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Your Daily Phil |
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JUNE 30, 2026
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the recent controversy over an Oregon cafe that publicly refused a donation from a Jewish federation and report on the Jewish Agency for Israel laying the cornerstone for 1,000 housing units in the Western Negev. We feature an opinion piece by Rahel Gruenberg about what the Jewish community can learn from the pride movement about the power of choosing visibility; and Steven Windmueller reflects on what America has given its Jews and vice versa as the Semiquincentennial approaches. Also in this issue: Nadav Eyal, Tehila Reuben and Liel Asulin.
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What We're Watching
The Jewish Agency’s Board of Governor meeting concludes today in Tel Aviv.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington will hold a “Zionist LGBTQ+ celebration” on the last day of Pride Month in memory of slain embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim’s allyship.
In Israel, Reichman University’s Herzliya Conference kicks off, focusing this year on national security and national resilience.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP'S JUDAH ARI GROSS
In back-to-back-to-back-to-back incidents, from Brooklyn to San Francisco to Portland, Ore., the past two weeks have seen the concerted ostracizing of American Jewish civic life, seemingly pushing all but the most fringe members of the community out of polite society.
The most recent of the incidents played out in the progressive stronghold of Portland, and it was the second centered around a coffee shop. In an extended social media post, Josh White, the owner of Portland’s nonprofit Heretic Coffee, which started distributing meals to people in need last year, wrote that two weeks prior it had received “a grant check from The Jewish Federation” that he said he was “ripp[ing] up” and throwing in the trash because of the federation system’s emergency fundraising for Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks. “We still don't know why they sent us this check or what their intent was,” White wrote in his post.
As the social media post spread, garnering nearly 12,000 “likes” on Facebook, many who had seen it reached out to the local Jewish Federation of Greater Portland for explanation. The answer was a combination of misunderstanding and ignorance. The check that the coffee shop had received did not, in fact, come from Portland’s Jewish federation. It came from the Jewish Federation of the Bay Area, and it was not a grant in the common understanding of the word. The funds came from the holder of a donor-advised fund that the San Francisco federation operates. They had wanted to help feed hungry people.
News
CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
On a kibbutz hit hard on Oct. 7, Jewish Agency breaks ground on 1,000 homes
At Ein HaShlosha in southern Israel, on the same grounds where Hamas terrorists killed four kibbutz members in the Oct. 7 terror attacks, hundreds of Jewish leaders from around the world — in Israel for the Jewish Agency for Israel’s (JAFI) three-day Board of Governors meeting — gathered on Monday to lay the cornerstone for up to 1,000 new housing units across the communities of the Western Negev, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet.
Funding framework: The roughly NIS 1.5 billion ($500 million) in construction costs comes from three sources: about 10% in equity from the communities themselves, some 15% in government grants and the remaining 75% in bank loans taken on by the Jewish Agency.
Opinion
LOUD AND PROUD
Making antisemitism irrelevant
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Rahel Gruenberg, national recruitment and operations manager for ElevatEd, draws inspiration from the LGBTQ community and Pride Month to propose that joyful visibility can be a powerful response to hate.
“Every form of oppression is unique, and I am not suggesting direct equivalence between antisemitism and homophobia. But I do think there is something worth learning from how other communities relate to the hatred they face. How can Jews today embrace Jewish joy in the atmosphere of rising antisemitism?”
AMERICA AT 250
How Jews reinvented themselves — and America
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Steven Windmueller, emeritus professor of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, explores how American ideals have shaped the country’s Jewish community and how, in turn, American Jews have shaped the country.
“America transformed Jews from a marginal minority into one of the world's most vibrant and flourishing Jewish communities. At the same time, Jews contributed to the development of a more pluralistic American society. To borrow and adapt [historian Oscar] Handlin's insight: The history of the Jews in America is not simply the story of a minority adapting to a nation; it is part of the story of how this nation itself was made.”
Worthy Reads
More Than Religion: In his Substack “Between Us,” Nadav Eyal argues that New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's rejection of Israel as a Jewish state wrongly reduces Judaism to a religion and erases Jewish peoplehood. "[George] Washington promised the children of Abraham that none would make them afraid. That is the American tradition Mamdani is asking New York to forget."
Liquidity Isn't Generosity: In his Substack “Reply-ell,” Lyell Sakaue contends that the coming wave of AI-fueled philanthropy will be limited less by where to give than by the hard task of getting donors to actually move the money. "The hard part of philanthropy at this scale is rarely finding somewhere worthy to put the money. The hard part is getting the money to move at all."
Community Comms
Engage in pressing issues together with your board! This fall, Spertus Institute is offering its Leadership Certificate in Combating Antisemitism for both professionals and board members in the Jewish community. Two cohorts with intentional shared learning opportunities for strategic engagement and immediate application in your community! Learn more and apply by August 3.
SPONSORED | Email us to place an advertisement to the eJP readership of your upcoming event, job opening or other announcement.
Major Gifts
A crowdfunding campaign for Venezuela’s Jewish community has so far raised nearly $1 million following twin earthquakes that devastated large portions of the country…
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund approved a NIS 13 million ($4.4 million) initiative to provide wildfire response equipment for 94 central Israel communities located near forests…
Transitions
Yair Rosenberg was hired by the New York Times to cover Jewish life in America, reports Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen…
Tehila Reuben was selected to be the interim CEO of Masorti Olami…
Shira Shapira, the mother of Oct. 7 hero Aner Shapira, resigned from her role as deputy director general of the Ministry of Heritage in order to explore joining a political party list for the upcoming election…
Liel Asulin was named by Save a Child's Heart as its new director of resource development…
Gabriel Rosenberg started working at CyberWell as its new director of communications…
Luke Moon, a conservative Christian critic of right-wing antisemitism who broke with the Heritage Foundation in November over its president's defense of Tucker Carlson, has rejoined the think tank as a part-time visiting fellow on antisemitism, Jewish Insider's Gabby Deutch reports…
Word on the Street
Jewish Australian philanthropist Steven Lowy advocated for arming the Community Security Group NSW to protect public gatherings following a fatal terror attack at Bondi Beach, during his testimony at the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion yesterday…
A number of foreign airlines — including Lufthansa, ITA, Austrian Airlines, SWISS Air and Brussels Airlines — are gradually returning to Ben Gurion Airport with expanded flight schedules…
Chabad’s website features the translated and edited transcript of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s 1975 talk on America's founding faith and divine destiny ahead of this weekend’s July Fourth celebrations…
The New York Times interviews Jennifer Mnookin, who tomorrow will begin her role as Columbia University’s fifth president in four years — and first Jewish leader in three decades…
Asked about Israel’s intention to recognize the Armenian Genocide, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, “We do not see a need for response,” adding that it is in his country’s interest to avoid “the weaponization of the Armenian Genocide”...
Photo of the Day
BRENDO PHOTOGRAPHY
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee speaks on Sunday night at a special America 250 celebration by the Israeli-American Council, which was hosted in Tel Aviv by American Israeli philanthropist Shari Arison.
Amid growing concerns that America and Israel are drifting apart, Huckabee said that the countries are “never going to be that stupid” that they would end their alliance. “When people asked me are we going to break up, I say, not a chance, because neither country can afford the alimony if we ever broke up,” he quipped. “That’s why we will be partners for as long as there is.”
Philanthropist Dr. Miriam Adelson, Israeli entrepreneur and philanthropist Yakir Gabay and IAC CEO Elan S. Carr also attended the gathering. The IAC announced that prior to the event, in partnership with the Ruderman Family Foundation, it had organized a gathering of American and Israeli philanthropists, who held a “strategic discussion on strengthening the U.S.-Israel relationship and deepening ties between Israeli society and the American-Jewish community.”
Birthdays
MATHEW TSANG/GETTY IMAGES
David Frum, staff writer at The Atlantic, podcaster, author of 10 books and former Bush 43 speechwriter, turns 66
Leedel Chittim Williamson, Rapid City, S.D., resident, turns 82
Dr. David Peter Bartos, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., resident, podiatrist
David Altshuler, executive coach to nonprofit leaders, he was the founding director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage
Dov Hikind, former New York state assemblyman for 36 years, he is the founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, turns 76
Daniel Goldhagen, former Harvard professor and author of books on the Holocaust and antisemitism, turns 67
Stuart Jeff Rabner, chief justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, turns 66
Victoria Michelle Kaspi, professor of astrophysics at McGill University, turns 59
Karla Van Praag, independent philanthropic advisor, formerly the founding executive director of JOIN for Justice: the Jewish Organizing Institute and Network
Aaron David Rubin, professor of Jewish studies at the University of Georgia, he is the co-editor of a handbook on 25 different Jewish languages, turns 50
Matthew "Matthue" Roth, columnist, author, poet and screenwriter, turns 48f
Darren Rovell, former sports business analyst and reporter, now focused on the collectibles market, turns 48
Matthew Paul Miller, reggae and alternative rock musician, known by his stage name Matisyahu, turns 47
Kyle J. Plotkin, partner at OnMessage Public Strategies, turns 44
Elizabeth Anne "Lizzy" Caplan, flm and television actor., turns 44
Noam Lustiger, senior software engineer at Bloomberg LP
Erica Marom (Chernofsky), chief marketing officer for Aleph Venture Capital
Stephanie Hausner, COO at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations
Jordan Levine, head coach of the men's lacrosse program at Long Island University, turns 40
Julie Ashley Zetlin, rhythmic gymnast who represented the U.S. at the 2012 Olympic Games, now a fitness coach and personal trainer, turns 36
Michal Adar, English teacher in Tel Aviv
Abbey Taub, real estate director at AIPAC in New York
Saturday & Sunday birthdays will be posted on the web version — have a great weekend. See this weekend’s birthdays →
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