Your Daily Phil |
OCTOBER 21, 2026
GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report from Budapest on the final convening of the first cohort of President Isaac Herzog’s Voice of the People. We examine the Nathan Cummings Foundation’s decision to widen its Israel grantmaking to include Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and report on JFNA’s new $35 million initiative to combat antisemitism. We feature an opinion piece by Jeremy Bannett encouraging Jewish organizations to join their peers who, with help from A More Perfect Union, are providing nonpartisan election support in communities across the U.S.; and a piece by Rabbis Brent Chaim Spodek and Jason Kimelman-Block proposes a different sales pitch for Judaism. Also in this issue: Rabbi Steven Abraham, Rachel Sussman and Bar Reuven.
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What We're Watching
The AidEx conference, focused on humanitarian aid and disaster relief, kicks off today in Geneva. Organized by the umbrella group Olam, a 22-person delegation of Jewish and Israeli aid and development professionals will attend the gathering.
Today, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund is concluding its conference in the Galilee focused on recovery efforts in Israel’s North this week, as it marks NIS 1 billion ($322.8 million) allocated to the region.
Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate is holding its inaugural benefit tonight, where the group will honor Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan.
In Israel, voting is underway at military polling stations around the country ahead of Election Day next week.
What You Should Know
In a hotel along the Danube River in Budapest, Hungary, members of the inaugural cohort of Voice of the People — President Isaac Herzog’s global Jewish dialogue initiative — met in person this week for one last time, debating the challenges facing the Jewish People and discussing their efforts to address them, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet from the gathering.
Speaking with eJP on the sidelines of the convening, Voice of the People CEO Shirel Dagan Levy said that the group has made some changes to its operations in light of criticism from members of its first cohort, calling the initiative’s inaugural members “early adopters” who are now helping design — and playing a role in selecting — the next cohort.
At the gathering, Herzog told reporters that Israel must listen more closely to Jews abroad as decisions made by Israeli politicians affect them as well. “We in Israel care for you, and we ought to improve our listening capabilities to all of you, because we know, and I know, that whatever we do or say in Israel affects Jews around the world. We should take it into account,” he said.
News
GREEN LINE GAMBLE
Nathan Cummings Foundation expands its Israel portfolio to include West Bank, Gaza
When the Nathan Cummings Foundation board met to write its last strategic plan in 2022, it faced a reckoning: Members felt that the foundation’s values of racial, environmental and economic justice didn’t fully align with the work it was doing in Israel. After conflict broke out both within Israel and between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in 2021, it became clear to many on NCF’s board that the foundation’s activities within Israel’s internationally recognized borders were not enough; they needed to support Palestinians within the West Bank and Gaza Strip, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.
Gotta have faith: Debate over how to invest in Israel and if a foundation should support civilians in the Palestinian territories has “cut families and foundations apart,” Amy Sorensen Ben-Dov, NCF’s board chair, told eJP, but NCF decided to take a hopeful perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and believe that change is possible. “We need to have hope, because if we don’t have hope, then what are we doing here at the end of the day?” she said. “We’re committed to learning, engaging, showing up and being very courageous.”
HIRING SPREE
JFNA announces $35 million, 100-person initiative to combat antisemitism
Jewish federations across North America will be hiring 100 new employees focused on combating antisemitism through frontline advocacy and community relations, Jewish Federations of North America announced today, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports. The new expansion is part of JFNA’s Frontline initiative, a $35 million venture that will provide grants to 120 local Jewish federations.
Hard lessons: “In the aftermath of Oct. 7, our community was very disappointed to see that many people we thought were our allies stayed silent,” said Julie Platt, chair of Frontline and JFNA’s immediate past board chair. “We learned the hard lesson that our civic engagement efforts must be more focused, more targeted and more outcomes-based, and that is exactly what Frontline is designed to do.”
Opinion
CALL TO ACTION
Democracy doesn’t need grand gestures. It needs us to show up, together.
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Jeremy Bannett, vice president of programs and partnerships for A More Perfect Union, spotlights the work of the AMPU’s 2026 Ignition Grant recipients and encourages other Jewish institutions to join the effort to provide nonpartisan support for next month’s midterm elections.
“What interests me most, though, isn’t any single project. It’s that in seven states – Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, New York and Virginia – organizations chose to do this work together rather than separately. What these organizations realized is that a shared, visible commitment across a state carries more weight than the sum of its separate parts...”
A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Why should anyone love Judaism?
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Rabbis Brent Chaim Spodek and Jason Kimelman-Block argue that while “an emphasis on Jewish joy may be a corrective to Jewish identity based on guilt, trauma or nostalgia,” Jewish professionals should do more to emphasize Judaism’s potential to make life better, deeper and more meaningful.
“To be clear, we’re not saying that every synagogue should become a therapy practice or every Shabbat a wellness retreat. Judaism is far more than a self-help program. We’re saying that, in a crowded marketplace of ideas, we must emphasize that Judaism’s wisdom is not just old and rich but also usable. … In this manner, Judaism stops being an inheritance we guilt people into preserving or a product we beg them to consume. It becomes a resource they reach for because it works.”
Worthy Reads
Where’s Golda?: In The Forward, Elluminate’s CEO Melanie Roth Gorelick writes that women hold only about a quarter of Knesset seats ahead of Israel’s Oct. 27 election and urges more support for women-led civil society groups. “The women who have sustained the state throughout years of crisis have demonstrated their capacity to lead. They should not have to prove it again.”
Love without a vote: On his eponymous Substack, Rabbi Steven Abraham reflects on Diaspora Jews’ commitments to Israel, even if a government is elected that they oppose next week. “I do not get a vote in Israel’s election. Nor should I. But I have a relationship with Israel that began long before Netanyahu entered politics and will endure long after he leaves it. I will defend the legitimacy of a free and fair election, even if I dislike its outcome. I will defend the right of Israelis to choose their own leaders, and I will reserve the right to criticize those leaders when I believe they are wrong.”
Community Comms
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Major Gifts
Transitions
Producer and entrepreneur Rachel Sussman was appointed to the board of directors of Jewish Queer Youth...
Joel Kaplan, Meta's chief global affairs officer, is stepping down at the end of 2026 after 15 years in the role…
Gail Reiss was hired by American Friends of Bar-Ilan University as its senior advisor of principal gifts and strategic philanthropy…
Word on the Street
The Jewish Federations of Canada–United Israel Appeal opened a national appeal for families affected by last month’s training fire at CFB Wainwright in Alberta, which killed four soldiers including Pte. Aidan Goulding, a 23-year-old Jewish soldier…
The Israel Music Showcase Festival, set for Nov. 17-22 in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, is expected to draw half as many foreign industry guests as last year because of the cultural boycott of Israel and budget cuts for Israel's Foreign Ministry…
The New York Times spotlights the curious case of a library book that was accidentally returned stuffed full of 100-year-old photos of a Jewish family taken before the Holocaust…
Michael Oren and Jonathan Schanzer agreed that Israel should eventually replace U.S. military aid with a strategic partnership but disagreed on whether it can make the shift during wartime, at Monday’s Sapir Debate series where 61% of the audience still opposed ending aid, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating approximately $80 million to help Democratic candidates around the country in the midterm elections, including $50 million for House races to ensure Democrats have a sizable majority; Bloomberg is not directing money toward candidates aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America…
A new U.K. government-commissioned review that found three in five Jewish students in England have experienced antisemitism calls on schools and colleges to name it as a specific form of hate and act against it…
A New York man charged with manslaughter in the death of a Jewish pedestrian in Queens in May was indicted this week on hate crime charges tied to two incidents of vandalism at a local kosher bagel shop in the days before the hit-and-run accident that killed Cara Trager…
Rivka Kravitsky, who raised a religious family in the Soviet Chabad underground before moving to Israel in 1971 and spending decades cooking lunches for older residents of Kiryat Malachi, died Monday at 90…
Haitian-Jewish businessman Gilbert Bigio, the country’s first billionaire who also courted controversy over his ties to criminal gangs, died at 91…
Photo of the Day
VIDEOSERVICENYC
Members of Israel’s elite heliborne search-and-rescue Unit 669 demonstrate their skills last week at a gala event for American Friends of Unit 669 in New York City. A similar event was held a few days prior in Los Angeles.
“Three years after the horrors of Oct. 7, the war is not over for the men and women of Unit 669,” Bar Reuven, co-founder and executive director of AFU669, said in a statement. “These galas remind our heroes that they do not carry that burden alone. The support of American communities in Los Angeles and New York City gives this generation of lions the strength to keep going back into danger, again and again, to save a life.”
Birthdays
RACHEL ALROEY/FLASH90LIOR MIZRAHI/FLASH90
Ninet Tayeb, Israeli musician, model and actor, turns 43
Judith Sheindlin, Emmy Award-winning reality courtroom personality known as “Judge Judy,” turns 84
Larry Kane, news anchor who worked for 36 years in Philadelphia and author of three books on the Beatles, turns 84
Shaye Cohen, professor emeritus of Hebrew literature and philosophy at Harvard University, turns 78
Terri Smooke, commissioner of the Architectural and Design Review Commission of Beverly Hills
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel, turns 77
Amy Ephron, novelist, screenwriter, journalist and film producer, turns 74
Nieca Goldberg, cardiologist and clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, turns 69
Brian Rosman, legislative analyst at InstaTrac, a leading Massachusetts legislative tracking and information service
Ari Bergmann, managing principal and chief investment officer at Penso Advisors, turns 65
Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, he was born and raised in a Sephardic family in Thessaloniki, Greece, turns 65
Mitch Davis, Austin-based commercial insurance consultant
David L. Bernstein, founder and CEO of the North American Values Institute, formerly known as the Jewish Institute for Liberal Values, turns 60
Marci Klein, Emmy Award-winning television producer best known for her work on “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock,” turns 59
Ethan Daniel Davidson, folk and folk-rock musician, he serves as the treasurer of The William Davidson Foundation (founded by his father), turns 57
Dafna Linzer, former editorial director at U.S. News & World Report, now advisor to the CEO, turns 56
Ted Budd, U.S. senator (R-NC) since 2023, turns 55
Lera Auerbach, classical composer, conductor and pianist, she is a graduate of Juilliard, turns 53
Alison Barkoff, associate professor at The George Washington University
Kate Gallego, mayor of Phoenix, Ariz., turns 45
Yael Applebaum, occupational therapist
Joshua Sayles, vice president of external affairs at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Hari Nef, actor, model and writer, turns 34
Dan Hazony, consultant for nonprofits after stints at the Orthodox Union and then Aish Global
Eliana Rudee, manager of marketing and communications at the Union for Reform Judaism
Shimmy Jesin, internal medicine resident at Maimonides Hospital in NYC
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