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Good Wednesday morning! 

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on key takeaways from the Milken Institute Global Conference panel on antisemitism. We interview Jodi Cooperman on the Leon and Toby Cooperman Family Foundation’s $10 million gift to the Birthright Israel Foundation. We also examine Sheryl Sandberg’s launch of an endowed scholarship in memory of her late husband, Dave Goldberg, providing full tuition in perpetuity for 30 campers in need for Camp Ramah in California each year. We feature an opinion piece by Roy Büchler encouraging American Jews — leaders and laypeople alike — to engage with their elected officials, and a piece by Eva Heinstein and Karen Spira about what it takes to foster imagination among leaders in times of crisis; plus Josh Schalk argues that we’re sending the wrong message to Jewish teens. Also in this issue: Aaron Katler, Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit and Karlie Kloss.

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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To beat back the surge in antisemitism since the Oct. 7 attacks and the resulting war in Gaza, there needs to be a concerted war waged against the “algorithmic hate machines” of social media platforms, the source of so much of the anti-Jewish discourse online, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim.

That was a key takeaway from a Milken Institute Global Conference session yesterday, titled “Combatting the New Cycle of Antisemitism.” The panel, moderated by the Milken Family Foundation's executive vice president, Richard Sandler, featured Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee; Nicole Guzik, a senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles; Jewish philanthropist and journalist Jacki Karsh; Steven Weitzman, director of University of Pennsylvania’s Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies; and Pete Peterson, dean of Pepperdine University’s school of public policy.

Sandler opened with familiar statistics: 86% of Jewish Americans feel antisemitism is increasing, last year was the deadliest year for Diaspora Jewry in decades and the cost of security for Jewish institutions is skyrocketing.

The panelists leveled sharp rebukes of social media’s role in spreading and generating antisemitic content, cited as a core cause of the current situation. 

Weitzman discussed how the spread of antisemitism among younger demographics through social media is the result of bots and external actors attempting to sow chaos in the United States. “A lot of antisemitism now is synthetic. It is artificially produced by bots, by AI. It's not produced by human beings,” he said. 

Deutch, who took over at AJC a year before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks, said that combating antisemitism requires a “whole-of-society approach,” from government, educational institutions, social media companies and allied communities, that starts with acknowledging that the Jewish community’s current experience is “not normal.”

For social media companies specifically, said Deutch, in the absence of government regulation, they must be pressured to enforce their own rules and regulations. “They have their own protections that they put in place for their users, and they have to enforce them, and we have to make them enforce them,” he said. “For this group at Milken in particular, they need to understand that there is business risk if they continue to allow their platforms to become algorithmic hate machines.”

Read the full report here. 

At a packed gala last night in Livingston, N.J., the Leon and Toby Cooperman Family Foundation announced a $10 million gift to the Birthright Israel Foundation.

The donation is emblematic of the Cooperman family’s philanthropic giving for Jewish and Israeli causes, with a focus on preserving the Jewish future and offering equal opportunity to all, Jodi Cooperman, the daughter-in-law of hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, who manages the Israel and Jewish giving portfolio of the foundation, told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet in an interview ahead of the gala.  

JH: With the current funding landscape for Jewish organizations shifting, why was this the right moment for your family to make a major, public commitment to Birthright?

JC: Now is the time as a family because of the way we are working together in this multigenerational work. I am working with my daughters, but really, I am focused on carrying out the legacy that my father-in-law has created with a strong Jewish commitment. And Birthright is something that we can all support. … Birthright needs to find a way to make sure that all Jewish people have a stake in it — to get more people involved as donors. I am hoping that by leading by example with a large gift, we can help other people step up to support Birthright at whatever their capacity is. 

Read the full interview here.

Last Thursday, Sheryl Sandberg, the former Meta COO and author of the best-selling book Lean In, announced the Dave Goldberg Scholarship, in honor of her late husband, the former chief executive of SurveyMonkey, who died 11 years ago at 47 from a cardiac arrhythmia while vacationing with his family in Mexico. The endowment ensures that 30 campers in need can attend Camp Ramah in perpetuity and comes at a time when demand for summer camp — along with the cost — have skyrocketed, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.

What he had: In a Facebook post, Sandberg wrote that Camp Ramah is where Goldberg “developed a sense of independence that shaped the rest of his life. If you ever got Dave talking about camp — the late nights, the inside jokes, the competitions he swore he won — the kid in him came right back.” Inbar Kodesh, chief of staff to Sandberg, told eJP: “She wanted other kids — especially those who, like Dave, need a scholarship to attend — to have that same experience for decades to come."

Read the full report here.

“‘The most important office, and the one which all of us can and should fill, is that of private citizen.’ I found myself thinking about this quote by Louis D. Brandeis a few weeks ago as I walked into the Ohio Statehouse with colleagues, volunteers and partners from the Anti-Defamation League and Ohio Jewish Communities,” writes Roy Büchler, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of Greater Toledo, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

A powerful role: “Advocacy may not always feel urgent, but it is one of the most direct ways to participate in a democracy. Sitting across from legislative staff, sharing experiences and answering questions helps shape how policies are understood and written. It ensures that decisions are informed by the people they affect. Right now, that matters for the Jewish community.”

Read the full piece here.

“There is a growing conversation in the Jewish and wider nonprofit sector about the importance of thinking more systematically about the future: anticipating disruption, navigating uncertainty and imagining new possibilities for Jewish and civic life. Yet leaders often experience a gap between this aspiration and their daily reality. When the present is demanding and overwhelming, thinking about the distant future can feel out of reach or even anxiety-producing,” write Eva Heinstein, director of the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership, and Karen Spira, director of the institute’s Executive Leadership Program, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

The inner work: “Foresight tools alone are not enough. Leaders also need inner capacities to move through discomfort and fear so they can sustain their sense of agency over time. Imagining different futures requires a willingness to question deeply held assumptions about what's happening now, what led us here and what is within our power to change. Helping leaders clarify their purposes, grow tolerance for ambiguity and relate to experimentation and failure as sources of learning can provide an essential scaffold for foresight work.”

Read the full piece here. 

“Step foot into a Jewish high school today, and you’ll see that students are not just learning about antisemitism: they’re living through it,” writes Josh Schalk, executive director of the Jewish Youth Promise, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Recalibrate the response: “I see schools and Jewish organizations working hard to give students tools to recognize hate, respond to it online or in person and protect themselves. This work is necessary and urgent. And yet, while preparing students for a hostile world, I see what may be a critical mistake. … If the first thing we teach young Jews about being Jewish is how to defend it, we shouldn’t be surprised when they hesitate to express it.”

Read the full piece here.

Stop Launching, Start Building: In his eponymous Substack column, UpStart Lab’s Aaron Katler argues that the Jewish nonprofit sector is facing a massive coordination problem by not building the sustainable business models needed to survive. "The Jewish nonprofit sector in North America may have somewhere in the range of 10,000 organizations... Of course nobody can raise money and funders/donors are stuck not knowing where to have an impact with their philanthropy. This isn’t a funding problem, it’s a coordination problem that looks like a funding problem." "A business, and I use this word deliberately in a sector that often flinches at it, is a model. It’s the logic of how a product or service moves from idea to impact in a way that is repeatable, resourced, and structurally sustainable... Most of those 10,000 nonprofits have a service product or a service. Very few have a business." [AaronKatler] 

Deep-Tissue Giving: In The Times of Israel, World Jewish Relief USA’s David Weisberg uses his personal journey as an organ donor arguing that true nonprofit work is not transactional but a partnership. “While it wasn’t his intention to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, [my liver recipient] had enabled me to climb my Mount Kilimanjaro. It was my goal to give someone my liver. It was my goal to save someone’s life. It was a long and arduous journey to get there. And, by receiving my donation, he enabled me to make the impact that I was seeking to make on someone’s life... the gift is equally to the giver…Saying to someone 'Give me your money' is the work of a bank robber... When we have conversations with a potential supporter, it’s not with the intention of keeping the money ourselves... Instead, we’re having conversations about how we can lovingly, thoughtfully, and effectively steward someone’s generosity to help them make the impact they are seeking to make in the world.” [TOI]

Fortress Diaspora: In his Substack “Clarity with Michael Oren,” Michael Oren warns that rising global antisemitism is permanently altering Diaspora life. "Clearly, we are witnessing a profound and most likely irreversible change in Diaspora Jewish life. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in the fight against antisemitism, yet the hatred keeps metastasizing. Soon, Diaspora Jews will have to decide just how much harassment and physical threat they are willing to endure...Having failed to attract the majority of refugees from antisemitism in France... Israel must actively encourage aliyah, remove the red tape and bureaucracy from the absorption process, and plan for large-scale resettlement. We must emphasize Jewish peoplehood rather than strictly Halachic criteria for establishing Jewish identity." [ClaritywithMichaelOren]

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The number of antisemitic incidents in the U.S. plummeted by a third last year, led by a steep drop on college campuses, but assaults with a deadly weapon spiked dramatically, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s 2025 audit released on Wednesday, Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

London’s Metropolitan Police announced the creation of a “community protection team” as part of an effort to protect the city’s Jewish community amid a spate of antisemitic attacks…

The announcement came a day after U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer convened Jewish and community leaders at 10 Downing St. for a summit on antisemitism; shortly after the British leader began his remarks, security officials in London confirmed an investigation into an arson attack at a former synagogue…

Belgian prosecutors filed criminal charges against local mohels who allegedly performed circumcisions illegally, as local laws require a doctor to perform them; Israeli and American diplomts have condemned the move… 

The Israeli financial newspaper Globes reports the Israeli public's financial asset portfolio grew by 80% over the last six years to a historic high of NIS 7.4 trillion ($2.6 trillion), driven by the rising Tel Aviv Stock Market and global stock markets alongside a significant increase in pension savings…

Backed by Peter Thiel and Marc Benioff, Portland, Ore.-based startup Panthalassa raised $140 million to build floating, wave-powered data centers cooled by the ocean...

Israeli defense-tech startup Kela Technologies is raising $200 million at a $1.2 billion valuation — backed by high-profile investors like Bill Ackman and Eric Schmidt — to fuel its rapid expansion and challenge industry giants with its open-architecture command and control systems…

Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch profiles Yossi Farro, the Chabad-raised 22-year-old who has made a name for himself as "tefillin-wrapper to the stars,” traveling around the world to convince Jewish celebrities to perform the mitzvah… 

A California man reversed his plea of not guilty and pleaded to a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of pro-Israel activist Paul Kessler, who died after a clash at dueling pro- and anti-Israel rallies in November 2023… 

Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit clarified that a Democratic bill package that removed Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur as state-recognized holidays was done at the behest of Jewish legislators, following confusion in past years over whether state residents were expected to report to work on those days; Arbit added that the bills acknowledging holidays are “just symbolic bills and last time we introduced them, we got all kinds of excited feedback from constituents thinking they’d finally get Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off as paid holidays”...

IAC Chairman Barry Diller said at The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything conference that he would “absolutely” buy CNN immediately so its current owners don’t “ruin it any further”...

The Holocaust Museum LA is preparing to reopen on June 14 as part of a $70 million campus expansion in Pan Pacific Park that will double its footprint and feature a new Nazi-era boxcar pavilion donated by the Stanley and Joyce Black Family Foundation…

Authorities in Sydney, Australia, arrested a man wearing a swastika shirt outside the venue where the country’s royal commission on antisemitism was convening for a third day of public testimony…

Harry Rozendaal, a Dutch-born Holocaust survivor and Israeli War of Independence veteran who recently completed a long-held final wish to say Kaddish for his mother at Auschwitz during the March of the Living, died last month at 95…

Pianist and composer Seymour Bernstein died last Thursday at 99…

Model and philanthropist Karlie Kloss pledged $1 million to support the Children’s Village at Lotus House, the nation's largest shelter for women and children in Miami. This follows in her appointment to the board of directors of the Lotus Endowment Fund…

Following the deaths of Maryland educators Deborah Brodie and Jay Brill, their family has donated the couple's 200-piece Judaica collection to the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum…

The New York Times spotlights a $200 million donation by Mark and Mary Stevens to the University of Southern California for artificial intelligence and computing research…

Avidan Halivni joined the Jewish Learning Collaborative as its director of learning…

NOAM TEMES/IAC

Dr. Miriam Adelson receives the “Defender of Am Yisrael Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Israeli-American Council on Sunday at the organization’s Los Angeles gala, standing with IAC CEO Elan Carr (right), freed hostage Bar Kuperstein (second from right) and IAC Board Chair Shawn Evenhaim.

In accepting the award, Adelson said: “The best day of my life was when all the hostages returned. It was around my birthday, and I said, ‘God gave me this gift.’ It added a few years to my life.”

GENARO MOLINA/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY IMAGES

Conductor, pianist, clarinetist and composer, he is currently music director of The Louisville Orchestra, Edward "Teddy" Paul Maxwell Abrams turns 39... 

U.S. senator (R-AL) from 1987 to 2023, Richard Shelby turns 92... Senior fellow emeritus at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, a U.S. District Court judge and the State Department legal advisor, Abraham David Sofaer turns 88... Novelist, playwright and human rights activist, professor emeritus at Duke University, Vladimiro Ariel Dorfman turns 84... Professor of law and philosophy at the University of Chicago, Martha Nussbaum turns 79... Israeli theoretical physicist and astrophysicist, he is best known for his work on gamma-ray bursts and on numerical relativity, Tsvi Piran turns 77... Senior counsel at WilmerHale, she was the deputy attorney general of the U.S. in the Clinton administration, Jamie S. Gorelick turns 76... Former prime minister of the United Kingdom, he sits on the founding executive board of the Board of Peace for Gaza, Tony Blair turns 73... President emeritus of the Jerusalem College of Technology / Lev Academic Center, Noah Dana-Picard turns 72... Director of the Jewish studies program at Northeastern University, Lori Hope Lefkovitz turns 70... Pepper Pike, Ohio, resident, Sherry Krasney Feuer turns 70... and her son, Nicky Feuer, turns 36... Co-founder of Boston-based HighVista Strategies, he is the former board chair of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Daniel Jick turns 69... Member of the Knesset for Likud from 2003 to2006, Daniel Benlulu turns 68... President and CEO of The Jewish Federations of North America, he was previously CEO of Hillel and a U.S. congressman from Ohio, Eric David Fingerhut turns 67... Retired attorney and former member of the board of trustees of the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest NJ, Sheri Goldberg... Los Angeles-based attorney and real estate entrepreneur, Daniel Todd Gryczman... Israel's minister of national security since 2022, he is the leader of the Otzma Yehudit party, Itamar Ben-Gvir turns 50... Member of the Knesset for the Yesh Atid party, Shelly Tal Meron turns 47... Los Angeles-based television personality, actress, writer and video blogger, Shira Lazar turns 43... Venture advisor at Vintage Investment Partners, Brachie Sprung... Founder at ALC Hospitality, Alyse Cohen... Principal at the UAE Presidential Court, Benjamin Levine... Partner at Courtside Ventures and advisor to the board of directors of the Atlanta Hawks, Oliver Ressler... Former head of business development at Seam and now a full-time conservative commentator across many social media platforms, Arynne Wexler turns 33... Actor and singer, married to actor Ben Platt, Noah Egidi Galvin turns 32...