would have said no way,” Liebler told eJP. “It’s not how Australians see Australia, even if Australia has changed.”

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

When Richard Priem started at Community Security Service as COO in August 2020, the organization had 2 ½ employees — Priem included — and was headquartered in his basement. Today, the Jewish self-protection organization has 27 full-time staff. And on Wednesday, CSS celebrated another milestone: graduating through its Advanced Academy the 10th class of volunteer trainers, who can teach what they learned to their home communities, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.

Do-it-yourself: The demand for the intensive program has skyrocketed as antisemitism and violent attacks against Jews continue to escalate. “We don't give people fish, we teach them how to fish,” Priem, now CSS’ CEO, told eJP. “Instead of having to hire 150 trainers, we have 150 volunteers who can do the equivalent,” Priem said. “Our goal is to build a long-term, scalable, sustainable solution through our model.”

Read the full report here.

The Jewish engagement group Aish has laid off several employees and has twice delayed salary payments to staff in recent months amid funding shortfalls and resulting cash-flow problems, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross has learned. The organization confirmed the situation, saying it was primarily connected to the strengthening of the shekel, which dropped the value of its dollar-based fundraising efforts amid an increase in operating costs. 

Economic shifts: “Like many Israel-based organizations, the past few years have brought real challenges. Global economic shifts, including currency fluctuations, have increased costs in unpredictable ways. The dramatic strengthening of the shekel against the dollar resulted in a multimillion-dollar increase in our operating costs, given that a significant portion of our expenses are shekel-based,” the organization, which is headquartered in Jerusalem, said in a statement. “These conditions, while not unique to Aish, are nevertheless realities we have had to navigate while continuing to grow and serve.”

Read the full report here.

House Democrats and Jewish groups welcomed the passage of $300 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP) on Thursday, while warning that funding for the program remains insufficient to fully protect the Jewish community and places of worship amid a surge in antisemitism, reports Matthew Shea for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

More to do: While lawmakers and Jewish groups welcomed the fact that funding marks an increase from the $274.5 million provided in fiscal year 2025, they cautioned that the $300 million still falls short of the need within the Jewish community, given the threat level. “While sadly even more funding is needed for Jewish community security, this increased level of funding will surely help,” Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, said in a statement. “We will continue working with members of Congress and our allies to fund NSGP at even higher levels in 2027 to meet demand.”

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

“We hear a great deal today about resilience. Jewish resilience. Student resilience. Communal resilience. It is one of those words that turns up in speeches, panels, strategy papers and school conversations because the pressure on Jewish young people is real and growing. But I think we are starting in the wrong place,” writes Michael Gencher, executive director of StandWithUs Australia, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Identity is foundational: “A young Jew who feels proud of who they are stands on firmer ground. … Jewish communities invest enormous energy in public advocacy, media engagement, combating misinformation and cultivating allies. All of that matters. But allies cannot build Jewish identity for Jewish young people. Public advocacy cannot do the work that families, schools, youth movements and communities must do themselves. The deeper work starts at home and within the community.”

Read the full piece here.

“In the Talmudic period, there was a group of rabbis known as the nehutei. They traveled between the great rabbinic centers of Babylonia and the Land of Israel, carrying teachings, arguments and legal traditions from one world to another. They were not merely messengers but interpreters between Jewish centers that shared a people and a tradition, even when they did not share the same language, assumptions or daily experience,” writes Rabbi Amitai Fraiman, founding director of the Z3 Project and founder of Shazur/Interwoven, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

What we’re missing: “The Jewish people still need this role, and the Haggai Segal episode [in which the Israeli commentator provocatively labeled American Jews as "traitors" for not making aliyah] made that clear, though not for the reasons most commentators have named. Gidi Grinstein noticed something real when he observed the silence of American Jewish institutional leaders after Segal’s column (‘American Jewish leaders, where were you?’ April 30). But the silence was not the whole story, and the institutional response he called for would not have solved the deeper problem.”

Read the full piece here.

“I am a Jewish educator who does a lot of work with Jewish teens, particularly with teens who work as teachers or counselors for younger children. One source of great inspiration for me is the life and work of Dr. Janus Korczak,” writes Rabbi Daniel Brenner, vice president of education for Moving Traditions, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Kids are people, too: “In my teen years, during my first visit to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, our guide told us about the Jewish orphanage in the Warsaw Ghetto and Korczak, its director, who accompanied his young charges to Treblinka. It was a powerful story. … As an adult, I rediscovered Korczak when I heard someone reference one of his famous teachings: ‘Children are not the people of tomorrow, but people today’… Korczak argued that we have to start with the premise that children are as complex as we are. I didn’t truly understand this quote until I began reading more about Korczak’s life and his work on behalf of children.”

Read the full piece here.

The Metric Trap: In The Conversation, Annabelle Littoz-Monnet argues that private foundations have moved beyond simply funding to control the data frameworks of global health. “The involvement of philanthropists has therefore contributed to reinforcing a solutionist approach to health, where ‘quick fixes’ are favoured, while factors relating to socioeconomic and environmental conditions problems are too often ignored. Understanding this shift is crucial. It reveals that as private resources are called in to fill existing funding gaps, such a move is not neutral but deeply political." [TheConversation]

Dynasty Divided: In the Wall Street Journal, Margot Patrick examines how the release of the “Epstein Files” has reignited a Rothschild dynasty feud. The conflict centers on Ariane de Rothschild’s ties to Epstein, which effectively shattered a 2018 peace treaty between the family's rival banking branches. “The DOJ files showed she visited Epstein’s island, sought his advice about complex family relationships and had her bank pay him a $25 million fee for consulting. That year, Epstein... helped Edmond de Rothschild negotiate a Justice Department settlement over hidden American accounts... Epstein got a $25 million payout. 'Deep thks for your amazing help,' Ariane wrote to him…It was personally unpleasant for family members to read Ariane’s unvarnished thoughts. In a 2017 email to Epstein that had just been made public, she called the cousins at Rothschild & Co. 'a dead breed.' Ariane strategized with Epstein on pushing back... 'He’s getting wipped in the open by a woman non Jewish, non family born, non banker-born,' Ariane wrote to Epstein.” [WallStreetJournal]

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The New York Times does a deep dive into recent attacks on Jewish people and sites across Europe, most of which bear the hallmarks of Iranian “hybrid warfare,” aimed at undermining adversaries “without provoking a major military response”...

Jewish Insider examines a new study from the Institute for National Security Studies warning that Israel’s public diplomacy failures have escalated into a tangible national security threat…

Haredi yeshivas in Israel with students who ignore conscription orders will no longer be eligible for tax-exempt donations, following a High Court of Justice ruling that the state must impose financial sanctions on draft-dodging institutions… 

Fidelity and Vanguard have blocked their clients from donating to the Southern Poverty Law Center through their donor-advised funds as the organization faces federal fraud charges…

The Reform movement’s Jacobs Camp in Utica, Miss., earned a shoutout on last night’s “Jeopardy!” as an alumna contestant, Beth Rolansky, shared that she met her husband at the Jewish camp, as did several of her friends. “We are at seven couples who can trace their meeting to Jacobs Camp,” Rolansky said. “It's definitely part of the plan to get people who come from towns where there are very few Jewish people to come together for the summer and meet each other.”... 

Israel’s National Authority for Educational Measurement and Evaluation found only 22% of Israeli ninth graders meet English requirements, with success rates dropping to 1% in some Bedouin communities…

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Troy Carter (D-LA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced a bipartisan resolution to recognize the 21st year of Jewish American Heritage Month, which begins today…

The Forward explores how the new documentary “Sheitel: Beauty in the Hidden” dismantles secular stereotypes and instead reframes the ritual wig as a deliberate symbol of female agency and religious empowerment…

Mike Solomonov’s Zahav is celebrating its 18th "chai" year with a series of Shabbat dinners hosted at the Philadelphia restaurant this summer…

In a Religion News Service opinion piece, Abby J. Leibman, president & CEO of Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, warns against the increasingly religious rhetoric being employed by Trump administration officials, as seen recently in an email sent by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to her 100,000 staff members on Easter Sunday declaring, “He is risen indeed”… 

Yeshiva University announced that U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee will give the school’s commencement address later this month…

The Forward profiles businessman and former Ikar synagogue President Adam Miller, who is running for mayor of Los Angeles on a platform of operational efficiency and moderate reform…

Boaz Weinstein’s Saba Capital Management is poised to take over Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust, following a shareholder vote yesterday to replace the trust’s current board…

Sheryl Sandberg is endowing a new scholarship fund at Camp Ramah in California in honor of her late husband, Dave Goldberg, to provide full summer tuition for 30 high-need campers annually…

The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub is investing $500 million over five years to develop AI-driven cellular models aimed at predicting and eventually curing all human diseases…

EU High Representative Kaja Kallas pledged €8 million ($9.4 million) in new funding to support civil society organizations focused on strategic peacebuilding and conflict resolution…

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation appointed Nimrod Goor as its next board chair — marking the first time an Israeli will lead the organization’s board — and named public policy scholar Maria Cancian to its board…

Rose Community Foundation hired Caron Blau Rothstein as its new Jewish life program director…

COURTESY/RABBI MOSHE SCHWARTZ

Twenty-six eighth graders from Baltimore’s Krieger Schechter Day School pose against the backdrop of the Tel Aviv skyline after arriving in Israel this week for their annual class trip, led by Ramah Israel Programs.

STEFANIE KEENAN/GETTY IMAGES FOR THIS IS ABOUT HUMANITY

Attorney and co-founder of I Am a Voter, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization, Mandana Rivka Dayani turns 44... 

FRIDAY: Retired national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Henry Foxman turns 86... Holocaust and genocide scholar, born in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen, Germany, Menachem Z. Rosensaft turns 78… Professor at Yeshiva University and editor emeritus of Tradition, an Orthodox theological journal, Rabbi Shalom Carmy turns 77... Deborah Chin... Boston area actor, David Alan Ross... Brigadier-general (res.) and former chief medical officer in the IDF, he was also a member of Knesset for 10 years, Aryeh Eldad turns 76... Of counsel at D.C.-based Sandler Reiff where he specializes in redistricting law, Jeffrey M. Wice... Member of the House of Representatives (D-CO) from 2007 until 2023, Edwin George "Ed" Perlmutter turns 73... Israeli entrepreneur and software engineer, founder and former CEO of Conduit, Israel’s first billion-dollar internet company, Ronen Shilo turns 68... Austrian-Israeli singer-songwriter, Timna Brauer turns 65... Real estate entrepreneur based in Southern California, Eli Tene turns 63... Member of the board of governors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester, Rina F. Chessin... Member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David R. Karger turns 59... Israeli judoka, she is a member of the International Olympic Committee and the head of the merchandise division of Paramount Israel, Yael Arad turns 59... Majority leader of the Washington state Senate until 2025, he is a co-owner of minor league baseball's Spokane Indians, Andrew Swire "Andy" Billig turns 58... Staff writer at The Atlantic, Jonathan Chait turns 54... Radio personality and voice-over artist, Gina Grad turns 48... Former professional tennis player with 23 USTA Pro Circuit singles titles, now a tennis coach, Michael Craig Russell turns 48... Washington-based political reporter, Ben C. Jacobs turns 42... Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative producer at NBC News, Jonathan Gerberg... Former member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, Marina Tauber turns 40… Team lead at GrowthSpace, Jenny Feuer... Principal at Forward Global, Omri Rahmil... Photographer known for incorporating Jewish culture into her work, she is the digital media editor at the Jewish Women's Archive, Hannah Altman turns 31... Sam Zieve-Cohen turns 29... 

SATURDAY: Former U.S. ambassador to Denmark, he financed the visitors center at the Touro Synagogue in Newport, R.I., John Langeloth Loeb turns 96... Former lord chief justice of England and Wales, Baron Harry Kenneth Woolf turns 93... Retired professor at NYU's Center for Global Affairs, journalist, international negotiator and private consultant, Dr. Alon Ben-Meir turns 89... Author of 23 books and conservative political activist, Alan Merril Gottlieb turns 79... Former member of the Texas state Senate, she was born in NYC to Holocaust survivor parents, Florence Shapiro turns 78... Former USAID contractor imprisoned by Cuba from 2009 to 2014, Alan Phillip Gross turns 77... Co-founder and president of private equity firm NCH Capital, he funded the establishment of Chabad houses at universities throughout the world, George Rohr turns 72... Former under secretary of state for public diplomacy in the Obama administration, following a stint as managing editor of Time magazine, Richard Allen "Rick" Stengel turns 71... Member of the New York State Assembly since 2010, he was previously a member of the NYC Council and former Deputy Superintendent of the NYS Banking Commission, David Weprin turns 70... Former U.S. secretary of commerce in the Obama administration, she is on the board of Microsoft, Penny Sue Pritzker turns 67... Partner at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, she is active on many non-profit boards including Penn Law School and the Jewish Federations of North America, Jodi J. Schwartz turns 66... Television writer and reality television personality known for his high IQ test scores, Richard G. Rosner turns 66... Admiral in the IDF (res.), he served as the commander of the Israeli Navy, Ram Rothberg turns 62...Chief rabbi of Slovakia, Rabbi Baruch Myers turns 62... Senior attorney in the Newark office of Eckert Seamans, Laura E. "Lori" Fein... Founder and chairman of Shutterstock, Jonathan E. Oringer turns 52... Israeli writer known for his novels, essays and philosophical work, Yaniv Iczkovits turns 51... SVP of Drumfire Public Affairs following four years as deputy chief of staff to then-Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Stephen Schatz... Journalist and founder of MamaDen, a platform that connects and empowers mothers, Julianna Goldman turns 45... Podcast host and founder and president of ETS Advisory, Emily Tisch Sussman... Attorney in the office of the New York attorney general, Gabe Cahn... Chief development officer at Grinspoon Hillel at Cornell, Susanna K. Cohen... Running back for the NFL's Carolina Panthers, A.J. Dillon turns 28... 

SUNDAY: Southern California-area writer and activist promoting wellness, Deborah Shainman Szekely turns 104... Senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Reichman University, Ely Karmon, Ph.D. turns 85... Television journalist known for his work at ABC News and Al Jazeera English, David Marash turns 84... U.S. senator (R-ID), Jim Risch turns 83... Venture capitalist and economist, his original family name was Jacobstein, William H. Janeway turns 83... Francine Holtzman... U.S. senator (D-OR), his original family name was Weidenreich, Ron Wyden turns 77... Six-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, Stewart F. Lane turns 75... Retired attorney, he represented political parties, campaigns, candidates, governors and members of Congress on election law matters, Benjamin Langer Ginsberg turns 74... Retired chair and CEO of Mondelez International, a multinational food and beverage company, Irene Rosenfeld turns 73... Retired partner from the Chicago office of DLA Piper, now a consultant at Washburn Advisors, Mark D. Yura turns 73... Political reporter and former columnist for The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jeff E. Schapiro... Retired senior advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Susan Steinmetz... EVP at NBCUniversal News Group, he is on the Board of Visitors at Duke Law School, Stephen Labaton turns 65... Former owner of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, Mikhail Prokhorov turns 61... Lobbyist since 2010, he was previously deputy assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs in the Bush 43 administration, Scott A. Kamins... Veteran NHL player, he is now an assistant coach for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning, Jeff Halpern turns 50... Israeli singer and actress, winner of multiple Israeli Female Singer of the Year awards, Miri Mesika turns 48... Reporter for Politico New Jersey and author of New Jersey's Playbook, Matthew R. Friedman... Jewish Insider's director of audience development, Kevin Hechtkopf... Educated at the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, he was a defensive lineman in the NFL, Igor Olshansky turns 44... Managing director and co-head of executive communications of SKDKnickerbocker, he was a speechwriter for President Obama, Stephen Andrew Krupin... President of Flaxman Strategies, Seth Flaxman... Israeli minister for social equality and women's advancement, she is a member of the Knesset for the Likud party, May Golan turns 40... Benjamin S. Davis... NBA All-Star for the Sacramento Kings, he is studying to convert to Judaism, Domantas Sabonis turns 30... Director of the Judaism and State Policy Center at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Israel, Tani Frank... Foreign correspondent for NBC and a former Middle East correspondent for the Daily Telegraph, Raf Sanchez...