Good Wednesday morning!<\/p>\n
In today\u2019s edition of\u00a0Your Daily Phil, we cover yesterday\u2019s\u00a0Israel Tennis and Education Centers Foundation\u00a0women\u2019s luncheon in Manhattan, and report on a new letter by Jewish and interfaith groups calling for an increase in the federal\u00a0Nonprofit Security Grant Program\u00a0in light of rising threats.\u00a0We feature an opinion piece by\u00a0Sanford Antignas\u00a0sharing his observations as a senior lay leader with multiple U.S.-based organizations but who lives in Israel;\u00a0Rabbi Gesa Ederberg\u00a0reflects on her new role as president of the Conservative\/Masorti movement\u2019s\u00a0Rabbinical Assembly; and\u00a0Ron Halber\u00a0zooms in on the role of local government in bolstering security measures in American Jewish communities. Also in this issue:\u00a0John Arnold, Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz\u00a0and\u00a0Aaron Mendelsohn.<\/p>\n
What We\u2019re Watching<\/p>\n
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost\u00a0has 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.<\/p>\n
Israel may be heading toward a constitutional crisis\u00a0as 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\u2019s intervention \u201cunlawful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt\u00a0and Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch will hold a town hall tonight at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue to discuss antisemitism in New York City.<\/p>\n
In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey will join representatives from Israel\u2019s Sheba Medical Center\u00a0to launch the new ARC Health Tech Accelerator in Downtown Boston.<\/p>\n
What You Should Know<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a long way from the sun-baked tennis courts of the southern Israeli town of Arad\u00a0to the sleek event space atop a Park Avenue building with a wall of windows looking out over the Midtown Manhattan skyline.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But with the fighting between Israel and Iran on hiatus\u00a0as the United States negotiates a ceasefire with the Islamic Republic, Leah Hershkovitz, the manager of the Israel Tennis and Education Centers\u2019 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\u2019s annual women\u2019s luncheon,\u00a0reports\u00a0eJewishPhilanthropy\u2019s Nira Dayanim<\/a>\u00a0from the gathering.<\/p>\n Speaking at The Diagrid Club,\u00a0Hershkovitz 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll my life was there,\u201d\u00a0Hershkovitz told eJP at the event. \u201cWe had stories in my house. Stories, pictures, memories, a lot of memories for my children.\u201d<\/p>\n After the missile struck Arad,\u00a0Hershkovitz 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. \u201cThe tennis center is like a family,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Israeli journalist Tamar Ish Shalom also spoke at the event,\u00a0discussing 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at the political scene\u2026 in Israel,\u00a0there\u2019s a lot of polarization, and it\u2019s volatile,\u201d she said. \u201cBut then you look at civil society in Israel\u2026 When we didn\u2019t see the state after Oct. 7, we did see people. We saw Israelis, and they shone with all of their glory. And it\u2019s continuing right now. So if there\u2019s something that brings me hope. It\u2019s the people.\u201d<\/p>\n