Good Friday morning.
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we interview Jonathan and Mindy Gray and their foundation’s CEO, Dana Zucker, about their $125 million donation to Tel Aviv University at the inauguration of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, and report on the Adelson Family Foundation’s seven-figure donation to Bar-Ilan University. We spotlight the International Beit Din and its efforts to address the “agunah crisis,” and examine what the election of the first American pope portends for Jewish-Catholic relations. We feature an opinion piece by Sarah Levin about elevating Jewish multiculturalism rather than intracommunal identity politics. Also in this newsletter: Bill Gates, Emily Damari and Joe Neubauer and Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer.
Shabbat shalom!
What We’re Watching
The German-created organization March of Life, which organizes marches by non-Jews against antisemitism, is kicking off a series of events in Israel on Sunday evening with a gala in Jerusalem.
The Israel Center for Addiction and Mental Health at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is hosting its first major conference, “Mental Health in a Reality of War: The Implications of Oct. 7 and Its Aftermath,” beginning on Monday morning.
What You Should Know
For one of the largest donations ever made to Israeli academia, the ceremony marking the inauguration of the Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Tel Aviv University yesterday morning in honor of Jonathan and Mindy Gray’s $125 million donation to the school was an understated affair. At least as understated as an event can be when it’s attended by one of the world’s top hedge fund managers, Blackstone President and COO Jonathan Gray, and his wife, Mindy; Israeli President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog; the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Blackstone Vice Chair Tom Nides; along with some of Israel’s top academics and medical professionals.
There was sparkling wine and bespoke cocktails, but no gowns or tuxedos — indeed many of the attendees were faculty members, wearing their university ID cards clipped to their untucked button-down shirts and khakis. After an unveiling and ribbon-cutting ceremony and speeches, a light lunch was served al fresco, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross from the event.
This type of low-key affair seemed fitting for the Grays, whose rabbi, Central Synagogue’s Angela Buchdahl, who attended the ceremony, noted in her speech that despite their current financial standing, they remain exceedingly “down to earth.”
The donation represents the largest that TAU has ever received, and President Herzog and Tel Aviv University President Ariel Porat noted in their speeches that alongside the concrete value of the gift, it also carries immense symbolic value for the State of Israel in one of its darkest hours. “This act of generosity by Mindy and Jon not only strengthens Israel but also strengthens the bond between the Jewish Diaspora and the State of Israel, the shared destiny of the Jewish people around the world. This connection exists in ordinary times, but it is especially needed in times of crisis,” Porat said.
Herzog said that the gift comes at one of Israel’s darkest times, “[at] the moment in which our people lost more than we thought possible and gained an appreciation for all that remained. … This is the moment, Mindy and Jon, you chose to reach out and have contact. What a profound statement of solidarity and gratitude.”
The gift represents both the largest donation that the Grays have yet made in Israel, as well as, by far, the largest single donation that they have ever made anywhere. (Over the years, they have — in total — given a similar sum to the University of Pennsylvania, where they both studied English.)
Speaking after the ceremony, the Grays and the CEO of their foundation, Dana Zucker, told eJP that the donation combined both their desire to support Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks and their overall philanthropic priorities: medical research, specifically around the BRCA mutation, and providing medical and educational opportunities to underprivileged populations.
“After Oct. 7, we tried to find places where we could have emergency impact,” Jon Gray said. “We met with a number of different Israeli organizations, and we had that meeting [with TAU]. I think it was pretty clear to us that there was more we could do together. And that this could be very interesting because we focused so much on both medical research and underprivileged kids, and we could pull this all together.” Mindy Gray added: “It’s really the marriage of our two core tranches of our foundation.”
The Grays said that despite their concerns about the University of Pennsylvania’s initial handling of campus antisemitism, they were not dropping their support for the school, where they both studied English, but were just adding this support for TAU. “It’s a broadening,” Mindy said.
“For us, this wasn’t about any sort of deletion, but really addition,” Jon said. “That’s what this is. We thought: The State of Israel needed support post-Oct. 7, let’s bring the areas we were really focused on — access to education and medical research — and bring it together, and TAU was a perfect place to do it.”
He added: “I would just say one of the things that’s been really interesting about this — and quite positive — is we had this piece [about the donation] in The New York Times, and the number of texts and emails that we have gotten, it’s been extraordinary, and from around the world. We’re hopeful that it will catalyze others, that it will lead others to think about giving because this country is in a lot of pain. It’s both resilient but also suffering, and I think having Jews around the world support Israel, it’s super important at this time, now more than ever.”
Read the full interview here.
Credit:Source link
