In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we look at how mainstream Jewish groups rallied around New York City Comptroller Mark Levine after he backed off a campaign pledge to reinvest city pension dollars in Israel bonds, and report on Repair the World reaching 1 million acts of Jewish service. We feature an opinion piece by Anita Friedman spotlighting an effort to expand Holocaust education in California to encompass more about Jews than just the Holocaust and a piece by Rabbi Daniel Brenner about the importance of offering Jewish boys and young men healthy models of masculinity. Also in this issue: Raj Patel, Scott Shleifer and Elena Shleifer and Jeffrey Kress.

Shabbat shalom!

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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: Artist, philanthropist Barbara Hines, who discovered Jewish roots late in life, opens first Israeli show; Visiting Israel, Steven H. Lavin donates $30M to Hebrew University to boost physician training; First female Haredi candidate promises reform to ultra-Orthodox politics. Print the latest edition here.

What We're Watching

Hebrew University will host the opening reception of its 89th Board of Governors meeting Saturday evening on the Edmond J. Safra campus in Jerusalem, with former hedge fund manager and philanthropist John Paulson as the guest of honor and Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion also slated to attend. 

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund’s World Leadership Conference kicks off Sunday and runs through Thursday in the Galilee with about 100 leaders from 33 countries and Israeli President Isaac Herzog meeting northern residents and officials to plan the region’s recovery.

What You Should Know

A day after New York City Comptroller Mark Levine sparked criticism by backing off a campaign promise to reinvest the city’s pension dollars in State of Israel bonds, mainstream Jewish groups rallied around the historically pro-Israel Democrat — though sources said they expect a change in his investment policy in the months ahead, reports Will Bredderman for eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider.

Sources told JI that a rule change instituted by his predecessor, Brad Lander, which barred investment in multiyear bonds of the sort Israel makes available to New York City to buy — and not the allusions to domestic and geopolitical issues confronting Israel — was the reason why Levine had not made good on his pledge to recommit city pensions to Israeli treasuries. 

Jewish community groups responded positively to the comptroller’s post, with the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York praising his “thoughtful statement” and “his commitment to honoring his promises,” and UJA-Federation of New York thanking him for “this important clarifying statement and for the work you do on behalf of all New Yorkers.” 

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

News

TONS OF TIKKUN

The acts of service piled up slowly, one at a time, starting in 2019 — cleaning up a park, helping kids after school — each time tying the hands-on work to a Jewish text. By the time stakeholders of the nonprofit Repair the World gathered on Tuesday night in Atlanta, the tens of thousands of volunteers that fuel the organization had completed a staggering 1 million acts of service and learning, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports. The goal, set six years ago, was expected to take 10 years. Repair achieved it four years early. 

Remote control: In the past six years, Repair the World grew drastically: in 2019, the organization had 35 full-time staff; today it has 59. The budget increased from $6.2 million in 2020 to $15.5 million in 2027. Locations chosen for embedded employees are decided based on funder appetite, the readiness of organizations to increase service work and the potential audience in each location. Often, embedded partners start out by participating in national campaigns, such as the recent National Days of Jewish Service, which ran from Sept. 10 to Oct. 10. Funding for the new embedded employees was provided by the Samuels Family Foundation, the Russell Berrie Foundation and the Samueli Foundation.

Read the full report →

Opinion

THE MORE YOU KNOW

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Anita Friedman delves into the effort to improve Holocaust education in the largest public school system in the U.S. Friedman is the executive director of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties, board president of the Koret Foundation and co-chair of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Council on Holocaust and Genocide Education.

“The Jewish community has invested heavily and for decades in museums, curricula, teacher institutes, films, books, survivor testimony and educational programs. These efforts have had an important impact — but even the finest curriculum changes little if most teachers never receive it, if schools lack the resources to use it or if no one measures whether it is reaching students and deepening understanding. A statewide strategy helps answer a question our community has not always asked rigorously enough: What actually works?”

Read the full piece →

MODEL BEHAVIOR

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Rabbi Daniel Brenner, vice president of education for Moving Traditions, reflects on recent news items about sexual assault on campus, including one involving a Jewish fraternity, and the opportunity and obligation Jewish educators have to support the moral development of boys and young men.

“To break this cycle, teen boys and young men often need to hear from other men about alternative ways to embrace masculinity. That is why we have trained over 300 men to lead Shevet in their communities and have continued to train mentors even as #MeToo-related grant money and communal support for this type of gender-aware educational approach has pretty much dried up.”

Read the full piece →

Worthy Reads

Promises, Promises: In The Atlantic, Suleiman Maswadeh, the senior U.S. correspondent for Israel’s Channel 13 News, posits that Gadi Eisenkot, who is leading in the polls in the race for Israeli prime minister, can’t assemble a 61-seat majority without the Haredi or Arab parties he has vowed to shun, meaning Israel’s next government will likely rest on a broken campaign pledge. “One thing is already clear: Whoever becomes Israel’s next prime minister will have to break a promise or two to get there. It may be the hardest decision of that person’s career. Unless that person is Netanyahu, whose political career is on the verge of ending: He will do anything, and that means anything, to save it.”

Bad Harvest: In the Financial Times, Raj Patel, a professor at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs, argues that foundations owe the public an honest reckoning when their initiatives fall short, pointing to the Gates Foundation’s continued funding of an African farming initiative that has absorbed more than $1.5 billion without reducing hunger. “Philanthropy is most defensible when it enlarges public possibility, not when private judgment displaces democratic choice. Philanthropists should recognise that the rent due on their moral high ground is accountability.” 

Conflicted Constituents: In MS NOW, publisher of the newsletter “Truth and Consequences” and podcast host Michael A. Cohen examines why many lifelong Democrats among Michigan Jews are agonizing over whether to back Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed, with some crossing over to Republican Mike Rogers. “The soul-searching moment for Michigan Jews is that they are being put in this position at all. And the tragedy is that the party they’ve called home for most of their lives no longer feels so welcoming.”

Leading Roles

SPONSORED | On Fridays, we share sponsored job listings from across the Jewish nonprofit world. Email us to post a position.

Major Gifts

Scott Shleifer and Elena Shleifer donated $20 million to the University of Pennsylvania to provide undergraduates with financial aid and scholarships…

Transitions

Jewish Theological Seminary Provost Jeffrey Kress announced he will end his role at the end of the academic year and return to his role as the Dr. Bernard Heller professor of Jewish education…

Rebecca Shiner started a new role as vice president of planning operations at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto…

Nadav Benjo joined MAOZ as its director of business development and strategic partnerships…

American Friends of Magen David Adom appointed Anat Barber as its director of strategic philanthropy in the Northeast region…

Brian J. Hertz announced he joined the Israel Policy Forum as deputy director of its young leadership network of Jewish and foreign policy professionals…

Word on the Street

The Washington Post reports on a leaked list of the donors footing the bill for President Donald Trump’s $333 million White House ballroom, including Jewish donors such as Miriam Adelson’s Adelson Family Foundation ($25 million) and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Foundation ($20.3 million), along with Paul Singer, Jeff Yass and Stephen Schwarzman who each donated $5 million…

Beit Halochem opened a post-traumatic stress disorder treatment center in Ashdod, Israel, funded in part by £13 million ($17.35 million) from British donors, which will serve about 10,000 wounded veterans…

A record 35 women could be sworn into Israel’s next Knesset, largely due to centrist parties’ gender quotas, even as no viable political party has a female leader…

Harvard’s endowment posted a $100 million surplus for fiscal 2026, cutting staff to offset lost federal research money while its endowment returned 27.1% and donors gave a record $684 million in immediately spendable gifts…

Wiz co-founder Assaf Rappaport is poised to buy McDonald’s Israel franchise’s 230 branches for roughly 1 billion shekels ($320 million)...

The MacArthur Foundation is asking prospective grantees whether their advocacy opposes Trump administration positions as part of a broader tightening of foundation vetting amid fears of federal retaliation..

A Hamburg court jailed two men for plotting, on Iranian intelligence orders, to kill Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and pro-Israel German politician Volker Beck; one received an 8 ½-year sentence, the other a 4 ½-year sentence…

A Nazi-looted painting by Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, which was returned to its heirs in 2023, sold for almost $42 million at an auction in London on Wednesday…

Jerusalem News Syndicate reports Paraguay announced that it will pursue full membership in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and adopt its IHRA working definition of antisemitism, making it the eighth country in Latin America to do so…

Photo of the Day

HALEY COHEN/EJEWISHPHILANTHROPY

Supporters of the Israeli nonprofit Shalva, which supports people with disabilities, attend a poker fundraising event for the group last night in New York City. 

Birthdays

FUZHEADO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/CC-BY-4.0

Sue Bird, retired basketball player for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association, she has five Olympic gold medals, turns 46 on Friday.

FRIDAY

Shimon Mizrahi, Israeli attorney, chairman of Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball, turns 87

Alfred Altschul, retired CFO of Amtrak, Midway Airlines and Airlines Reporting Corporation, turns 87

Morton A. Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), turns 79

David Zucker, film director, producer, screenwriter and creator of “The Naked Gun” franchise, turns 79

Andrew S. Zimbalist, professor emeritus of economics at Smith College and author of 28 books, turns 79

Marvin C. Feuer, vice president for strategy at AIPAC

Elinor Lipman, novelist, short story writer and essayist, turns 76

Shmuel Slavin, chairman of Sela Capital Real Estate Ltd., he previously served as the director-general of Israel's Ministry of Finance, turns 73

Jeff Narod, executive director of Clark University Hillel

David Linsky, member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives since 1999, turns 69

Daniel Benjamin, president of the American Academy in Berlin, he was the coordinator for counterterrorism during the Obama administration, turns 65

Marc Levy, bestselling French novelist, one of whose books was made into Steven Spielberg's “Just like Heaven,” turns 65

Howard David Krein, otolaryngologist who also specializes in facial and reconstructive surgery, turns 60

Scott Tobin, senior advisor at Battery Ventures’ Israel's office

Adam Fetterman, attorney in North Palm Beach, Fla., he served in the Florida House of Representatives, turns 56

Gil Kenan, filmmaker, best known for directing “Monster House” and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” turns 50

Kala Savage, actor best known for her television roles in “Undressed,” “Santa Barbara” and “8 Simple Rules,” turns 48

Brandon Jared Perlman, founder and CEO at Social Studies, Inc., he is also the founder of The Gramlist

Boyd Melson, three-time U.S. Army light-middleweight boxing champion, he boxed with a Star of David on his trunks, turns 45

Jason Langsner, vice president of data at The Atlantic

Margalit Rosenthal, West Coast regional director at Foundation for Jewish Camp

Avi Fink, senior vice president for financial planning and analysis at Vibrant Emotional Health

Devora Kaye, senior director of communications at Mark43

Sam Ginsberg, business analyst at LWF Group and project manager at Aqualinq

Saturday & Sunday birthdays will be posted on the web version — have a great weekend. See this weekend's birthdays →

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