Jewish advocacy groups offered mixed reactions on Tuesday to the announcement of the $305 million 2023 federal budget allocation for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program. The allocation represents a 22% increase over 2022 funding levels but still falls short of the $360 million funding goal that many Jewish leaders and lawmakers have been pursuing for several years, Jewish Insider’s Marc Rod reports.

Last minute: Talks appeared to be closing in on the $360 million funding level as of late last week. Jewish leaders who spoke to JI last week were optimistic, and a source told JI on Friday that the funding was close to locked in, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) leading a push by citing rising rates of antisemitism. But the situation changed between then and the release of the budget bill in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Some negotiators were pushing to keep all funding levels for Department of Homeland Security programs at 2022 levels, a source familiar with the negotiations told JI, but NSGP was one of few exceptions made, alongside flood response funding.

Reflection: The program fulfilled just over half of 2022 grant applications, with total grant requests increasing to $447 million. The Department of Homeland Security has focused efforts recently on increasing outreach about the program and making it easier for institutions to apply. “We of course are disappointed it’s not all the way to $360 [million], which we believe is the minimum necessary given the number of eligible grants that did not receive funding last year, so we’re going to continue to fight another day for more funding, but we’re definitely grateful for this significant increase,” Elana Broitman, the Jewish Federations of North America’s senior vice president for public affairs, said.

View from the Hill: “I remember a few years ago when this program received next to nothing in our budgets. It has been through our hard efforts and by educating our colleagues that we have built the program out to this level, and I am proud of that work. While this figure is not every cent we requested, it represents a healthy increase that will protect communities and put our neighbors’ minds at more ease,” Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) said. “I believe lives will be saved by this funding. Because the threat of domestic terrorism only continues to grow, we will keep pushing through the next Congress to get the full amount we sought. We will never stop pushing for this important program.”

Looking ahead: The $360 million target has remained largely consistent in the past few years in part because of congressional support for that funding level, even as total grant requests have continued to increase, Jewish community leaders said. “A lot of the $360 [million] revolved not only around the actual needs of the program but also support from Chuck Schumer,” Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israel of America’s vice president for governmental affairs said. “We’ve got to get to $360… clearly what we’re getting now isn’t enough,” he continued. “I don’t know that $360 will be enough. We’ll have to see how that goes. But going forward, I think we’ll have to talk about broadening the scope of the program.”

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Some lucky guests at Monday night’s White House Hanukkah party walked away with two types of gelt: the traditional chocolate kind, and a $2 bill handed to them by Henry Zachs, Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports. The philanthropist and telecommunications pioneer from Hartford, Conn., knew just two other people at the event. But the bespectacled 88-year-old, wearing a navy-and-white striped shirt and a navy bowtie with white polka dots, didn’t mind. 

Offer’s up: He went up to anyone in the room — except the president, though Zachs swears he would have if he had gotten closer to Joe Biden — and offered them a rare $2 bill. “I went to the bank and I got 200 $2 bills. I didn’t know that there would be 500 or 600 people there, so I gave those bills out,” he told JI in a Tuesday phone call. He had just four left at the end of the night. 

New in town: Zachs is not a major political donor, so unlike many others in the room, he was not used to schmoozing with the Washington set. Zachs had only been to the White House once before, on a tour more than three decades ago. But in Hartford, his hometown, Zachs is a familiar figure. He sits on the board of nearly a dozen nonprofits, and he started a major project called Endow Hartford 21, encouraging area organizations to create endowment funds. 

Treyf tradition: The roots of Zachs’ gelt tradition can be traced back to an unlikely source: an oyster house. The owner of Honiss Oyster House, a once-iconic Hartford culinary institution that has since closed, would give out silver dollars or $2 bills to young visitors on Hanukkah. Zachs brought the tradition to his family, and has given out $2 bills to his grandchildren for years. Last night was the first time he took the practice into the outside world. 

Ethics exemplar: “There wasn’t a single person that said, ‘Oh, I don’t want the money. I don’t take money.’ There only was one congressman, he says, ‘I can’t take it.’ That I understand,” Zachs said with a laugh. He does not remember which member of Congress it was.

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When the cryptocurrency firm FTX imploded last month after the discovery of an $8 billion shortfall, the sudden collapse sent shockwaves through a bevy of charity organizations that depended on funding from the philanthropic initiatives associated with the firm. But in Israel, the ripple effects of FTX’s destruction will be felt in a surprising place: table salt, Melanie Lidman reports for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Salt situation: The FTX Foundation, the firm’s philanthropic arm, donated approximately NIS 1 million, or some $288,000, to help a new Israeli organization called ALTER, the Association for Long Term Existence and Resilience, find ways to increase Israelis’ access to iodized salt. Iodine deficiency is the leading cause of preventable brain damage in children, according to UNICEF, which found that insufficient iodine during pregnancy and infancy results in serious neurological and psychological deficits. More than 90 percent of people around the world use salt enriched with iodine, according to the U.N. agency, often mandated by government legislation, but Israel does not require it. Although iodized salt is available in Israel, it is more expensive, and few people understand the benefits, leading to Israel having among the world’s worst levels of iodine deficiency.

ALTER alternative: ALTER is guided by effective altruism, a philosophy that the FTX Foundation trumpeted that says donors should leverage their giving to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people. The organization identified iodizing salt as one achievable goal that would have a significant impact on children’s lives in Israel. The iodizing process costs around two cents per child per year. The FTX donation is about as large as ALTER’s annual budget, and has already been deposited in the organization’s account. But with FTX in bankruptcy proceedings and its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, under arrest for fraud, ALTER founder David Manheim told eJewishPhilanthropy that he assumes his nonprofit will be required to return the money, and is already treating it as a loss. “We certainly are not willing to use money that would otherwise be going to compensate people who were defrauded,” he said.

EA in Israel: Rei Dishon, who teaches a six-month course in community and organizational development at Bar-Ilan University, said the philosophy has “fundamental gaps,” and particularly takes issue with the idea that donors should aim to make as much money as possible in order to give it all away. However, he also thinks that Israelis’ mentality means people are open to the questions about how to do the most good, and willing to change their habits when confronted with a convincing argument. “We’re more open, blunt, and we don’t [beat] around the bush, so when we get feedback, we like to see what’s bad and try to fix it,” said Dishon.

Staying positive: For Ezra Hausdorff, Effective Altruism Israel’s CEO, watching the public face of his movement crumble has been challenging, and Hausdorff said his staff has been navigating ways to respond to the crisis while still focusing on the work they believe in so deeply. “It made me think again about the reasons that I believe in effective altruism. I thought about whether or not this situation impacted the core beliefs, and I don’t think it does,” said Hausdorff. “The fact was that there’s one bad actor, and even though he became sort of a figurehead, it doesn’t change the principles and the potential to do a significant amount of good.”

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