Good Monday morning!
In today’s edition of Your Daily Phil, we report on the launch of JIMENA’s new quarterly journal, Distinctions, and feature an opinion piece from Micol Zimmerman Burkeman. Also in this newsletter: Andrew Keene, Glenda Sacks and Stephanie Hallett. We’ll start with a letter from the heads of international Jewish groups to Israeli leaders calling for consensus and unity in light of growing turmoil in Israel.
The heads of Jewish Federations of North America, Jewish Agency for Israel, World Zionist Organization and Keren Hayesod sent a joint letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Opposition Leader Yair Lapid today, calling on them to come to an agreement and end the turmoil that has rocked Israel in recent days, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross.
The letter came hours before the Knesset began voting on a bill that would limit judges’ abilities to use “reasonableness” to strike down decisions made by the government, which members of the coalition have said is a first step in implementing the government’s proposed judicial overhaul. The letter was signed by JFNA President and CEO Eric Fingerhut, JFNA Board Chair Julie Platt, JAFI Chair of the Executive Doron Almog, JAFI Board of Governors Chair Mark Wilf, WZO Chair Yaakov Hagoel, Keren Hayesod Board of Trustees Chair Steven Lowy, and Keren Hayesod World Chair Sam Grundwerg.
“We must make every effort for unity and Shalom Bayit – peace in our home,” they wrote. “We, representatives of the National Institutions and World Jewry, partners in outlining the future of the Jewish people, wish to express the concern of the entire Jewish people and aspire to strengthen the foundations of our national home.”
The letter does not argue in favor or against a specific piece of legislation or course of action but instead focuses on the need to mend the divisions in Israeli society over the issue. The leaders write that this is particularly important ahead of Tisha B’Av, which marks the destructions of the First and Second Temples — the latter of which is traditionally said to have been destroyed due to “baseless hatred” within the Jewish people.
“This week, on the eve of Tish’a B’Av, when we remember the painful memory of the destruction of the first and second temple, we are at a point of great polarization and discord in Israeli society which we must find a way to overcome,” they wrote.
Read the full story here.
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