In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we speak with Leading Edge about its new survey of nonprofit boards, which holds lessons in the wake of the Nvidia scandal. We spotlight the Pardes Institute and its many influential alumni. We also report on an $8.8 million gift from Overlake Fund to establish a national suicide-care training center at the University of Haifa. We feature three opinion pieces on artificial intelligence: one by Sarah Rubinson Levy highlighting the role of experimentation in determining whether and how to leverage new technologies; one by Todd L. Pittinsky about the next evolution in antisemitic libel; and one by Rabbi Max Hollander on why a golem without a fail-safe is a Jewish problem. Also in this issue: Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz, Daniel (Doody) Wyner and Pam Jacobson.

Shabbat shalom!

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What We're Watching

The JNF-USA Global Conference for Israel, which kicked off yesterday, runs through Sunday in San Diego.

Cyclists will hit the scenic coast of Boca Raton, Fla., on Sunday for the Second Annual Tour de Friendship Charity Ride to raise funds for local youth and young adults with special needs.

Tikvah’s annual Jewish Leadership Conference is taking place in New York on Sunday, with a theme of “Jews, Christians, and the Renewal of America.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), author Dara Horn and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik are slated to speak at the convening, which will also honor U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee.

In New York City, the Zionist Organization of America is holding its annual gala, which this year will honor Huckabee and State Department antisemitism envoy Yehuda Kaploun.

Also in New York, IsraAid will host its annual gala in midtown Manhattan on Sunday evening. If you’re there, say hi to eJP’s Judah Ari Gross!

In Washington on Sunday, Moment magazine is holding its annual gala, honoring NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell, Carlyle Chairman David Rubenstein, Blue Star Families CEO Kathy Roth-Douquet and Moment opinion editor Amy Schwartz.

And on Monday morning Israel time, JCC Global will bring 300 Jewish community center professionals and lay leaders from 30 countries to Jerusalem for its three-day World Conference of JCCs, with the theme of “Rooted Here, Transforming Everywhere.”

What You Should Know

A QUICK WORD FROM eJP’S NIRA DAYANIM

This week, as Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang abruptly resigned following news of his extramarital affairs with a suspected Chinese spy and multiple employees, corporate America was delivered a harsh lesson on the importance of succession plans. The Jewish nonprofit world, meanwhile, received that same message in a far less scandalous way: namely through a new Leading Edge study of nonprofit boards that found that only 8% of those surveyed had a CEO succession plan, and 11% an emergency succession plan.

“Every CEO is going to leave,” Alicia Oberman, Leading Edge’s senior advisor on board leadership, told eJewishPhilanthropy. “You want to be prepared for when that CEO leaves.”

Leading Edge describes the study, released yesterday, as the largest of its kind on Jewish nonprofit boards to date, which the organization said also stands out for surveying run-of-the-mill board members, and not only CEOs and chairs.

The researchers found that the three categories often describe what sounds like three different boards, with chairs reporting the most favorable experience on nearly every question, CEOs reporting the least favorable, and board members landing somewhere in between — a trend Oberman likened to “Goldilocks.”

Read the rest of 'What You Should Know' →

News

RADICAL EDUCATION

One former student of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem helped put the issue of environmentalism on the Jewish communal agenda. Another now leads the largest Reform temple in Canada. And a third, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose tireless work on behalf of the hostages held captive in Gaza earned her great admiration throughout the Jewish world, credits her five years studying there with influencing everything in her life since. A summer 2026 alumni impact study found that 53% of Pardes alumni serve as Jewish professionals and nearly a quarter have founded or co-founded Jewish institutions, initiatives or communities, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Jay Deitcher.

Times are a-changin’: When Meesh Hammer-Kossoy first strolled through the institute’s doors in 1987, the Jerusalem beit midrash looked markedly different than it does today, where LGBTQ+ advocates study across from Jews of color, and women in tank tops partner with those with their hair wrapped in tichels. Today, Hammer-Kossoy serves as director of Pardes’ year program and its rosh beit midrash — yet another student who has made good. “The core mission, which is letting Jews define their own Jewish journey and really hav[ing] access to the Torah, is still 100% the core mission of the institution,” she told eJP.

Read the full report →

EXCLUSIVE

In response to rising levels of mental health disorders in Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks and resulting three years of war, the University of Haifa is launching what it calls Israel’s first national hub for teaching suicide care, backed by $8.8 million from the Overlake Fund over five years, the school exclusively told eJewishPhilanthropy’s Justin Hayet.

New model: The National Training Center for Suicide Care expects to train about 4,500 clinicians and front-line workers within five years. “This will be a national center that will change the way communities and even the whole society think about suicide, treat suicide and do suicide care,” Yossi Levi-Belz, the center’s founding academic director and a professor in the University of Haifa’s School of Therapy, Counseling and Human Development, told eJP.

Read the full report →

Opinion

A SCIENTIFIC METHOD

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, educational consultant Sarah Rubinson Levy, director of AI innovation and strategy for Hebrew at the Center, makes the case for rigorous experimentation in education and shares her organization’s approach to incorporating AI into its mission’s work — one translatable across different fields.

“Rather than starting with a tool and looking for ways to use it, we start with an educational goal and investigate whether AI can help us achieve it. … We are exploring these questions through a series of focused experiments designed to test specific hypotheses. The goal is not to assume that every idea will succeed, but to generate enough evidence to make better decisions about what to refine, expand or stop.”

Read the full piece →

FAKEOUT FEARS

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Todd L. Pittinsky, professor of technology, AI and society at Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, N.Y., explores the evolution of antisemitic libel over the millennia and how AI is poised to bridge the gap between what people read or hear about versus the evidence of their own eyes.

“The danger is not one spectacular fake. It is the sequence. An invented insult or atrocity is followed by synthetic corroboration, then another encounter tailored to confirm the first. … No synagogue, school or federation can track such experiences alone. If the same fabricated story appears in several places, who will recognize the pattern? ... Who will help an institution respond before a synthetic encounter becomes a real threat at its door?”

Read the full piece →

SAFETY FIRST

In an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy, Rabbi Max Hollander, senior manager of Jewish education and marketing for the Jewish Federations of North America’s BeWell project, urges the Jewish community to stay informed about developments in the AI industry and advocate for safety regulations.

“The Jewish conversations about AI that I’ve seen have largely focused on philosophical questions (What does it mean to be human? What can humans do that machines cannot?) and practical applications for communal institutions, learning and more. … AI safety, like other causes Jews have historically mobilized around — human rights, civil rights, reproductive rights, the climate crisis — has consequences for all of humanity.”

Read the full piece →

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Worthy Reads

Negev After Dark: In Haaretz, journalist Moshe Gilad follows ecologists setting up and retrieving motion-triggered cameras in the Negev to monitor local animals in their natural habitats as part of the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History at Tel Aviv University. “Every time we appear before a committee, or before a decision-making team, and argue that nature might be harmed, they ask us, 'How do you know? What evidence or data do you have? Who said there are even gazelles in this remote wadi? You almost never see them.' Monitoring with cameras allows us to come with tangible evidence. Here is the data, these are the numbers. This way, more correct decisions can be made.”

Values Gap: In his Israel Policy Forum column, Michael Koplow contends that Israel can only shore up eroding American support in both parties by aligning its policies with U.S. values. “The next Israeli government, whatever it looks like, will have to reconcile with the uncomfortable truth that American foreign policy thinking in both parties is now more of an ideological exercise than one of cold interests. Unfortunately for Israel, its policies are running afoul of ascendant foreign policy orthodoxies on both sides of the aisle, albeit for different reasons, from abandoning any pretense of pursuing a political solution with Palestinians to pushing for a renewed joint campaign against Iran.”

Banana Politics: In the Los Angeles Times, Rabbi Nolan Lebovitz of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Calif., argues that ending U.S. aid to Israel would reward conspiracy-minded pundits and hurt America far more than the Jewish state. “Israel will be fine... America will not be fine as long as the American people allow this corrosive ideology to determine our path forward. Make no mistake about it. This country is not engaged in a political battle. America is engaged in a fundamental struggle for its soul.”

Without the Trauma: In The Australian Jewish News, Gareth Narunsky interviews Daniel (Doody) Wyner, the incoming president of the country’s Zionist Council of New South Wales, about his goal to restore the Jewish community’s visceral connection to Israel to what it was in the immediate wake of the Oct. 7 attacks. “‘It’s trying to bring back that level of community connection that we had in the height of some of our most traumatic times, but not built off trauma, built off the desire of wanting to just be connected more, wanting to learn more of what was going on in Israel,’ [Wyner] said. ‘Whether you’re on the left, you’re on the right, in my view, it’s actually irrelevant. I just want us to feel as a community that closer connection to Israel.’”

Leading Roles

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

Major Gifts

The Simms/Mann Family Foundation, started by Los Angeles philanthropists Victoria Mann Simms and Ronald Simms, donated $11 million to City of Hope to help tailor cancer treatment to each patient’s biology…

Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia landed a $50,000 Philly Gives grant from 6abc, a local TV station, for the second straight year as federal funding shrinks….

Transitions

Pam Jacobson will take over as executive director of Pearlstone, the Baltimore-area Jewish retreat center that serves as Adamah’s headquarters, on March 1, 2027, becoming its third leader in 25 years…

Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles tapped Farnaz Golshani as CEO of the mentoring nonprofit, which also runs Camp Bob Waldorf…

Assaf Goren has been appointed chairman of Maccabi World Union…

Doron Shitruk, a onetime Maccabiah gold medalist who heads Maccabi Tel Aviv, was elected to chair the 2029 Maccabiah Games in Israel…

Word on the Street

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s abrupt resignation on Thursday — amid revelations of extramarital affairs, including with a woman suspected by U.S. intelligence officials of spying for China — has raised questions about the potential impact on the technology giant’s extensive footprint in Israel, where it employs roughly 6,000 people and operates its largest research and development hub outside the United States, Jewish Insider’s Matthew Shea reports…

Organizers of an antisemitic bike protest targeting Jewish and Israeli restaurants in Philadelphia canceled a planned second ride, citing unsupported claims of threats Jewish Insider’s Haley Cohen reports…

After initially being barred from publishing his identity, The Sunday Times reports that Mohamed Basem Naim, the son of a Hamas minister and former bodyguard of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, has been convicted of plotting terror attacks against British Jews after being granted asylum in the United Kingdom…

Chabad and ZAKA are establishing a global unit that will train Chabad emissaries in disaster rescue and recovery of the dead and give them access to ZAKA’s gear and crews when crises strike Jews abroad…

Yad Vashem posthumously named Donatello and Zelmira De Luigi, who hid their Jewish doctor’s family in their Rome villa during the Nazi occupation, as Righteous Among the Nations…

Doctors Without Borders suspended its noncritical work at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital in January, citing armed, masked men and other threats, a move it first disclosed on a website FAQ page updated Feb. 11…

Joe, Rafi and Avi Nakash agreed to hand control of debt-laden Israeli airline Arkia to an investor group promising a major cash infusion, hours after the airline’s workers, who hold a 22% stake, opened a formal labor dispute over feared layoffs…

Half of Jewish Michiganders voted for Sen.-elect Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) in the midterm election, according to a new poll conducted by The Jewish Majority, far below typical voting patterns in the state for a Democratic candidate and severely lagging behind Gov.-elect Jocelyn Benson’s own performance with Jewish voters, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports…

A London jury convicted Rabbi Aaron Halpern, a prominent Golders Green Haredi leader, of sexually assaulting a woman who came to him for religious counsel in 2022, with sentencing set for January…

Seven Jewish employees are suing New York City’s Health Department, alleging hostility toward Jews and Israel supporters under Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Mayor Eric Adams, including retaliation over an email mourning a December 2025 Bondi Beach attack, reports Jewish Insider’s Will Bredderman…

The New York Times chronicles the life of Bernice Gottlieb, a New York adoption advocate who won special congressional legislation in 1976 to bring eight Korean children of leprosy patients to U.S. families with ties to their parents intact, and who died on Aug. 25 at 95…

Professor Deborah HaCohen, a Bar-Ilan University historian who challenged accepted accounts of Israel’s early mass immigration and chronicled Henrietta Szold’s life, died today at 90…

Photo of the Day

MIRIAM ALSTER/FLASH90

Talia Ayelet Feder, an Israeli paralympic rower, rolls down the runway yesterday at Tel Aviv Fashion Week as part of a show by students in the Department of Jewelry and Fashion at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

Ayelet Feder’s outfit, complete with an extended train flowing behind her, was created by students Efrat Wasserstrom and Shell Levi. She was one of several athletes to participate in the fashion show as part of a collaboration between Bezalel Academy and the HaPoel sports league.

Birthdays

COURTESY/ JCC OF GREATER BALTIMORE

Paul Lurie, CEO of the JCC of Greater Baltimore, celebrates his birthday today

Gad Zeevi, Israeli industrialist with holdings in energy and real estate, turns 87

Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, turns 77

Ken Rudin, publisher of the independent “Political Junkie” blog and podcast

Merrick Garland, U.S. attorney general throughout the Biden administration, turns 74

Nochi Dankner, once the controlling stockholder of a large Israeli conglomerate, turns 72

Sharon Freundel, coach for Pedagogy of Partnership

Ruth Wattenberg, former member of the D.C. State Board of Education for eight years

Alexandra Shulman, former editor-in-chief of British Vogue for 25 years, turns 69

Matt Weitzman, producer and writer, he has written for ten television shows, turns 59

Katherine “Katya” Palkin, San Jose, Calif., resident

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Somali-born activist who has served in the Dutch parliament, she is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, turns 57

Ariel Atias, former Israeli government minister for the Shas party, he has served as minister of communications and of housing, turns 56

Kevin Pailet, co-founder of Pailet Financial Services, a predecessor agency of what is now the Dallas office of Marsh McLennan Agency

Rabbi Andrea Dobrick Haney, Conservative rabbi, wife of S. Fitzgerald Haney who is a former U.S. ambassador to Costa Rica, turns 53

Geoff Freeman, president and CEO at the U.S. Travel Association

Meirav Ben-Ari, member of the Knesset on the B’Yachad list, turns 51

Jeff Rossen, television journalist, turns 50

Andrew Friedman, president of baseball operations for MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers, turns 50

Yaakov “Kobi” Shimoni, Israeli rapper and record producer, generally known by his stage name “Subliminal,” turns 47

Charlee Minkin, judoka who won three national titles (2000, 2002 and 2004), she competed for the U.S. at the Athens Olympics in 2004, turns 45

Ari Morgenstern, senior director of policy and communications at Christians United for Israel

Jared Goldberg-Leopold, political communications consultant

Mark Botnick, PR and communications consultant

Jarryd Goldberg, professional soccer player, then a soccer coach and now a sales account executive at Les Friedland Associates, turns 41

Michael Schwab

Jonathan Topaz, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project

Troy Neiman, former relief pitcher in the Colorado Rockies organization, he pitched for Team Israel at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, now an EMT in Los Angeles, turns 36

Bar Brimer, Israeli film, television and stage actor and model, turns 29

Cole Deutch, attorney at Marrs Ellis & Hodge LLP

Danielle Mor, VP of Israel and global philanthropy and director of Christian Friends of the Jewish Agency for Israel

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

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