Two heavyweight players in the Jewish foundation world — Lisa Eisen, a president of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and Barry Finestone, the president and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation — committed their foundations to providing significant overhead funding to grant recipients.

Why it matters: This marks a notable shift from funding restricted to special projects, which has often been the focus of Jewish philanthropic giving in the past. Eisen and Finestone wrote in a joint op-ed in eJewishPhilanthropy that their foundations will now be funding grantees to keep the lights on — that is, to cover the costs of utility bills, rent, salaries and staff benefits. The Jewish non-profit sector, Eisen and Firestone wrote, “will be stronger when we embrace the idea that investing in an organization’s ability to learn, grow and compete is directly tied to its ability to achieve impact.”

Read the full op-ed here

The way it used to be: Jeffrey Solomon, a former president of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies and now senior advisor to ChasBro, Charles Bronfman’s family office, tells JI’s Debra Nussbaum Cohen: “As a longstanding grantmaker it has not been the norm in the Jewish community” to provide money to cover overhead expenses, which he said is a peculiarity of Jewish philanthropy. “I’ve yet to see anybody walk into Starbucks and say, ‘I’ll take a latte but won’t pay for your overhead,’ yet that’s the way that many funders behave,” he said. “There are lights to be turned on, rent to be paid. Sophisticated funders know this.”

Grantees react: Yehuda Kurtzer says the shift in focus “is welcome news, and incredibly exciting.” Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, added that the move shifts the dynamic between funders and recipients away from one that “makes organizations almost vendor-like,” adding: “Support for general operating expenses is actually a catalyst for innovation, as it creates a stable foundation for growth. We have been beneficiaries of this kind of support and it has been transformational to our organization.”

On the ground: Turkish forces began attacking Kurdish positions in northeast Syria on Wednesday, just days after Trump announced his decision earlier this week to endorse a Turkish military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, pulling back American military personnel in the region. Thousands of civilians fled as Turkish airstrikes and artillery closed in border towns. Trump called the Turkish offensive a “bad idea,” saying he did not endorse it, while European leaders and Egypt called on Turkey to halt its operation.    

Why it matters: This move and Trump’s decision to forgo retaliation against Iran following its attack on Saudi oil facilities “have been ground-shaking in terms of the way that the region will view America,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JI’s Jacob Kornbluh. “I think that certainly the Gulf states have taken note and the Kurds have lost any illusion where the U.S. is on their issues and their security.” 

On the Hill:  Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced on Wednesday bipartisan legislation with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) that would impose sanctions against Turkey for its invasion of Syria. 

Flashback: In 2015, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said the U.S. should not only directly arm Kurdish fighters to fight ISIS, but also promise the Kurds a country. “I think they would fight like hell if we promised them a country.” They did and now, as The National Review’s John McCormack notes in a blistering column, Paul is applauding Trump’s decision to abandon the Kurds. 

View from Jerusalem: The decision “set off clanging alarm bells among officials in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,” David Halbfinger reports in The New York Times. Former MK and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told Halbfinger he doesn’t know if Israel “can bank” on Trump to come to its aid at a time of “a serious war.” 

Netanyahu said in remarks this morning at a state memorial ceremony for the Fallen of the 1973 Yom Kippur War on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem: "Like in 1973, today we very much appreciate the important support of the U.S., which has greatly increased in recent years, as well as the major economic pressure that the U.S. is using on Iran. Even so, we will always remember and implement the basic rule that has guided us; Israel will defend itself, by itself, against any threat."

Daylight? According to Schanzer, while the Israeli political leadership and the defense establishment maintains a good relationship with the Trump administration, there are certainly going to be concerns going forward about predicting future policy decisions. 

Seth Frantzman, author of After ISIS: America, Iran and the Struggle for the Middle East and Middle East affairs analyst at The Jerusalem Post, tells JI: “When the U.S. appears weak, as it does in leaving Syria and having its Kurdish partners bombed, that means enemies of Israel will think the U.S. is withdrawing from the Middle East. Those who gain from U.S. withdrawal in eastern Syria are Iran and Turkey.” 

Times of Israel founding editor David Horovitz writes that “in terms of the dependability of the Trump administration in an Israeli hour of need, the president’s latest policies… are causing overt dismay in some Israeli circles.” 

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) said she would rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal if elected president during a town hall meeting in Ames, Iowa, on Sunday. 

“When elected with your help… we will re-enter the agreement,” Harris said. “But also, I will want to strengthen it, and that will mean extending the sunset provisions, including ballistic missile testing, and also increasing oversight.” 

Reaction: Kat Wellman, a Californian resident affiliated with the Democratic Majority for Israel, who asked Harris the question, told The Ames Tribune that she was “very impressed” with the answer. “She gave a very detailed, responsive answer to my question,” Wellman said. “I’m pro-Israel, so I was very concerned and all about making sure we limit nuclear missiles in any country that could possibly destroy us all. I thought her answer was very good.”

Watch the full exchange here

Peter Lattman, managing director of media at Emerson Collective, posted a picture of boxes of smoked fish at Barney Greengrass awaiting their shipment across the country for Yom Kippur’s break-fast.