Eric Fingerhut warns of growing threats to Jewish safety and religious freedom across the U.S. following record antisemitic incidents.

By David Brummer, World Israel News

A leading figure in the American Jewish community is raising urgent concerns over escalating antisemitism and its impact on the safety and freedom of Jews and supporters of Israel across the United States.

Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, warned that the spike in antisemitic threats is placing Jewish institutions under siege.

“You cannot have one faith group, one community, that has to be behind barricades, just to go practice our faith,” he told The Daily Signal.

The Anti-Defamation League reported 9,354 antisemitic incidents in 2024—more than double pre-2020 figures and the highest annual total in over four decades of tracking.

Fingerhut described how Jewish organizations are being forced to cancel or scale back community events due to security risks.

“We’re approaching a point where the cost of securing Jewish life is interfering with our constitutional rights,” he said, noting that the visibility of Jewish identity—such as wearing a kippah or flying an Israeli flag—has increasingly made individuals and institutions targets for harassment and violence.

Fingerhut, a former congressman from Ohio and former head of Hillel International, emphasized the strain placed on Jewish Federations, which operate in 140 communities nationwide.

The organization raises over $2 billion annually for Jewish welfare, but security costs are becoming “an overwhelming responsibility,” he said.

He pointed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Nonprofit Security Grant Program as a vital tool in protecting vulnerable institutions.

The program awarded $454.5 million in 2024 for physical security upgrades like reinforced doors, surveillance systems, and blast-resistant windows.

Fingerhut is calling for that figure to be doubled.

Indeed, amid a marked uptick in antisemitic attacks, the Department of Homeland Security on Friday announced a $94 million initiative to over 500 Jewish faith-based organizations, reported The Jewish Voice.

“We know there are many things on the nation’s agenda,” said Eric Fingerhut, CEO of @JFederations, “but we must insist that the safety and security of the Jewish community and the battle against domestic terror be at the very top.” https://t.co/PRzs7SeOLd

— The Jewish Federations of North America (@jfederations) July 3, 2025



In the political arena, he said members of Congress who speak out in support of Israel have faced “vicious threats and incitement to violence,” especially since the October 7 Hamas attacks that triggered the current conflict in Gaza.

Fingerhut also criticized the selective enforcement of university protest policies during recent pro-Palestinian campus encampments.

“The content of many of these protests went beyond free speech—it was incitement,” he argued.

When asked how the public can help, Fingerhut urged Americans to take a firm stand.

“Speak out. Let your local leaders know that antisemitism has no place in our communities,” he said.

“People spreading this hate should not be in positions of influence.”

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The message to Israel from Taiwan, said its Economic and Cultural Office head, is: You are not alone.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Private organizations, Jewish communities and even countries have begun sending help to Israel to aid in rebuilding neighborhoods and facilities hit by missiles over the 12 days of the Israel-Iran war, which has left some 30,000 homes damaged or destroyed, according to the Israeli building industry.

The rabbi of the city of Foshan in the Guangdong province of China offered his community’s help to the chairman of the Israel Renovation Contractors Association, according to Ynet.

His city, wrote Rabbi Gadi Luzon to Eran Siv, “is one of the leading and largest centers for the production and supply of building materials and construction services in the world,” including aluminum, wood and glass products, plumbing and flooring.

The Jewish community would like to not only provide comprehensive aid in the materials needed for reconstruction, Luzon added, but could also help bring over professionals in the field to do the work, as “we are in contact with the largest and most respected human resource companies in China, who have already expressed their readiness to recruit and select … skilled workers in all different fields of construction.”

Asia was the source Monday of a direct contribution of aid when the head of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv, which serves as Taiwan’s unofficial “embassy” in Israel, visited Bat Yam, where a direct hit from Iran demolished many apartment houses and killed seven people.

Accompanied by the mayor and three Knesset MKs, Abby (Ya-Ping) Lee toured the devastated area and said, “Taiwan is once again among the first to work with civil organizations to save lives. We are sending a very clear message of solidarity to our Israeli friends: You are not alone.”

Taipei donated $160,000 to the ZAKA emergency response organization for mobile lighting equipment, as in so many cases, rescue squads work through the night to find people buried under rubble in the first crucial hours after an attack.

In March 2024, the Asian nation, which compares itself to Israel as a fellow democracy under threat (from China), gave half a million dollars to 12 Israeli cities to create teams of volunteer responders for crises. It had also donated $70,000 to Israeli families and soldiers in need through the Pitchon Lev nonprofit just weeks after the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023.

On Monday as well, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) announced that it had allocated $10 million in Israel Emergency Funds to 19 partner organizations to meet new and emerging needs resulting from Iran’s missile attacks against the Jewish state.

“We want every Israeli to know that the North American Jewish community has their backs and will continue to step up in meaningful ways, whether that means supporting hospitals, upgrading conditions in public bomb shelters, or helping evacuees and victims of terror,” said Jeff Schoenfeld, the incoming vice chair of JFNA’s board of trustees.

A fifth of the funds will go to the Jewish Agency to provide immediate assistance for bereaved families, the severely injured, and those whose residences have been destroyed by missile attacks.

Another $2 million will go to purchase essential equipment for hospitals.

Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, which took a direct hit to its surgical floor last week, will receive part of this money. The hospital also just became the beneficiary of a $100,000 donation from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California.

“Our institution was founded by the Jewish community in Los Angeles to serve all those in need. It is an honor to support Soroka in this moment of great need,” wrote Dr. Peter Slavin, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai, to his counterpart in the largest hospital in Israel’s south.

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Washington DC demonstration likely to be the largest pro-Israel gathering in American history.

By The Algemeiner Staff

A host of Jewish institutions are planning a march next week that organizers hope will be the largest pro-Israel event in American history.

The rally, which is being co-organized by the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, is set to take place on Nov. 14 at 1 pm at the National Mall in Washington, DC.

On Sunday, Yeshiva University president Ari Berman announced that the school would close on the 14th. “We are going to Washington to stand with Israel, Am Yisrael Chai,” he wrote on X/Twitter.

Erika Rudin-Luria, president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News that the purpose of the rally will be to send a message to “stand with Israel against terror, release the hostages — bring them home now — and antisemitism has no home in the United States.”

The rally is set to take place about five weeks after the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas invaded Israel from neighboring Gaza on Oct. 7 and murdered 1,400 people, mostly civilians, in the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas also injured thousands of people and kidnapped over 200 others, taking them back to Gaza as hostages.

Since Hamas’ pogrom in southern Israel, there has been a sharp surge in antisemitic incidents around the globe, especially in the US and Europe.

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The Combat Antisemitism Movement deleted its online video against woke-ism in an effort to woo back former supporters.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The largest Jewish umbrella group in the U.S. was charged last week with “betraying” the Jewish people for defunding an antisemitism watchdog after it released a video stating that the extreme Left promotes Jew hatred in the United States.

“This cowardly act demonstrates just how conflicted Jewish leadership is,” coexistence promoter Americans for Peace and Tolerance wrote in an action call to its members regarding the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) withdrawing support from the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM).

“Jews are being defamed and besieged by the radical Left, especially on college campuses and in Congress,” the missive continued. “Yet, a major Jewish leader, representing the interests of an entire continent’s Jews, is trying to stop Jewish activists for speaking the truth about poisonous leftist ideology.”

“The Jewish establishment seems more loyal to progressive ideology than to the safety of Jews. By refusing to confront those growing elements in the Democratic Party that are turning against Israel, they reveal their true agenda and priorities: ‘Support the Left’ comes before ‘Save the Jews,’” the organization continued.

On Monday, the coexistence group’s head, Charles Jacob, blamed the fear of losing funding for the organization’s stance.

“The American Jewish establishment is just trapped,” Jacob told World Israel News. “They chose to be allied with the Democrats who are being overtaken by radical leftist woke ideology that is inherently anti-Jewish. Even a man like Fingerhut, who surely knows that woke antisemitism is very dangerous, decides that he cannot afford to lose his left-leaning donors who are themselves a bit woke.”

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), a national liberal public policy group, also withdrew its support, telling Jewish newspaper the Forward that the video, called “What is Woke Antisemitism?” was “deeply disturbing and concerning.”

Its CEO, Amy Spitalnick, seemed to question CAM’s claim of non-partisanship, saying, “The video didn’t come out of nowhere, and I’d like to understand what CAM will be doing moving forward.”

The clip explained that the basis of woke-ism is that “Successful groups are considered oppressors and less successful groups as oppressed victims. Unfortunately, this labeling has led to unfair vilification of successful groups, including Jews.”

The “binary” nature of its argument “often simplifies complex issues” such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and automatically categorizes Israelis as the oppressors, the video added.

Rejecting its claim that there is a connection between the rise of woke-ism and the increase in antisemitism in the U.S., the Forward’s article also criticized the three-minute video, saying that it was “unusual” to see condemnations of a progressive worldview — including a focus on systemic forms of discrimination in society — as a major cause of antisemitism.”

Many ultra-liberal Jewish organizations have been quick to point a finger at far-right groups that peddle antisemitic tropes, but do not call out the extreme left when it does the same.

Although CAM says it has some 700 partners in its fight against Jew hatred, the group backed down in the face of the two liberal groups’ opposition. It removed the three-minute video from YouTube and CAM head Sacha Roytman Dratwa told JTA that “We are reviewing the content to make something that will appeal to a broader audience.”

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“The demographics are changing,” said Irving Lebovics, co-chairman of the Agudah-affiliated Am Echad. “I’m not even sure who the federation represents today.”

By Menachem Wecker, JNS

The 3,000 North American Jewish leaders who are convening in Israel for the Jewish Federations of North America’s 2023 General Assembly were supposed to reflect their “eternal love for Israel that transcends any difference of opinion or political discussion,” stated Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the umbrella group, which represents 146 Federations and 300 smaller communities.

Controversy has brewed for some time at JNFA ahead of the four-day GA, which is to culminate on Israel’s 75th birthday on Wednesday on Yom Ha’atzmaut, with critics saying that the group is meddling in domestic Israeli politics.

Last month, 30 federation leaders expressed concern about judicial policy in Israel after a 24-hour Israel “fly-in.” In February, JFNA sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposite leader Yair Lapid with very specific policy prescriptions, including that Israel “make clear that a majority of just 61 votes of the Knesset is not sufficient to override a decision of the Supreme Court.”

Earlier this month, JFNA hosted Lapid in New York for an off-the-record meeting. Some of the opposition leader’s statements drew a public statement of “grave concern” from Am Echad, an affiliate of Agudath Israel of America, which represents Orthodox Jews. “We see these comments as sowing discord and delegitimizing not just the current Israeli government, but Israel itself in the eyes of the world, both Jewish and not,” stated Am Echad.

“The demographics are changing. I’m not even sure who the Federation represents today,” Irving Lebovics, co-chairman of Am Echad, told JNS. According to Pew Research Center data, 17% of Jews aged 18 to 29 identify as Orthodox, which is 70% more than Orthodoxy’s proportion of U.S. Jewry overall.

At the GA, Netanyahu canceled his speech ahead of expected protests on Sunday night, and on Monday, representatives of the Jewish Agency for Israel—a JFNA partner—were reportedly among those who repeatedly protested and heckled Simcha Rothman, a Knesset member who is a key figure in the government’s judicial reforms.

Lebovics had told JNS ahead of the GA that he was very concerned about what might happen. “My guess is that there will be a left wing that will try to co-opt that whole event and try to get the Federation to take a stance strongly supporting one side,” he said. Sunday evening New York time, he told JNS: “There is certainly a strong attempt being made to make that happen.”

When North American Jewish leaders meet with the Israeli opposition leader and publicly tell Israel what to do politically, they appear to muddy one of the contemporary examples appended to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism: “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.”

If American Jewish leaders—whose websites tout the billions of dollars they collectively raise and distribute annually, including in Israel—dictate to Israel what to do, why is it antisemitic to hold world Jewry accountable for Israeli decisions?

“This is sort of unprecedented that an opposition leader from Israel comes to the United States to lobby the Jewish community to undermine an existing government, and at the same time, goes to the United States government and involves them in undermining an elected government,” Lebovics told JNS.

“It’s not healthy. It never worked in Jewish history for the last thousands of years when we try to involve foreign governments in our internal issues. It’s inappropriate,” he added.

He noted that Rashad Hussain, U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, tweeted on April 16 that he met Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall (Kotel), and “reiterated U.S. support for implementation of the 2016 Western Wall agreement to expand the egalitarian space at the wall.”

“What does this have to do with the United States government? Are we opining about how the mosque be set up for men and women, or about how the National Cathedral should conduct a service?” posed Lebovics.

‘Always working on a bipartisan basis’

Fingerhut, the JFNA executive, told JNS that his organization seeks the Jewish community’s “broad center.”

“We don’t dress alike. We don’t eat alike. We don’t pray alike. And yet, we have to care for each other,” he said. “We are very practiced at working across the broad center, and encouraging dialogue and discussion when we engage in any issues that are governmental. We always are working on a bipartisan basis in North America, so we carry that over to our work with Israel.”

Other public JFNA statements suggest otherwise.

Rather than stating that many of its members had one perspective and a minority held a different view, JFNA recently tweeted that it was “deeply troubled” by a federal judge’s ruling on the abortion drug mifepristone. Last year, JFNA stated that it was “extremely concerned about the medical risks” posed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade.

According to the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study—conducted in 2007 and 2014, with responses from 35,000 Americans—83% of Jews said that abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 15% said it should be illegal in all or most cases. That may sound like a strong mandate for JFNA to comment as it did, but in its letter to Netanyahu and Lapid, it stressed: “The essence of democracy is both majority rule and protection of minority rights.”

Fingerhut told JNS that JFNA balances questions of majority and minority “with great care and great intentionality.”

“We are always aware of the differing opinions in our community. It is an absolute requirement of our work that we listen to all of those opinions,” he said.

Israel ought to conduct its own political debates, but when the Jewish state’s actions “deeply affect” North American Jews, JFNA has a responsibility to communicate that, according to Fingerhut.

“It is impossible to overstate how important Israel’s fundamental democratic nature is to American Jews, and to our ability to build support for Israel in our community and in the broader community,” he said. “We could not see how we could square that provision with our description of Israel as the robust democracy, the model democracy it ought to be.”

Asked if JFNA’s role as financial patron looms in the background of its conversations with Israeli officials, Fingerhut denied that money was a factor. “If the implication is, does the fact of funding or not funding something—is that what’s driving this—the answer is not at all,” he said. “I’ve never heard it at all.”

He wouldn’t name participants in private meetings, but Fingerhut claimed that “a number” of officials in the coalition told him they realized that they went too far or made mistakes. “I think we’ve been enormously judicious and only going to those things that matter,” he said.

‘A very partisan time’

U.S. politics has gone through “a very partisan time,” stated Fingerhut.

“There’s no question that certainly the four years that President [Donald] Trump was in office, and frankly, much of the time, I’m sure our friends on the right would say that during the Obama administration, they felt similarly,” he said. “The rhetoric has been ratcheted up very high in America. I’m afraid that some of that has spilled over also into Israel now. And I think it’s not a very good trend.”

Fingerhut would not confirm whether Agudah was invited to the event with Lapid, citing its off-the-record nature. “I have a great, wonderful relationship with Agudah,” he said. “Certainly with the OU.” (The Orthodox Union has been named as an attendee.)

Agudah, which was not invited to the meeting, referred JNS to Lebovics, who said Am Echad was also not invited. Lebovics thinks if Am Echad had been invited, the organization probably would have declined, following consultation with rabbinic authorities.

Of the relationship between JFNA and Agudah, Lebovics said: “The leadership has a cordial relationship.”

Agudah had tried to get JFNA and other Jewish organizations to sign a statement with it about the importance of dialogue, according to Lebovics. Eric Goldstein, CEO of UJA-Federation of New York, who edited the document, and Fingerhut were ready to sign, noted Lebovics. “That was what I was told. All of a sudden, they put out a statement—I don’t think they meant it maliciously—but they put out a statement saying basically that the demonstrators have a right to demonstrate in Israel,” he said.

“That basically undermined the entire concept that we were trying to create. We put our statement out alone. It was, in my mind, a tremendously lost opportunity,” he said.

“You have a group of leadership, both in America and Israel, on the left that sees the vulnerability of this government and is going in for the kill. They’re basically trying to get the government out,” said Lebovics. “What they couldn’t do in the election, they are trying to do in the street.”

With U.S. Jewish demographics changing and a continued strong Orthodox Jewish commitment to Israel, Lebovics again raised the question of JFNA’s constituency.

“Forty percent of the Jewish population is unaffiliated,” he said. “Who exactly are you representing when you say, ‘We talk for the majority?’ ”

The post Is the massive Jewish Federation delegitimizing Israel in the eyes of the world? appeared first on World Israel News.

“People were shouting things that weren’t of any substance, just to disrupt,” says an audience member.

By JNS

Member of Knesset Simcha Rothman, one of the key figures behind the government’s judicial reform initiative, was continuously interrupted by hecklers during a panel discussion at the Jewish Federations of North America’s General Assembly in Tel Aviv on Monday.

Although the panel discussion at the Expo Tel Aviv convention center was not on judicial reform but rather on issues related to the Law of Return, protesters, many identifying with Achim L’Neshek (“Brothers in Arms”), an extremist group made up of IDF reservists, chanted slogans as Rothman, who is chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, tried to speak.

“From the get-go, from the first word, people were standing up in the crowd, and it was an onslaught from beginning to end,” an audience member who preferred to remain anonymous told JNS.

“People were shouting things that weren’t of any substance, just to disrupt. They were shouting ‘Busha’—Shame. Liar—‘Shakran.’ To his credit, Avi Mayer, the moderator, editor of The Jerusalem Post, did try to quiet the crowd and tell them we’re trying to have a respectful discussion. That lasted merely a matter of seconds. It did not work.

“There was a real failure of security because they would take a protester out and then I’d see him return. The same protester would come back two or three times and continue disrupting,” said the audience member.

המחאה מול רוטמן בכנס הפדרציות היהודיות בגני התערוכה:
קריאות בוז כשהוצג על הבמה;
ופיצוץ הפאנל שבו השתתף ע”י חברים מ’אחים לנשק’ ועוד נציגי קהילות יהודיות:
“אתה פושע של העם היהודי! תתבייש לך! העם היהודי לא ישכח לך ולא יסלח לך!” pic.twitter.com/uNSeLVjzbk

— Or-ly Barlev ~ אור-לי ברלב (@orlybarlev) April 24, 2023

“It was terrible,” a second audience member concurred. “I wanted to hear what he had to say. It’s not about whether you agree with him or not. He should be allowed to speak.”

Rothman’s aide told JNS, “They shout ‘Democracy’ but they silence everyone who doesn’t think like them.”

Before the panel discussion, Achim L’Neshek activists interrupted an interview between Rothman and JNS. They surrounded Rothman and shouted at him. One placed a ballcap with the Achim L’Neshek logo on the Knesset member’s head. He kept his cool despite the provocations.

‘Thou shall not speak’

Rothman told JNS, “The real motto of the left is ‘Thou shall not speak.’ ”

Achim L’Neshek has carried out similar actions in the past. In March, the group barricaded with sandbags and barbed wire the offices of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem-based think tank that supports judicial reform. And in February, its activists attempted to block Rothman and other lawmakers from leaving their homes.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu canceled a scheduled address on Sunday night at the JFNA General Assembly, amid planned protests over the government’s paused judicial reform program.

The Prime Minister’s Office told Ynet that “scheduling issues and preparations for Memorial Day and Independence Day ceremonies” were the reason for the cancelation, and not the planned protests.

The JFNA last week issued a statement explaining why it had decided not to boycott the prime minister as demanded by obscure and unnamed groups.

It also expressed support for individuals to protest at the conference.

“We have also been awed by the powerful statement Israel’s citizens have made exercising their democratic right to protest. Given the immense importance of this debate and its implications for Jews all around the world, we understand that some will choose to exercise that right at the General Assembly. We will do everything we can to ensure that our attendees and security professionals respect these protesters, and expect that any protestors will respect our participants by demonstrating in a way that does not disrupt their ability to attend the event, participate, or listen to the speakers,” said the organization.

The JFNA has not issued a formal response to the harassment of Rothman at its event.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled his appearance at a conference of the General Assembly of Jewish Federations of North America, scheduled for Sunday evening, at the last minute.

The post 11th HOUR: Netanyahu pulls out of major summit with US Jews amid protests appeared first on World Israel News.

“People say stupid things,” but most of it won’t happen, he said, regarding new government’s stated agenda.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Former prime Minister Naftali Bennett told an American Jewish audience Monday that his career in Israeli politics is not yet over.

“In Israel, we can be recycled, one can always come back. Look at Bibi,” he said in answer to a question about a possible comeback, calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by his nickname. “So yes, I’ll be back.”

Besides Netanyahu, who had a stint as premier from 1996 to 1999 before leading Israel from 2009-2021 and recently returning to office after an 18-month hiatus in the Opposition, Bennett also mentioned the late Yitzhak Rabin.

“Rabin was prime minister from ’74 to ’77 and came back,” he noted, referring to the Labor leader’s reinstatement in 1992. Rabin was assassinated in November 1995 while still in office.

Bennett was speaking at an event sponsored by the UJA Federation of New York at the Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center in Manhattan, and his statement of intent was greeted by warm applause.

He urged his small audience to keep up their support for the Jewish state, even if they disapprove of the current government’s stated policies, such as the intended judicial reform that the majority in Israel supports but is being vociferously protested by the Left.

“Don’t give up on Israel, even if we’re going through a midlife crisis,” Bennett said. “We will overcome this because the majority of the public wants a Jewish and democratic Israel, wants Judaism, does not want coercion.”

“When your family member goes through a crisis, you don’t give up on him. Quite the contrary, you embrace him, you help him through this period,” he said.

A nominal right-winger, the former premier said he personally supported some of the reforms, but not all.

“People say stupid things, but a lot of that won’t happen. I promise you that no one will touch the LGBT community in Israel,” he said.

“There are many words flying around, but there is a core of responsibility” in the current government, he added, that would repel the most extreme proposals.

Regarding its external ememies, he said that the Jewish state is strong, but he expressed concern over the internal cohesiveness of Israeli society.

“I’m worried because the discourse is so toxic. It’s basically two tribes that don’t listen to each other,” he said.

The post Bennett tells American Jews: ‘I’ll be back’ to Israeli politics appeared first on World Israel News.

Investment firm Morningstar is under fire in multiple states for what critics call pro-BDS practices.

By Mike Wagenheim, JNS

After months of wrangling, the Morningstar investment firm has reached an agreement with pro-Israel organizations to alter its methodology in determining its risk ratings for companies doing business in and with Israel, JNS has learned.

At Monday’s Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly, an announcement will be made regarding an agreement between Morningstar and a working group including such organizations as Jewish Federations of North America, Christians United for Israel and the Combat Anti-Semitism Movement.

While the exact details have not been finalized, a source close to the process says that Morningstar has moved toward the working group’s demands on issues such as the assumptions and sources it uses in developing its risk ratings, which have drawn the ire of pro-Israel groups and the attention of officials from 20 states investigating whether Morningstar’s practices violate laws against boycotting Israel.

In a statement late Sunday, JFNA President and CEO Eric Fingerhut told JNS that “we’ve been working tirelessly to get Morningstar to adopt a strong set of safeguards and policies to ensure that their ESG ratings are not biased against Israel. We are hopeful at the prospects of reaching a broad consensus across the Jewish community to ensure that we root out anti-Israel bias.”

Morningstar and its subsidiary, Sustainalytics, are accused by critics of utilizing anti-Israel sources and weighing them disproportionately in assigning ESG (environmental, social and governance) risk ratings to companies as guidance for socially-minded investors. The ratings, which assign a higher risk simply for doing business in or with Israel or in Israel-controlled territories, amount to a de facto boycott of Israel, allege several American Jewish groups and state officials.

Morningstar has insisted it does not practice BDS, and has pointed to an independent report it commissioned which claims there is no inherent anti-Israel bias in its ratings process. The company promised to implement some 40 recommendations springing from the report to ensure any bias is eliminated, but opponents say the changes, if implemented, would do little to root out the core bias they say is in place.

According to the source, Morningstar has been resisting substantive changes in its discussions with the working group, only moving off its position over the last few days. The source indicates there was some dissension within the working group itself over how far Morningstar would need to go to satisfy the group’s demands.

In terms of the changes now on the table, the source says that “the question everyone is asking is whether Morningstar will actually change the ratings of specific companies after these steps are announced. It’s one thing to say you are against BDS. It’s another thing to stop engaging in BDS. That will be the cloud continuing to hang over Morningstar until they show companies are no longer being sanctioned.”

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Jewish-run summer camp for refugees gives joy to youngsters while preparing them for new school year in Poland.

By Associated Press

A 5-year-old girl’s drawing at a summer camp in Poland’s capital caught the eye of one of her counselors. Why did she use black and white, and not red or pink, to make a heart, Rabbi Ilana Baird asked the child.

The girl, sighing heavily, said it was black like the dog she left behind in Ukraine.

Baird, who lives in California, volunteered with several other Jews originally from Russia or other parts of the former Soviet Union to mentor Ukrainian refugee children at the camp in Warsaw. The program, which ended Friday, was designed to give some joy to youngsters traumatized by war, to help prepare them for a new school year in Poland, and to give their mothers some time to themselves.

After performing puppet shows and reading stories to her group of 5- and 6-year-old campers, painting a lot of little faces and dispensing lots of big hugs, the rabbi saw another heart drawing. This one was pink.

“Happiness,” the girl explained.

Baird, 48, was happy to see cheerful colors and rainbows also emerging in the artwork of other children under her care at the Kef Be Kayitz camp, a Hebrew name that means Fun in the Summer.

For the volunteers, the decision to take time off from their usual jobs in the United States and fly to Poland to work with the Ukrainian children was driven by a desire to help those in need, a value that is universal and a central part of Jewish religious teachings.

“Jewish people have suffered so much in the past. We suffered pogroms, we suffered the Holocaust and we suffered antisemitism,” Baird said. “And we have a sense of obligation to help people who are suffering right now.”

After Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, people across Poland sprang into action to welcome and help refugees from the neighboring country. Poland has accepted more of the war’s refugees than any other nation.

Local and international Jewish organizations also wasted no time in trying to meet the most urgent needs: to house and feed the Ukrainians, most of whom are women and children.

With the war about to enter its sixth month, the camp at the Lauder Morasha School in Warsaw reflects the type of programming being developed to meet the changing needs of refugees. Many Ukrainians realize they won’t be able to go home soon, or perhaps ever, said Helise Lieberman, the director of the Taube Center for Jewish Life and Learning.

Mornings were devoted to Polish, English and math lessons so the children will be in a stronger position to adapt to school. Many of the Ukrainian kids who arrived in Poland since February finished the Ukrainian academic year remotely but will be entering Polish schools in September.

Campers spent afternoons doing arts and crafts, playing sports and making excursions to city museums and parks. About a third of the 90 children who attended the camp are Jewish, according to Marta Saracyn, the head of the Jewish Community Center of Warsaw.

“It’s a lovely bubble for kids to be kids,” Saracyn said.

Some of the Ukrainian refugee mothers need to look for jobs, and some are severely depressed after being separated from partners and relatives back home, organizers said.

The Taube Center and the Jewish Community Center of Warsaw organized the camp in conjunction with the Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Joint Distribution Committee.

The Jewish Federations of North America recruited nearly 90 Russian-speaking educators and rabbinic leaders to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Hungary, and 10 helped out at the Warsaw camp, said Hannah Miller, who runs the volunteer program.

The 10 camp volunteers are Russian-speaking immigrants who left the Soviet Union decades ago, or the children of Russian Jewish immigrants. Only a couple spoke Ukrainian, so they mostly spoke to the children in Russian, which is also widely used in much of Ukraine.

Baird recalled painting the face of a boy who became upset when he realized she wasn’t from Ukraine. “Why did you come here?” he asked her.

“Because you don’t need to be from Ukraine to help others,” the rabbi answered, “you just need to be human.”

The Jewish school where the camp took place is located blocks from the former Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews were imprisoned by German forces, killed and starved during the Holocaust before they were sent to concentration and extermination camps.

Poland was home to nearly 3.5 million Jews before World War II, most of whom were killed by German Nazi forces. But Jewish life has reemerged in the country since the fall of Moscow-backed communism in 1989.

“If this had happened 30 years ago, there would not have been Jewish communal institutions to provide relief and care,” said Lieberman, an American who was the founding principal of the Lauder Morasha School.

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Jewish federations praise funding bill that includes $360 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.

By JNS.org

The Jewish Federations of North America applauded the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security’s approval of the 2023 fiscal year funding bill that includes $360 million for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP).

The NSGP provides grants to nonprofits and houses of worship at high risk of terrorist attacks to help them fund security measures such as inspection and screening systems, fences, cameras, more secure doors, additional hiring of personnel and the development of emergency preparedness plans.

The program allows these institutions to apply for grants of up to $150,000 each.

The funding bill is an increase of $110 million from the 2022 fiscal year and “will help save lives and keep Jewish and other communities safe,” the Jewish Federations said on Thursday.

Appropriations Committee chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said the bill “includes many of the federal programs critical to keeping our country safe. With this bill, we are securing our borders by funding smart and effective investments in technology and operations.”

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Stressing the theme of unity, participants of the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly, held this year in Israel, together with representatives of the Masa Israel Journey, which organizes long-term programs in Israel, and The Jewish Agency joined a mass singing event at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park Monday afternoon. The event was inspired by Koolulam, an Israeli social musical initiative.

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Israel’s president warned of the risk of an “inner war” in his address to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations.

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin warned of the danger of an “inner war” in his address to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) in Tel Aviv, on Monday.

“Just a week ago, in the opening session of the Knesset, I said that our biggest threat is our inner war,” he said. “This is true for Israeli society, and this is true for the Jewish people. We must establish the importance of our relationship as a value that is above debate.”

The president added that Jews in Israel and the Diaspora have more than shared interests, “We have a shared fate, a shared history, and a shared future…”

Reverse Birthright

Rivlin said that young Israeli Jews identify being Jewish as being Israeli. He said they need to expand their horizons in the same way Jews who come to Israel do. “I support the idea of creating a ‘Reverse Taglit’ trip for young Israelis to get to know Jewish communities worldwide,” he said, referring to the popular Birthright program that brings Jews from around the world to Israel to strengthen their Jewish identity.

“We must increase their [Israeli] exposure to your schools, camps and communities. They need to realize and feel that they have a family, a family they must take into account,” he said.

The president noted a number of initiatives begun at his office together with the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs to deepen the Israel-Diaspora relationship, including partnerships between the two to help the developing world.

Over 1,200 members of Jewish federations from across North America are participating in the conference.

GPO contributed to this report.

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Possibly due to clashes with Liberal American Jews over Israeli policies, Netanyahu will not attend the North American Jewish Federations’ annual assembly.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will not attend the Jewish Federations of North America’s annual General Assembly in Los Angeles next month, Federation officials confirmed Monday. Dani Wassner, managing director of media and government  relations of the Federations’ Israel office, said that Netanyahu’s office cited the long flight to Los Angeles as the prime minister’s explanation for giving this year’s gathering a miss for the first time since 2011.

Wassner also rejected a suggestion made by some sources close to the organization that the prime minister had been disinvited due to Netanyahu’s ongoing clash with American Jews over synagogue-and-state issues in Israel. “The prime minister is always invited,” said Wassner.

However, the fact remains that Netanyahu is deeply unpopular with liberal American Jewish groups and may have pulled out of the event in order to avoid a likely chorus of boos. His recent backtrack on an agreement with Reform and Conservative groups to expand an egalitarian prayer adjacent to the Western Wall Plaza drew a furious response from diaspora leaders, as did the government’s decision to advance a controversial conversion bill.

Netanyahu oversaw the Western Wall deal in January, 2016, but has refused to implement the deal due to coalition pressure from the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism and Shas parties.

Netanyahu will be replaced by President Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin, who will deliver his first major address in the United States. Jewish Federations of North America officials said they are negotiating with Netanyahu’s office for the prime minister to address the gathering via video hookup.

By: Mara Vigevani/TPS

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In a video address to the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated his expectation that the Obama Administration would not try a lame-duck attempt to impose on Israel a faulty solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated Tuesday that peace between Israel and the Palestinians will not be achieved through “statements and resolutions at the United Nations” or external international pressure, but rather a mutually reached agreement.

Addressing the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington via video conference from Jerusalem, Netanyahu said that “the only way you really get a workable and enduring peace is to have the parties agree to it. This is what happened in our peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. It’s holding because there was mutual negotiations, mutual compromise, mutual agreement, and it sticks.”

The peace treaties with these Arab countries have “weathered many, many storms,” even as the Middle East is experiencing “convulsions,” but the treaties still hold after decades because “they were directly negotiated between the parties.”

“If you try to impose peace from the outside, it never works,” he underscored.

Israel will object to any externally imposed solution because “it will harden the Palestinian positions” and “will push peace back. It could push peace back decades.”

Israel is currently contending with initiatives led separately by Egypt, France, Russia, a group of Arab states and the US, while none of them of yielded significant results.

He said that the new reality in the Middle East, shaped by the Islamic State’s (ISIS) terrorism and Iran’s belligerence, and Israel’s policies of contending with these threats “may open up prospects for peace and probably will help us move towards some kind of resolution with the Palestinians.”

“One thing is certain, that trying to impose peace from the outside won’t. So I very much hope that President Obama will continue the policy…the longstanding policy of the United States” not to operate against Israel through international resolutions to pressure Jerusalem into making a move.

He may be alluding to Jerusalem’s fears of the possibility that President Barack Obama will launch a last-ditch diplomatic initiative during the interim period between the elections in November and the swearing-in of the elected president in January, an act that would severely hinder Israel’s maneuvering abilities during any upcoming negotiations.

Netanyahu said he is looking forward to working with President-Elect Trump “to further the twin interests of peace and security. These are interests of Israel and the United States but they’ll be achieved by direct negotiations between the parties without preconditions.”

Israel has repeatedly expressed its willingness to meet the Palestinians for negotiations any place and anytime, while the Palestinians have set preconditions and demands for any such talks.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

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