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Good Friday morning!

In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview David Bryfman about his new book on post-Oct. 7 Israel education, Heroism and Hope. We cover a UJA-Federation of New York luncheon  raising money for Jewish sports luncheon raising money for Jewish sports and honoring NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, and report on Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s decision to cancel his in-person appearance at the Jewish Theological Seminary commencement next week. We feature an opinion piece by Enrico Ravenna and Jessie Dowsakul about teaming up to better serve their emerging Jewish communities, located hundreds of miles apart in the South; and pieces by Devorah Brous and Chana Hertzberg reflect on pathways for communal grieving and recovery since the 2025 L.A. wildfires. Also in this issue: David Begoun, King Charles III and Rita Semel. 

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: UJA-Federation of New York taps Leffell School’s Michael Kay to serve as next CEO; After Trump proclamation, Jewish groups scramble to plan ‘Shabbat 250,’ even as some have concerns; and Longtime ADL head Abe Foxman remembered as ‘the kind of leader that all of us aspire to be’ . Print the latest edition here.

Israel fundamentally changed in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks — the most devastating attack in the country’s history and one that was followed by an initial shambolic and insufficient government response, leaving Israeli civilians to care for themselves. And if Israel changed, then Israel education must change too. That was the conclusion reached by David Bryfman, CEO of The Jewish Education Project, whose new book, Heroism and Hope: Recharging Israel Education in a Post-October 7 World, was released yesterday. 

In the book, Bryfman, one of the leading figures in the field, examines the new dilemmas and realities facing Jewish educators and insists on the need to integrate Israel into Jewish education—not as an add-on, but as an essential pedagogical tool for learning what it means to be a Jew today. While they are not the target audience, Bryfman told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross this week in an interview ahead of the release that the book is also directed toward the funders of Jewish education, encouraging them to trust the practitioners and believe that a solid Jewish education will prepare Jewish kids for the world in a way that an advocacy-focused education will not. 

JAG: I understand your embrace of nuance and of examining Israel warts-and-all, but how do you get that across to someone who’s only coming to Hebrew school until their bar or bat mitzvah? 

DB: We cannot… have the same expectations of a graduate of a day school as a graduate of a Sunday school simply because of dosage alone. That being said… there are certainly many things you can do at almost every age and every stage that at least prime people for the questions that they might confront when they get to middle school, high school or university. 

We spoke to many, many educators, who said to us over and over again, “We actually know what to do. But we're scared to do it. Our bosses, our parents, our lay leaders are preventing us from doing the right thing educationally by our kids because of a whole lot of other parameters and concerns that come up with Israel in the classroom.”

And I think for the eJewishPhilanthropy community, the funding community, that's one of the big messages that I'm really trying to get out with this book as well: As funders and as supporters of Jewish education, you need to trust the experts in the field to do education in the way that it is supposed to be done. Education cannot and should not succumb to the same rules that govern other aspects of the Jewish communal world.

Read the full interview here.

Amid a banner year for Jewish sports, UJA-Federation of New York held its Sports Annual Luncheon yesterday, bringing hundreds of executives, team owners, agents, media personalities and league officials to Gotham Hall in midtown Manhattan, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the gathering. The luncheon, which supports athletic and recreational programming for children in both New York and Israel, garnered $1.2 million, a spokesperson for UJA told eJP. 

Make a difference: Thursday’s event also honored Gary Bettman, the longest-serving commissioner in the history of the National Hockey League, with the David J. Stern Leadership Award, named after the late National Basketball Association commissioner. “David believed that teams should be about community and that teams should look for ways to make a difference in the lives of the people where we all have franchises,” Bettman said at the event.

Read the full report here.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s office denied that his decision not to attend the graduation ceremony of the Jewish Theological Seminary next week, where he was due to receive an honorary degree, was related to a petition by a small number of students protesting his appearance, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross. “Regrettably, due to circumstances that prevent his travel at this time…he can’t attend the ceremony,” a spokesperson told eJP. Asked if the cancellation was connected to the letter and surrounding controversy, the spokesperson responded: “No.” 

Vigorous debate: Writing in the Forward in response to the controversy, JTS Chancellor Shuly Rubin Schwartz said that she was “proud that JTS serves as a forum for respectful disagreement, which our choice of Herzog as speaker prompted.” She added: “I welcome the voices of those who may disagree.” Rubin Schwartz, who will step down from her role next month, also lamented that the debate became a public one. “What should have been a private exchange between students and their administrators escalated in alarming ways,” she wrote.

Read the full report here.

“In the Jewish communal world, we often talk about collaboration, but in practice, many organizations still operate primarily within their own local ecosystems. For emerging Jewish communities, collaboration is not just a nice idea; it is essential,” write Enrico Ravenna, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Arkansas, and Jessie Dowsakul, executive director of the Columbia (S.C.) Jewish Federation, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. 

Better together: “Our partnership began informally. A conversation here, a phone call there... Soon, those conversations became something more intentional. … This kind of collaboration transforms what might otherwise be isolated experiments into a growing network of innovation. Perhaps most importantly, it also reminds us that the future of Jewish life in America is not being written in just a handful of cities. It is being written everywhere.”

Read the full piece here.

“Boaz Shalgi, chief psychologist at Natal: Israel Trauma and Resilience Center, defines ‘rolling trauma’ as continuous, cumulative exposure to traumatic events, which differs from traditional post-traumatic stress disorder caused by a singular event. American Jewish communities are navigating an era of stacked grief from compounding crises,” writes Devorah Brous, a trauma-informed bereavement care counselor, in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Beyond shiva and shloshim: “When grief is held in community, it becomes a force that binds, deepens and impels us forward, but a critical gap is emerging where long-term, non-linear grief lives on — after the rituals end, across losses that may never have had formal containers to begin with. As a result, many people in grief are experiencing prolonged isolation, nervous system dysregulation and unintegrated trauma alone. The scale and duration of continued war, division and collective moral injury invite an evolution in support available through Jewish communal infrastructure.”

Read the full piece here.

“On Jan. 7, 2025, the morning of the Palisades Fire, our preschool, the Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center, was full. Eighty-nine children — babies as young as 3 months old, toddlers, 3- and 4-year-olds — filled the classrooms. Teachers moved through the sacred ordinariness of the morning: snack preparation, circle time, diaper changes, songs,” writes Chana Hertzberg, the preschool director at Palisades Jewish Early Childhood Center in Pacific Palisades, Calif., in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy. Despite initial reassurances from the fire department, Hertzberg trusted her instincts and made the call for students and staff to head home. “I thank Hashem that we all got out alive,” she writes.

A hub of communal life: “In the days that followed, the scale of devastation became clear. Parents scattered wherever they could. Families moved into Airbnbs and temporary housing. The Palisades as we knew it was suddenly gone. … We knew our children and families needed to be together again. They needed routine. They needed teachers they trusted. And they needed to feel safe.”

Read the full piece here.

The Abbas Paradox: In Commentary Magazine, Seth Mandel analyzes the complex intersection of Israeli domestic politics, Arab-Israeli civic integration, and the strategic calculus of Middle Eastern governance through his profile of Ra’am party Mansour Abbas. “A leader can’t get too far in front of his constituents, I suppose. The problem is that Abbas is arguably a once-in-a-generation figure in Arab politics, someone who has legitimacy within the Islamic movement and among working-class Arabs alike and can retain that legitimacy while integrating his party into mainstream Israeli politics. So there isn’t really time for incrementalism. He isn’t just working within a brief window; he is the window.” [CommentaryMagazine]

Yom Therapy: In the Times of Israel, David Begoun reflects on the profound emotional duality of Jerusalem Day while suggesting that celebrating Jewish reunification should be balanced with an acknowledgment of the city’s complex Arab narratives. “I’ve become less interested in simple stories, especially here. Because if you actually walk this city… you realize very quickly that the story is not simple, even when parts of it are morally clear. Those are not the same thing. My wife, who is an excellent therapist, talks a lot about the ability to ‘hold complexity.’ At first, I thought of that as something mainly connected to relationships or emotional health. But the longer I live here, the more I think Jerusalem almost forces that skill on you, whether you want it to or not.” [TOI]

The Bronfman Fellowship announces its historic 40th cohort of outstanding Jewish 11th-graders.

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Time magazine released its annual The TIME100 Philanthropy 2026 list with this year’s list featuring prominent Jewish philanthropists Lynn and Stacy Schusterman, David Tepper, Steven Spielberg and Sandy Weill… 

King Charles III visited the London neighborhood of Golders Green, which has a large Jewish population and was the scene of an antisemitic stabbing attack two weeks ago, and met with one of the victims, Michael Shine, and his sister Doreen…

The BBC announced a special month of programming across TV and radio to celebrate the diversity of Jewish faith and contemporary life in Britain in honor of Jewish Culture Month…

The Israeli government is initiating a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times following the publication of an opinion column by Nicholas Kristof alleging widespread Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian prisoners, JI’s Matthew Shea reports; legal scholars are questioning the viability of such a suit, however, as U.S. law does not generally recognize defamation against sovereign states and no specific Israelis were named in the article… 

Around 200 Jewish protesters rallied outside The New York Times offices in Manhattan to voice anger over Nicholas Kristof's piece claiming Israel systematically abuses Palestinian prisoners…

Hayam El Gamal, the ex-wife of the perpetrator behind the deadly June 2025 Boulder, Colo., attack, sent a letter to a local synagogue condemning her ex-husband’s crime and offering condolences to the family of victim Karen Diamond…

Inside Philanthropy explores how public records from donor-advised funds offer a peek into MacKenzie Scott’s massive and often secretive giving…

The Sami Rohr Prize named Laura Hobson Faure, Shaul Kelner, Jordan Salama and Amir Tibon as the nonfiction finalists for this year’s literary award…

Campaign filings reveal that several notable business and philanthropy leaders, including Daniel Loeb, Haim Saban and Val Blavatnik, have donated to the Los Angeles mayoral campaign of candidate Spencer Pratt…

The Financial Times details an internal crisis at Eurovision as five nations boycott the event over Israel's participation, forcing organizers to defend their neutrality while also tightening rules to prevent state-backed vote manipulation...

Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, who has previously been mired in antisemitism scandals, is set to perform in Tbilisi, Georgia, at a June concert produced by Live Nation Israel…

The Chronicle of Philanthropy released a comprehensive guide for nonprofit leaders on integrating artificial intelligence as a strategic partner to improve operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making…

An antisemitic flag featuring a swastika, the Star of David and New York University branding was raised above the school’s Steinhardt building, named for major Jewish philanthropists Michael and Judy Steinhardt…

Rita Semel, a journalist and activist who spent fighting for social justice as a co-founder of the San Francisco Interfaith Council, died on Wednesday at 104…

The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Neue Galerie have announced a merger slated to be complete in 2028, which will integrate Ronald Lauder's Austrian and German art collection — valued at $1.5 billion — into The Met in what will be called The Met Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie…

Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, have donated $90 million to Stanford University for healthy brain aging research through their foundation — The Knight Foundation — which now has assets totaling $5.4 billion…

YOSSI ZAMIR

More than 200 activists from the Israeli coexistence group Tag Meir march through the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday, distributing 3,600 flowers and supportive leaflets to Arab residents, for the organization's annual Flower March on Jerusalem Day — a peace-focused response to the annual Flag March through the area, which is often marred by anti-Arab chants and occasional violence. 

“We handed out a leaflet in three languages explaining the purpose of the Flower March — that the nationalist and violent chants heard on this day do not represent Judaism or Israeli society, and that we cannot stand by while such acts are carried out in our name,” the organization wrote in a Facebook post.

SCREENSHOT/HADAR

Scholar, author and rabbi, he is the founding president of CLAL: The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Irving "Yitz" Greenberg turns 93 on Saturday...

FRIDAY: Chairman of Queens-based Muss Development, a major real estate development company founded by his grandfather Isaac in 1906, Joshua Lawrence Muss turns 85... Chairman emeritus of The Raoul Wallenberg Committee of the United States, a human rights organization in New York City, Rachel Oestreicher Bernheim turns 83... Chairman of the Religious Zionists of America, he was born in a DP camp as a child of Holocaust survivors, Martin Oliner turns 79... Retired major general in the IDF, he served as Israel's national security advisor and is now a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, Yaakov Amidror turns 78... Israeli diplomat who served as Israel's ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy turns 78... CEO of Emigrant Bank, real estate developer, financier and philanthropist, he has co-chaired the annual campaign for the UJA-Federation of New York, Howard Philip Milstein turns 75... Professor of pathology and genetics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he is the author of Legacy: A Genetic History of the Jewish People, Harry Ostrer turns 75... Professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College who is serving as visiting professor at Harvard for the 2025-26 academic year, she is the daughter of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Susannah Heschel turns 70... Owner of Midnight Music Management and one of the founders of The Happy Minyan in Los Angeles, Stuart Wax... Former editor and columnist at The Washington Post, Ruth Allyn Marcus turns 68... Five-time Emmy Award-winning journalist, producer, filmmaker and Latin media marketing entrepreneur, Giselle Fernandez turns 65... Founding rabbi of The Shtiebel in NYC and a member of the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Maharat, Adam Mintz turns 65... First lady of Israel, Michal Herzog turns 65… Owner/president of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, he is the chairman of the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency for Israel, Mark Wilf turns 64... Former member of the Nevada Assembly, she served as secretary of the National Association of Jewish Legislators, Ellen Barre Spiegel turns 64... Director, screenwriter and former film critic, Rod Lurie turns 64... Actor and filmmaker known for his collaborations with George Clooney, Grant Heslov turns 63... Vice chancellor of Brown University, she is the founder of Reeves Advisory, Pamela Ress Reeves... Actor and comedian, David Krumholtz turns 48... Executive director in the Office of Crime Victim Services at the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Shira Rosenthal Phelps... Noam Finger turns 48... Director of the center for civics, education and opportunity at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute, Daniel M. Rothschild... Actor best known for her role as Tony Soprano's daughter, Meadow, Jamie-Lynn Sigler turns 45... Pulitzer Prize-winning writer-at-large for The New York Times, Eli Eric Saslow turns 44... Senior editor at Vogue, Chloe F. Schama turns 43... Director of career services at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, Lisa Dubler turns 39... Rochelle Wilner... Ofir Richman... 

SATURDAY: Retired judge of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, she has served as president and chair of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Ellen Moses Heller turns 85... Senior official in the Carter, Bush 41, Clinton and Obama administrations, Bernard W. Aronson turns 80... Member of the New York state Assembly for 52 years (longest tenure ever), his term ended in 2022, Richard N. Gottfried turns 79... Chairman of NBC News and MSNBC from 2015 to 2020, Andrew Lack turns 79... Member of the House of Representatives since 2013 (D-FL), she was previously the mayor of West Palm Beach, Lois Frankel turns 78... Harvard history professor, a member of the Rothschild banking family of England, Emma Georgina Rothschild turns 78... Proto-punk singer, songwriter and guitarist, Jonathan Richman turns 75... Radio voice of the Texas Rangers baseball organization since 1979, Eric Nadel turns 75... Rochester, N.Y., resident and advisor to NYC-based Ezras Nashim volunteer ambulance service, Michael E. Pollock... U.S. ambassador to France and machatunim of President Trump, Charles Kushner turns 72... Managing partner at Accretive LLC, a private equity firm, he served as executive chairman of Fubo TV until its October 2025 merger with Disney, Edgar Bronfman Jr. turns 71... Film and stage actor, noted for "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Terms of Endearment," Debra Winger turns 71... President of Tribe Media, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Journal, David Suissa... Real estate mogul and collector of modern and contemporary art, Aby J. Rosen turns 66... Executive assistant at Los Angeles-based FaceCake Marketing Technologies, Esther Bushey... U.S. ambassador to the European Union in the Obama administration, he had a bar mitzvah-like ceremony in Venice in 2017, Anthony Luzzatto Gardner turns 63... Social entrepreneur, Jonathan Shawn Landres turns 54... Actor, television personality and author, Victoria Davey “Tori” Spelling turns 53... Host of programs on the Travel Channel and the History Channel, Adam Richman turns 52... VP and associate general counsel at CNN, Drew Shenkman... Managing director at FTI Consulting, Jeff Bechdel... Chef and food blogger, her husband Ryan played baseball for Team Israel, Jamie Neistat Lavarnway... Composer, conductor and music producer known for his film and television scores, Daniel Alexander Slatkin turns 32... 

SUNDAY: Founder of the Philadelphia-based Honickman Foundation, her family owns one of the largest soft drink bottlers in the U.S., Lynne Korman Honickman turns 90... Annapolis, Md., attorney, Robert M. Pollock... News anchor for 46 years at WPVI-TV (ABC Channel 6) in Philadelphia until he retired in 2022, known professionally as Jim Gardner, James Goldman turns 78... Canadian philanthropist and the first woman to serve as lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia, Myra Ava Freeman turns 77... Corporate and securities attorney at NYC's Eilenberg & Krause, he serves as counsel for Israeli technology companies doing business in the U.S., Sheldon Krause turns 71... Comedian, puppeteer and actor, Marc Weiner turns 71... Founder and president of ENS Resources, a D.C.-based consulting and lobbying firm focused on natural resources and sustainable energy, Eric Sapirstein turns 70... Special correspondent for Marketplace by American Public Media, David Brancaccio turns 66... Author of the 2005 book Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish and a 2017 book about Jewish holidays, she is an honorary president of NYC's Central Synagogue, Abigail Pogrebin... and her identical twin sister, Robin Pogrebin, reporter on the culture desk for The New York Times, both turn 61... Formerly the general manager for corporate strategy at Microsoft and an EVP at Hillel, she is mounting a bid for Washington's congressional delegate seat, Kinney Zalesne turns 60… Retired CPA and founder of the Baltimore Hunger Project, it provides food packs for the weekend that are discretely slipped into poverty-stricken public-school children's backpacks each Friday, Lynne Berkowitz Kahn... Israeli author and playwright, Sarah Blau turns 53... Reporter for The New York Times covering politics, campaigns and elections, Reid J. Epstein... Former member of Knesset, when elected in 2013 she became the youngest female Knesset member in Israel's history, Stav Shaffir turns 41... Founder of Sound Strategies and digital strategy advisor to Democratic organizations and candidates, Jenna Ruth Lowenstein... Social media and content integration brand strategist at AARP, Sarah Sonies... Senior writer at Microsoft's AI at Work group, Rebecca Rose Nelson Kay... Retired Israeli judoka, he was the 2019 World Champion and won a team bronze medal at the 2020 Olympics, Sagi Aharon Muki turns 34... Director of congregational engagement at Mount Zion Hebrew Congregation in St. Paul, Minn., Heather Renetzky... Senior communications manager at Rystad Energy, she was an assistant area director in the Houston office of AIPAC, Katherine “Katie” Keenan...