Your Daily Phil |
NOVEMBER 10, 2026
GOOD TUESDAY MORNING.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover Deborah Lipstadt’s acceptance of the Jonathan Sacks Institute Prize at Bar-Ilan University last night, and report from the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly as it marked the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht. We also cover NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch’s acceptance speech at the World Jewish Congress gala, where she received the Herzl Award. We feature an opinion piece by Rabba Daphne Lazar Price, inspired by this year's convergence of Kristallnacht and the Ethiopian Jewish holiday of Sigd in the same week, and a piece by Harvey Lee about looking beyond an unconventional career trajectory to gauge what a job candidate has to offer. Also in this issue: Rabbi Eric Leiderman, Lisa Marchitelli and Debora Cahn.
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What We're Watching
The Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly concludes today in Washington. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Jay Deitcher!
Yeshiva University President Ari Berman will host former Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer this afternoon for a special edition of his “Great Conversations” series on campus. Tonight, Dermer will be speaking at Manhattan’s Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, in a UJA-Federation of New York event moderated by JCRC-NY President David L. Moore.
Also in New York, American Friends of NATAL, the Israeli mental health nonprofit, is holding its annual gala in Manhattan tonight, featuring a performance by released hostage and pianist Alon Ohel.
Dorot, which pairs older New Yorkers with volunteers to combat isolation, marks its 50th anniversary with a gala tonight at the American Museum of Natural History where it will honor former FDNY Commissioner Robert S. Tucker.
The Youth Renewal Fund is holding its fall benefit this evening in New York with the proceeds benefiting the Israeli Darca school network’s Mekif H’ High School in Ashkelon.
What You Should Know
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, a former U.S. antisemitism envoy, offered a new geometry for thinking about the rise of Jew-hatred around the world in recent years. Instead of the the “horseshoe theory” that she once espoused — of the far left and far right almost meeting over shared antisemitism — she now prefers a Venn diagram, connecting the three main groups that both hate Jews and desire to overthrow their respective societies: the far left, the far right and radical Islamists.
“The place where they overlap — antisemitism — is the ideological glue. There’s also a structural element or a functional element in that overlap, and that’s regime change. All three of these sources want to overthrow existing regimes, particularly existing democratic regimes,” Lipstadt said, speaking at Bar-Ilan University outside Tel Aviv last night, where she was presented the Jonathan Sacks Institute Prize for Outstanding Achievement as a Public Intellectual in Memory of Samuel Gewurz, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross reports from the event.
Discussing the recent antisemitic bicycle ride in Philadelphia targeting Jewish-owned businesses, Lipstadt noted that while the antisemitic protest was an immediate failure in the sense that it ended up bringing more businesses to the restaurants that were targeted, it may ultimately prove successful by turning Jewish establishments into something “toxic.”
“And this toxification of Jewish life… it’s because of a very small group of people but very farbrente [fiery] on the progressive left and not only on the progressive left: Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens,” she said, thinking for a moment before adding, “the vice president of the United States and others who are leaning in that direction too. I call it the toxification of Jewish life, making Jewish life toxic, making you think twice.”
News
PHOENIX RISES
JFNA General Assembly grapples with antisemitism, 88 years post-Kristallnacht
The second day of this year’s Jewish Federations of North America annual General Assembly fell on the 88th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, when Nazis ransacked and set fire to thousands of Jewish businesses and synagogues, murdering 91 Jews and shipping 300,000 Jews to concentration camps. The topic of antisemitism was in the air, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher from the gathering in Washington.
Surviving and thriving: “You can't build a Jewish future solely focusing on the reality of antisemitism and anti-Judaism and anti-Israelism,” Rabbi David Ingber, the founding rabbi of Romemu in Manhattan and the GA’s scholar-in-residence, told eJP on the sidelines of the event. “We have to do both, underscore at this moment the precarious quality in various communities of Jewish life, while also advocating for strengthening Jewish vitality. We have to focus on Jewish survival and focus on Jewish thriving… We need both.”
PRIZE PERFORMANCE
At WJC dinner, NYPD chief Tisch calls for all of society to confront antisemitism, not wait for cops
Speaking at the World Jewish Congress’ Herzl Awards dinner on Monday, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch called for all of society to condemn and respond to antisemitism before it turns violent, not leaving it only to law enforcement to address once it does. Tisch made the remarks as she was presented with the Herzl Awards, alongside Axel Springer CEO Matthias Dopfner, eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim reports. “We should not have to wait until a Jewish New Yorker is attacked before we find the courage to confront the hatred directed at them,” Tisch said.
The elephant at the gala: In his remarks at the event, WJC President Ronald Lauder, whose foundation recently announced that it is halting funding for many educational initiatives around the world, reiterated his plea to other funders to pick up the mantle of supporting Jewish schools and institutions internationally.
Opinion
SEASON’S MEANINGS
Broken glass, open doors and a renewed covenant
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Rabba Daphne Lazar Price sees more than an educational opportunity in addressing the disparity between how familiar American Jews are with Kristallnacht compared to Sigd, the Ethiopian Jewish holiday celebrated earlier this week.
“Our peoplehood includes different languages, cultures, religious practices and historical experiences. Recognizing that diversity gives Jewish unity meaning. … We cannot demand inclusion from others while treating inclusion within our own community as optional.”
HUMAN CAPITAL
Why Jewish nonprofits shouldn’t overlook the candidate with the ‘messy’ resume
In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, author Harvey Lee draws on 30 years of experience in marketing and hiring for global brands to argue that hiring managers tend to favor candidates with familiar pedigrees because they feel less risky, but that sometimes an “unfamiliar vessel” might contain exactly what an organization needs.
“I was that candidate once. I left school at 15 and spent years as a rock-and-roll roadie. When Microsoft took me on as employee No. 12 on the original Xbox team, I had no MBA and no formal marketing training. Someone looked past my resume to what I could actually do.”
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Worthy Reads
PAC to Basics: In Politico Magazine, journalist Kathy Gilsinan traces how AIPAC’s move into campaign spending turned the lobby into a midterm issue of its own, as a donor network born of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s backers helped elect 13 incoming Democrats and AIPAC abandoned endorsements. “‘I think it’s a recognition that their new strategy, which is only five years old, was costing them both reputationally and with influence with members,’ said Joel Rubin, a State Department official on the Middle East for legislative affairs during the Obama administration… ‘There’s a crisis in AIPAC-world,’” Rubin said, ‘and everybody knows it.’”
Closing Time: In his Substack “The Jewish Imagination,” Rabbi Eric Leiderman, who co-founded Masorti on Campus, looks back on the 13-year run of the now-closed group, which grew out of a student push to save the Conservative movement’s campus program and awarded nearly $40,000 in grants to 38 campuses. “Fundraising was hard. Lay leaders gave their time, Hillel staff made room, and students hosted peers between classes.”
Community Comms
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Major Gifts
Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky committed $100 million to San Francisco parks, with an initial $39 million already allocated for five projects across the city…
Transitions
Word on the Street
A Torah scroll was completed in honor of philanthropist and GOP donor Sheldon Adelson yesterday at President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla.; among those in attendance were Adelson’s widow, Dr. Miriam Adelson; former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman; and former Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked…
Haute Living covers American Friends of NATAL’s first Miami event, where developers David Martin and Ran Eliasaf urged business leaders to back Israel’s trauma center before a crowd that included Cuba Gooding Jr…
The U.S.-led Board of Peace called on the Israeli government to immediately authorize the entry of essential shelter and winterization supplies into Gaza after severe flooding damaged tents and makeshift shelters across the enclave, calling Israel’s response thus far “insufficient”; the IDF posted on X that it is “advancing a winter preparedness plan” for Gaza, including facilitating the entry of 91,000 tents and 8,200 trucks carrying cold-weather and shelter supplies...
West Bank public schools have run on a three-day week for the fourth straight year, with test scores deteriorating accordingly, as the Palestinian Authority has been squeezed by Israel’s withholding of tax revenues…
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg married his longtime partner, Diana Taylor, in a private ceremony yesterday in their Manhattan home…
Israel’s Tax Authority is recommending an additional tax, paid for by passengers, on flights departing from the country in an effort to address costs resulting from, among other issues, global warming and sound and air pollution…
Yehuda Niv’s Spines, which uses AI to assist authors in publishing books, raised $64 million in a funding round led by Zeev Ventures, with participation from Aleph, NordStar, M-Fund, Lio1nTree and Dan Senor…
J Street released a policy platform for the coming Congress that urges the U.S. to pause offensive weapons deliveries to Israel, phase out direct aid and tie future defense cooperation to Israeli policy, reports Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod…
The Weizmann Institute of Science, the Institute for Advanced Study and the Max Planck Society launched a Berlin-based consortium that will fully fund scholars from across disciplines to spend weeks or up to a year together pursuing open-ended research, the Israeli institution told eJewishPhilanthropy…
“The Diplomat” creator Debora Cahn confirmed that a fourth-season storyline about a World War II soldier named “Hershel Polin” was a deliberate tribute to slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. Cahn told Israeli journalist Dudi Caspi, “His mom, Rachel [Goldberg-Polin], called it a wink, and I liked that. Just a little note of what they went through”...
Singer Pink announced a nine-show residency at Las Vegas’ Sphere next year, which will make her the first female solo headliner at the venue since its opening in 2023…
The Gray Academy of Jewish Education in Winnipeg, Canada, reported its highest enrollment in more than a decade, opening the year with 520 students…
Simon Isaacs, the 4th Marquess of Reading, a British businessman and devout Christian who championed closer ties with Israel and descended from the first Jew raised to a marquessate, died on Oct. 26 at 84…
Julian Brodsky, a Comcast co-founder and longtime finance chief who with his wife, Lois, recently pledged $20 million to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, died last Thursday at 93…
Photo of the Day
HALEY COHEN/EJEWISHPHILANTHROPY
Former hostage Eliya Cohen and his wife, Ziv Abud Cohen (right), speak onstage last night at American Friends of Rabin Medical Center annual gala at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.
Cohen, who was held captive for 505 days, was released to a specially designed ward at Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva, Israel, where a team led by Dr. Noa Eliakim-Raz created all-new protocols to treat him and other hostages. “We developed this whole field in medicine,” Eliakim-Raz told Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen for eJewishPhilanthropy at the gala. “We really made a new specialty, which is complex trauma. It’s nothing that has ever been done. We just wrote an article and had to write it from scratch.”
Three major hospitals in Israel treated the hostages, she said, and “each hospital wrote its own protocol.” She is still meeting with former hostages. “It’s a great privilege to do this, and I will do it as long as I can.”
Birthdays
COURTESY
Jean Weinberg, senior advisor on the public health team at Bloomberg Philanthropies
Murray Kurtzberg, manager of the Decatur, Ga.-based Connect Hearing
Rabbi Yerucham Olshin, one of the four deans of Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J., one of the largest yeshivas in the world, turns 83
Oliver B. Pollak, professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, he is a co-founder of Nebraska Jewish Historical Society, turns 83
Raphael Sonenshein, executive director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, turns 77
Elli Wohlgelernter, Israeli journalist, turns 73
Linda Cohn, former longtime SportsCenter anchor on ESPN, turns 67
Rabbi Michael C. Simon, rabbi at Temple Beth Kodesh in Boynton Beach, Fla.
Adam Ferziger, professor at Bar-Ilan University, he is a social historian, turns 62
Rabbi Ken Chasen, senior rabbi of Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles, turns 61
Shawn Green, former MLB right fielder, he co-founded Greenfly, a software firm for sports and entertainment organizations, turns 54
Benjamin Pauker, national security editor at The Washington Post
Brian Paul Romick, president of Democratic Majority for Israel, turns 50
Jeremy Stoppelman, co-founder in 2004 of Yelp, where he remains the CEO, turns 49
Shira Ruderman, executive director of the Ruderman Family Foundation, turns 48
Josh Margolin, chief investigative reporter at ABC News, turns 47
Josh Peck, YouTube personality, he came to fame as a child actor on Nickelodeon, turns 40
Zoey Deutch, actor and producer, turns 32
Howard Marks, former Reagan administration international agriculture official
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