Good Wednesday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we cover yesterday’s Israel Tennis and Education Centers Foundation women’s luncheon in Manhattan, and report on a new letter by Jewish and interfaith groups calling for an increase in the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program in light of rising threats. We feature an opinion piece by Sanford Antignas sharing his observations as a senior lay leader with multiple U.S.-based organizations but who lives in Israel; Rabbi Gesa Ederberg reflects on her new role as president of the Conservative/Masorti movement’s Rabbinical Assembly; and Ron Halber zooms in on the role of local government in bolstering security measures in American Jewish communities. Also in this issue: John Arnold, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz and Aaron Mendelsohn.
What We’re Watching
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit to prevent Hebrew Union College from removing its assets from the state when the institution closes its Cincinnati rabbinical program next month.
Israel may be heading toward a constitutional crisis as the High Court of Justice hears a case today demanding the removal of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over alleged illicit political meddling in police affairs; Justice Minister Yariv Levin has preemptively declared that the government would ignore any High Court ruling to remove Ben-Gvir, calling the court’s intervention “unlawful.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt and Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch will hold a town hall tonight at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue to discuss antisemitism in New York City.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey will join representatives from Israel’s Sheba Medical Center to launch the new ARC Health Tech Accelerator in Downtown Boston.
What You Should Know
It’s a long way from the sun-baked tennis courts of the southern Israeli town of Arad to the sleek event space atop a Park Avenue building with a wall of windows looking out over the Midtown Manhattan skyline.
But with the fighting between Israel and Iran on hiatus as the United States negotiates a ceasefire with the Islamic Republic, Leah Hershkovitz, the manager of the Israel Tennis and Education Centers’ Arad branch, attempted to bridge the gap yesterday between her community, which was hit by an Iranian ballistic missile during the war, and the uptown crowd that had gathered for the ITEC Foundation’s annual women’s luncheon, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Nira Dayanim from the gathering.
Speaking at The Diagrid Club, Hershkovitz not only offered a window into the wartime experiences of her organization and broader community, but also of her own family, whose longtime home was destroyed in the March 21 attack, which injured 71 people.
“All my life was there,” Hershkovitz told eJP at the event. “We had stories in my house. Stories, pictures, memories, a lot of memories for my children.”
After the missile struck Arad, Hershkovitz said, some children took a break from attending the tennis center that she manages, but many other parents and children reached out to her to see if there was anything they could do to help. “The tennis center is like a family,” she said.
Israeli journalist Tamar Ish Shalom also spoke at the event, discussing her work as a news anchor after the Oct. 7 attacks and her subsequent temporary move to the United States. Asked what gives her optimism about the current situation in Israel, Ish Shalom praised Israeli civil society.
“When you look at the political scene… in Israel, there’s a lot of polarization, and it’s volatile,” she said. “But then you look at civil society in Israel… When we didn’t see the state after Oct. 7, we did see people. We saw Israelis, and they shone with all of their glory. And it’s continuing right now. So if there’s something that brings me hope. It’s the people.”