Your Daily Phil |
OCTOBER 28, 2026
GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we examine the Jewish world’s reactions to yesterday’s elections in Israel. We cover CNN commentator Van Jones’ warnings about antisemitism in the Black community at last night’s American Friends of Magen David Adom gala in New York, and spotlight a Jewish and Israeli aid worker delegation’s attendance at a recent international humanitarian-aid conference. We feature an opinion piece by Ruben Arquilevich about expanding the way immersive Jewish programs measure success and a piece by Todd Polikoff about some of his takeaways from Kivunim, a leadership seminar for JCC executives and their counterparts at community centers in Israel. Also in this issue: Judy Karofsky, J. David Heller and Noah Wyle.
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What We're Watching
We are keeping an eye on the results of yesterday’s elections in Israel as poll workers continue to tally the ballots. More on this below.
OneFamily is hosting a gala event in New York City this evening.
The Milken Global Investors' Symposium kicks off today in Mexico City. Pershing Square’s Bill Ackman is slated to speak this morning about financial markets in a sit-down with Milken Institute CEO Richard Ditizio.
The Jewish Federations of North America’s small business loan fund that was launched in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks will be honored tomorrow at an event at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Judah Ari Gross.
What You Should Know
A QUICK WORD FROM eJP'S JUDAH ARI GROSS
For the first time since the Oct. 7 terror attacks, Israelis headed to the polls in droves yesterday, with the highest turnout rate so far this century. While these elections are perceived by many to be of enormous consequence not only to the country but to Jewry writ large, the initial indications — showing no bloc with a clear path to a majority without breaking a campaign promise or two — have left much of the Jewish world, well, speechless, or at least reduced to banal statements.
Even as workers continue to hand-count the millions of paper ballots cast yesterday — 4,421,561, as of the most recent count at 12:32 p.m. local time, with 84% of the votes counted — two results are already clear: barring truly unforeseen developments, the next Israeli government will not look like its current one; and Arab Israelis, who turned out in unprecedented numbers, have become a more potent political force in the country than ever.
Without a clear vision for what the next government will look like, most Diaspora Jewish groups are primarily hailing the country for its impassioned electorate. “Israel’s vibrant democracy is on full display in today’s election. Israeli elections are always consequential, but this one carries particular significance for the country and its relationships with the United States, American Jewry, and the broader Middle East,” Betsy Berns Korn and William Daroff, the chair and CEO, respectively, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said in a statement. “We wish Israel well as its leaders work to form a new government and unite the country around a shared path forward.”
News
AID ALLIANCE
Pushing back on quiet boycotts, delegation highlights Jewish, Israeli aid workers at global confab
In the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and the ensuing war in Gaza, many Israeli and Jewish humanitarian-aid professionals have felt isolated, often subjected to boycotts. Israeli aid initiatives have struggled to attain funding from foreign sources, and aid workers have reported being exposed to discrimination and hostility at work and international conferences. To ensure a Jewish and Israeli presence and to have a seat at the table at AidEx, one of the largest gatherings of humanitarian-aid professionals in the world, Olam, the Society of International Development Israel and Nura Global Innovation Lab partnered to bring a 22-person delegation representing eight countries to Geneva for the conference, which was held on Oct. 21-22, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher reports.
Absent in Geneva: Given the treatment that Jewish and Israeli aid workers have faced, it was perhaps no surprise that the State of Israel had no official representation at last week’s AidEx conference, despite the country regularly taking part in international relief operations following natural and man-made disasters.
COMMON CAUSE
At MDA gala, Van Jones calls antisemitism ‘poison that is being put in’ the Black community
CNN commentator Van Jones warned on Tuesday that antisemitism threatens the historic alliance between Black Americans and Jews, cautioning that young people are being targeted by online messaging aimed at turning them against Israel, as he was honored at the American Friends of Magen David Adom’s annual New York City gala, Jewish Insider's Haley Cohen reports. “Jew hatred is poison that is being put into my community, and I’m trying to fight for my community to not get tricked into turning against the only friend we’ve ever had,” Jones said.
Giving thanks: “If you like American democracy, thank a Black, thank a Jew,” Jones told the crowd at Cipriani Wall Street, while wearing a blue square pin on his lapel — a symbol of Robert Kraft’s Blue Square Alliance Against Hate, at whose inaugural gala Jones spoke last week.
Opinion
METRICS ON MY MIND
The most important Jewish learning isn't always on the schedule
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Ruben Arquilevich, vice president of URJ Camps and Immersives at the Union for Reform Judaism, explores what it would look like to design immersive programs with relational outcomes in mind alongside operational ones.
“Too often in Jewish communal life, we measure success by what we can count: attendance, registrations, programs offered or sessions delivered. Those metrics tell us something about our reach, but they don’t tell us whether someone found a mentor, discovered a sense of belonging, built meaningful friendships or felt empowered to take ownership of their Jewish life. Relationships shouldn’t be viewed as a happy byproduct of great programming, but as one of their primary goals.”
LEARNING OPPORTUNITY
What Israel’s community centers taught me about ours
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Todd Polikoff, CEO of the Aaron Family Jewish Community Center in Dallas, highlights similarities and differences he observed between North American JCCs and Israeli community centers, or matnasim, during his time at Kivunim, a leadership seminar in Israel for JCC and matnas executives held earlier this month.
“[The matnas] treats the neighborhood itself as the work: Who in the neighborhood is missing from the room and what it would take for them to come in? That is a harder standard than the one most of us use, and I think it is the right one. A JCC that measures itself by membership numbers alone will drift toward becoming a very good gym with a Jewish name. A JCC that measures itself by whether different kinds of people in its community actually meet one another is doing something no one else in town can do.”
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Worthy Reads
Main Street for Sale: In The New York Times, Western Michigan University professor Doug Lepisto warns that boomers selling their businesses to private equity will pull local ownership into a few wealthy cities. “For a long time, America has treated local business ownership as a private matter. But when millions of owners reach the exit at the same time, private decisions become a national reckoning. The question is whether America will renew a culture of local empowerment or let economic control keep concentrating in the places that already have it.”
Community Comms
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Major Gifts
Transitions
J. David Heller was officially elected the next chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s board of governors at its meeting this week…
Word on the Street
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports from Squirrel Hill where community members gathered Tuesday to remember the 11 people killed at Tree of Life eight years ago. At the gathering, the University of Pittsburgh’s Chancellor Emeritus Mark Nordenberg asked the crowd whether the city’s unity against hate has endured…
Inside Philanthropy examines how New Pluralists, a cross-ideological funder collaborative, is using a $5 million round from its Breakthrough Fund to back seven projects that bridge class divides on issues such as housing and AI data centers…
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation confirmed that Iranian operatives tied to the Revolutionary Guard spent two months targeting Jewish Australian journalist Sharri Markson…
PBS covers how American clergy from different faiths are training to calm tensions at polling places on Election Day…
Community Credit Union of Florida has sued to foreclose on L’Chaim Farm, the Dania Beach property that houses Lasso Kosher Grill, for defaulting on a $3.9 million loan…
Jewish actor and star of “The Pitt,” Noah Wyle, was named People magazine’s 2026 Sexiest Man Alive; philanthropist and activist Sheryl Sandberg applauded Wyle for saying that he does the dishes at home, calling it “choreplay”…
A Torah ark curtain and sash said to have been looted on Kristallnacht and later bought by a Holocaust survivor has been returned from Phoenix’s Temple Chai to Berlin’s Jewish community…
Israel canceled the electronic entry permits of New York congressional candidate Brad Lander and other progressive Jewish activists and rabbis detained last week at a West Bank olive harvest…
Photo of the Day
COURTESY/AMERICAN ZIONIST MOVEMENT
Jewish communal professionals watch Israeli Election Day coverage yesterday at the Jewish Federations of North America offices in Washington at a watch-party event organized by the American Zionist Movement.
Among those in attendance were: William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations; Sheila Katz, JFNA’s chief Jewish life officer; Scott Lasensky, an author, diplomat and Jewish educator; Joel Rubin, a progressive strategist and former State Department official; Howard Mortman C-SPAN’s communications director; and Matt Dorf, the founder and president of West End Strategy Team.
“As American Zionists, we care deeply about what goes on in Israel,” Herbert Block, AZM executive director, told Jewish Insider’s Emily Jacobs for eJewishPhilanthropy at the event. “How governments are put together is sometimes messy behind the scenes, but it's important that we show our support for Israel, that we show the people of Israel that we care. It’s important that they know we're following what's happening there because it impacts us, like what happens here impacts them.”
Birthdays
JEWISH FEDERATION OF THE BLUEGRASS/FACEBOOK
Mindy Haas, executive director of the Jewish Federation of the Bluegrass in Lexington, Ky., and a member of Kentucky’s Antisemitism Task Force
Rabbi Adolf Shayevich, rabbi of the Moscow Choral Synagogue, turns 89
Rabbi David Twersky, spiritual leader of the village of New Square (in Rockland County, N.Y.) and Hasidic rebbe of Skverer Hasidism worldwide, turns 86
Dennis Franz, retired actor best known for his role as NYPD Det. Andy Sipowicz in “NYPD Blue,” turns 82
Sofa Landver, former member of the Knesset for the Yisrael Beiteinu party, she also served as minister of aliyah and integration, turns 77
Faye Ginsburg, anthropology professor at NYU, she won a 1994 MacArthur genius fellowship, turns 74
Rabbi Benjamin Scolnic, rabbi at Temple Beth Sholom in Hamden, Conn., turns 73
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, turns 71
David Louis Finkel, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, he is a 2012 MacArthur genius fellow, turns 71
Rachel Levine, four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and assistant secretary for health, both throughout the Biden administration, turns 69
Jackie Levy, former member of the Knesset for Likud, he then served as mayor of Beit She’an, Israel, turns 66
Bob Melvin, manager of MLB’s San Francisco Giants until the end of the 2025 season, he has been named Manager of the Year three times, turns 65
Maurizio Molinari, Italian journalist, he served as editor-in-chief of the daily la Repubblica from 2020 until 2024, turns 62
Jami Gertz, actor and investor, she is a part-owner of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, turns 61
Tony Levine, owner of a Chick-fil-A franchise in the Houston area, he was a collegiate and an NFL football coach, turns 54
Jacob “Jake” Kasdan, film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor, turns 52
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix, Academy and Grammy Award-winning actor, turns 52
Yaakov “Kobi” Peretz, Israeli singer in the Mizrahi style, turns 51
Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, member of the California State Assembly (D-16), turns 48
Oren Hazan, member of the Knesset for the Likud party from 2015 to 2019, turns 45
Adam Kwasman, member of the city council of Scottsdale, Ariz., turns 44
Elliot Schwab, president at Apex Healthcare Properties
Avital “Tali” Warburg Goldstein, director of member experience strategy at Oscar Health
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