WEALTHY JEWS NOT GIVING TO JEWISH CHARITIES

Study finds that Jewish charities missing out on biggest donations (JTA)
NEW YORK (JTA) -- Jewish organizations are generally failing to attract financial support from America's wealthiest and most philanthropic Jews, according to a report by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research.

The study released Tuesday showed that Jews accounted for 16 percent -- or about 1,600 -- of all gifts of $1 million or more donated to nonprofit organizations between 2001 and 2003. But only 2 percent of these Jewish donations were directed toward Jewish organizations.

Of the $10 million-plus gifts by Jewish donors, only 5 percent went to Jewish groups -- down from 6 percent between 1995 and 2000, the last period studied by the San Francisco-based institute.

Its president, Gary Tobin, said the low rate of "mega-gifts" to Jewish organizations does not reflect poorly on the generosity of Jewish donors -- their general level of giving is on par with their wealthy non-Jewish peers.

Instead, Tobin argued, Jewish organizations are not effectively reaching out to the ultra-wealthy.

“The conclusion I draw is that Jewish organizations are not effectively making their case,” Tobin said, "whether that is in terms of not asking for enough or not making compelling arguments or getting access to the donors."

The institute is also looking at the years 2004-07, but the preliminary data show a similar picture.

That is despite a slew of major gifts to Jewish causes that includes the $100 million gift to Yeshiva University from fertilizer magnate Ronald Stanton; the $75 million gift to Hadassah Hospital from Detroit Pistons' owner William Davidson; the $100 million gift to the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology from aerospace entrepreneur Alfred Mann; and the nearly $60 million given to birthright israel in the past year by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.

Jews tend to give their gifts of more than $10 million to higher education, the arts and health care, according to the study:

* Fifteen gifts totaling $1.6 billion went to the arts, including a $1 billion donation from the Annenberg Foundation to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

* Thirty-two mega-gifts totaling $1.6 billion went to private higher education.

* Sixteen gifts totaling $649 million went to public higher education.

* Thirteen gifts totaling $247 million went to health care.

By comparison, during that time frame, Jewish philanthropists made just 11 gifts of $10 million or more totaling $269 million to Jewish causes.

That, Tobin said, is probably a generous estimate, as he and his researchers were lenient in classifying Jewish causes.

JEWISH CAMP OFFERS SHELTER, PEACE AMID SAN DIEGO FIRE

'That Afternoon, We Prayed with a Little More Intensity' (LGF)
Here’s a heartwarming story of the human spirit, among the devastation of the fires in the San Bernardino Mountains: Camp offers shelter, peace amid fire chaos.

The pairing of the rabbi and the firefighters was a natural one. He had beds. They had been sleeping on asphalt. He had food and showers. They were grateful.

Rabbi Yosef Brod should have rushed down the mountain a week ago, when the Slide fire was burning toward Camp Gan Israel, the 75-acre Jewish camp he runs in the San Bernardino Mountains. The fire charred nearly 13,000 acres and wiped out 201 homes as it spread.

But Brod, a rabbi with the Chasidic Lubovitch, or Chabad, sect, stayed. “Have a nice day,” he told his employees as they evacuated. “Drive carefully.”

Over the weekend, about a dozen fire engines were parked by the giant Hanukkah candelabra at the camp. One firefighter chatted on a cellphone while another shivered in his boxers. A third asked Brod what the symbols on the cabin doors meant — they were prayer scrolls called mezuzot that are meant to keep their occupants safe. State prison officials also came by, looking to house inmate mop-up crews in the camp’s bunks.

Brod says he kept the camp open because he believed that God would shelter the pine-shaded site, which the Chabad organization bought for summer and winter camps and weekend retreats. So Brod called his wife after the evacuations were ordered last Monday and said he wouldn’t be driving home to West Hollywood.

“She knew I’m so devoted to this place I wouldn’t leave,” he said. One of his employees stayed, too, and told Brod that, if need be, he would carry the camp director down the mountain.

By midweek, flames were licking the camp’s northern edge, and a firefighting helicopter tapped the camp’s pool for water. Brod ran a hose from a fire hydrant to the pool to keep it full. He already prays three times a day, but that afternoon, “We prayed with a little more intensity,” Brod said.

The blaze halted about 100 yards from the camp’s wood-shingle main lodge and spared the property’s cellphone towers, basketball court and 16 other buildings.

The blaze had pushed a clutch of soot-dusted firefighters onto the narrow road that curves into the camp. Brod fed them. He offered mattresses and soap.

(You can bypass the LA Times registration wall by following this Google search link.)

P.A. CLOSES HAMAS CHARITIES

Tackling Hamas, PA to shut down Islamic charitable organizations (JPost)
In a move aimed at undermining Hamas, the Palestinian Authority government in Ramallah decided Thursday to dismantle all Islamic charitable organizations in the West Bank.

Hamas condemned the decision as a "declaration of war" on the needy and warned that thousands of families would be affected.

In a separate development Thursday, the PA security forces arrested Sheikh Hussam Harb, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank who was recently released from Israeli prison. Harb was arrested when he went to visit Hamas prisoners who are being held in a PA jail in Nablus.

The charities that are being targeted are known as zakah committees. In Islam, zakah (purify) is a portion of one's wealth that must be given to the poor or to other specified purposes. The payment of zakah is a way of purifying one's wealth and saving oneself from greed and selfishness. PA officials said Hamas has been using the zakah committees as a means of transferring funds to its supporters in the West Bank.

FORD FOUNDATION VOWS TO REVIEW DONATIONS TO PALI NGO'S

Ford Foundation Vows Review of Donations to Palestinian NGOs - Yaakov Lappin
The Ford Foundation said it would "review" questions raised about funds channeled to Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), following a critique by an Israeli NGO watchdog. NGO Monitor, based in Jerusalem, recently released a report on donations by the Ford Foundation to a number of Palestinian organizations, charging that the foundation had "violated its own funding guidelines."

"Following exposure of the Ford Foundation's support for radical participants in the infamous NGO Forum of the Durban 2001 conference, Ford officials pledged to stop 'supporting organizations whose conduct is antithetical to our objectives of promoting peace, justice, tolerance and understanding.' However, as planning begins for a follow-on UN conference in 2009...many Ford-funded NGOs continue to violate Ford's terms," NGO Monitor said. Based in New York, the foundation has an endowment valued at $11.6 billion. (Ynet News)

JNF CANCELS PLAYBOY MANSION TRIP AUCTION

JNF passes on Playboy mansion trip (JTA)
Bidders in a Jewish National Fund auction cannot win a trip to the Playboy mansion after all. The JNF of Greater New York has removed from the list of items up for auction next month an all-expenses-paid trip to a VIP party at the Playboy mansion in Holmby Hills, Calif. The JNF rescinded the trip, which was set to be auctioned off at a sports trivia night in Manhattan on Oct. 11, following a JTA story in which some interviewees described it as tasteless. On Monday, the JNF issued a statement to staff and lay leaders apologizing for accepting the trip, which was a gift from anonymous lay leaders.

SEE: JNF AUCTIONS OFF TRIP TO PLAYBOY MANSION

JNF AUCTIONS OFF TRIP TO PLAYBOY MANSION

Going once, going twice: JNF to auction off trip to Hefner's Playboy mansion (JTA)
NEW YORK (JTA) -- One of the Jewish community's most storied charities is turning to the Playboy brand name to help raise funds.

The Jewish National Fund sent out a mass e-mail this month announcing that it would be auctioning off a one-year subscription to Playboy and an all-expenses-paid trip to a VIP party at the legendary mansion of the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner, in Holmby Hills, Calif.

The bidding will take place Oct. 11 in Manhattan at what is being billed as the first "JNF Sports Bonanza."

JNF's decision to include a Playboy prize package comes just months after Israel's tourism ministry launched an ad campaign featuring bikini-clad women and the Israeli Consulate in New York placed a sexy spread of female soldiers in the men's magazine Maxim.

CONSPIRACIES AND MOONSHADOWS AT HAMAS CHARITY TRIAL

Judge Rebukes Holy Land Trial Defendant - Jason Trahan
U.S. District Judge A. Joe Fish threatened to bar Ghassan Elashi, the Holy Land Foundation's former board chairman, from the courtroom Monday at the trial of Holy Land officials charged with sending millions of dollars to the Hamas terrorist group. Judge Fish said: "It was reported to me that [Mr. Elashi said] 'This trial is an extension of a Zionist conspiracy.'" He said federal law allows defendants to sit in on their own trials, but "it can be waived" if there are disruptions. (Dallas Morning News)

HERE'S ANOTHER INTERESTING TIDBIT FROM THE TRIAL: HLF Trial: Fundraising Speakers Include Hamas Leaders, Cat Stevens (LGF)

SHOCKING VIDEO FROM HOLY LAND FOUNDATION TRIAL

Shocking Video from the Holy Land Foundation Trial - Rich Lowry Interviews Steve Emerson
In the video, the person who makes the statement, "I am Hamas and I'm going to kill Jews" is Mufid Abdul Qatar, a defendant in the trial, and the half brother of Khalid Mashaal, the Hamas supreme commander-in-exile. At the very end of the skit, which is pretty horrifying, Abdul Qatar actually kills the Jew. And you can actually hear children in the audience laughing and applauding. (FOX News)

IDF EVIDENCE BARRED FROM MUSLIM CHARITY TERROR TRIAL

IDF evidence barred from US terror trial (JPost)
Lawyers for Muslim charity leaders accused of aiding Middle East terrorists scored a rare win in court Tuesday when a federal judge blocked some evidence seized by Israeli soldiers during raids of Palestinian organizations.

Defense lawyers had objected that some of the documents were not signed or dated, and they cast doubt on Israel's handling of the evidence.

Five former leaders of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development are charged with funneling millions of dollars to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the US government designated a terrorist organization in 1995. The trial is in its fourth week of testimony.

Federal District Judge A. Joe Fish has ruled in the prosecution's favor on a wide range of issues, from allowing the government to call Israeli secret agents as witnesses to denying defense requests for a mistrial.

On Tuesday, however, Fish ruled against prosecutors and blocked the jury from seeing 12 documents seized from Palestinian charities allegedly linked to Hamas and funded partly by the Holy Land Foundation.

The precise significance of the judge's ruling was difficult to gauge. The judge did not explain his ruling, and lawyers have been barred from talking to reporters about the case.

Also, the judge allowed some evidence from the Israeli raids, including pro-Hamas posters that could bolster in jurors' minds the prosecution's charge that the groups financed by Holy Land Foundation were controlled by Hamas.

Holy Land was the largest US Muslim charity when government agents shut it down in December 2001.

Leaders of the group said they provided humanitarian aid to Palestinian children, victims of the Oklahoma City bombing and others.

But prosecutors have portrayed the charity as part of a broader campaign to support suicide bombings and other attacks by Hamas in Israel.

HOLY LAND FOUNDATION TRIAL TURNS TO ISRAELI AGENT

Holy Land Trial Turns to Israeli Agent - Jason Trahan
The federal judge presiding over the Holy Land Foundation terror finance trial ordered his courtroom cleared of spectators Thursday as a secret agent for the Israel Defense Forces took the stand. The agent testified about a cache of documents, videos and posters that his team of commandos seized during raids on several charity committees in the Palestinian territories between 2002 and 2004. Prosecutors say these committees are controlled by Hamas and contend that Holy Land's support of them amounts to illegal support of terrorists. Prosecutors are expected to get into the details of what is in the evidence later, when an agent with the Israeli Security Agency is to testify in the case. (Dallas Morning News)

CAIR PART OF MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD'S PALESTINE COMMITTEE

CAIR: Part of the Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine Committee (LGF)
There was a real bombshell of a revelation yesterday in the Hamas funding trial in Dallas, as an FBI agent testified about the roots of the Council on American Islamic Relations: Counterterrorism Blog: CAIR Identified by the FBI as part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee.

Dallas—In testimony Tuesday, FBI Agent Lara Burns reported before the jury in the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial that the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) was listed as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee, right alongside HLF, the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR). Agent Lara Burns further testified that CAIR received money from HLF - a claim that Nihad Awad blatantly denied in a congressional testimony in September of 2003.

Burns also said that both Omar Ahmed and Nihad Awad, CAIR co-founders who today serve as CAIR’s chairman emeritus and executive director, respectively, were also listed as individual members [of] the Brotherhood’s Palestine Committee in America.

Awad and Ahmed are further connected to the Palestine Committee based on their positions as president and public relations director of the IAP, a Hamas front group that was responsible for the dissemination of propaganda, and has since been closed down as a result of a multi-million dollar civil judgment in a trial involving the murder of an American teenager by HAMAS terrorists.

CAIR, which touts itself as America’s premier Muslim civil rights organization, was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the trial. Burns’ testimony so far has placed both Ahmed and Awad at a 1993 Philadelphia meeting where the HAMAS members and supporters discussed a strategy to kill the Oslo Peace Accords, which threatened to marginalize HAMAS.

The group also discussed ways to improve HAMAS fundraising in America.

Government testimony regarding the role of CAIR reflects the prosecution’s attempt to prove that the HAMAS network in America was established through the Palestine Committee, or what the indictment called “a sub-group of active Muslim Brotherhood members of Palestinian origin.” The leader of this Committee was Musa Abu Marzook, a Specially Designated Terrorist since 1995, and Hamas’ current Deputy Political Bureau Chief. Through this committee, a number of organizations were established to promote HAMAS politically and financially, including HLF, IAP and UASR.

It’s disgraceful how little coverage this hugely important trial is receiving in mainstream media. Read the whole report at Counterterrorism Blog; it’s incredibly damning stuff.

BAT MITZVAH GIRL DONATES $100,000 TO JNF

Bat mitzva girl donates $100,000 to JNF (JPost)
Samantha Resnick had only one item on her bat mitzva wish list. Unlike most girls her age, who cross their fingers for anything in a powder-blue Tiffany's box, Resnick set her sights on something a bit bigger than a ribbon fit around: $100,000 worth of donations to build a brand-new playground in Israel.

About a year-and-a-half before Resnick's bat mitzva, her father, Josh, sat his precocious, curly-haired daughter down for a talk. "I said 'You've always had everything you've needed and you've also had everything you've ever wanted. Do you really want people to buy gifts for you or do you want to do something special for kids in Israel?'" Without a moment's pause, Resnick agreed to the idea. "I was really proud of her," said Josh.

Over 500 friends and relatives received an unusual invitation for Resnick's bat mitzva last September: Included in the envelope was a small card requesting that donations be made to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in lieu of gifts. Every family invited to the event contributed to assemble one of the largest bar or bat mitzva donations the JNF has ever received.

On Monday, in Israel for the first time, Resnick and her parents formally opened the playground that is attached to Sapir Park in the Arava Valley. The playground is designed to accommodate children who have special needs alongside those who do not. ...

Resnick's parents are both deeply involved in the JNF; her father is president of his region in Pittsburgh and her mother is an active member of the Sapphire Society, the ladies' division of the JNF. They said the idea of a bat mitzva was being lost in contemporary American society, and they did not want their only child to miss out on learning actual values at this critical point in her life.

"She said 'You know what, I don't need the gifts,' which just told us how much she understood the b'nei mitzva," said Josh, noting that many b'nei mitzvot have become increasingly materialistic. "It's always disturbed me that these children of families of wealth and of higher networks have people attending their affairs trying to figure out what to buy them... I think it was meaningful to a lot of the attendees that Samantha would choose to go down this path."

"It was important for our family to know what a bat mitzva really was," echoed Debbie.

U.S. GOES AFTER ANOTHER HAMAS CHARITY

Treasury moves against Al-Salah (AP)
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration moved Tuesday to clamp down financially on a large charitable organization in Gaza for allegedly raising money and providing other support to Hamas, which the U.S. has branded as a terrorist group.

The Treasury Department’s action is against the Al-Salah Society and its director, Ahmad al-Kurd. As a result, any bank accounts or other financial assets found in the United States belonging to them must be frozen. People in the United States also are forbidden from providing money or doing business with them.

Treasury alleged that Al-Salah, located in the Palestinian territories of Gaza, supported Hamas-affiliated combatants and recruited young people for Hamas activities. The U.S. also said that Al-Salah financed stores, kindergartens and the purchase of land for Hamas.

The society has received "substantial funding" from Persian Gulf countries, including "at least hundreds of thousands of dollars from Kuwaiti donors," the department said.

It said the society's director, al-Kurd, is a high-ranking Hamas leader in Gaza. It said the society also employed a number of members of Hamas' military wing.

"Hamas has used the Al-Salah Society, as it has many other charitable fronts, to finance its terrorist agenda," said Adam Szubin, director of the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control.

2 MICHIGAN CHARITES SUSPECTED OF HEZBOLLAH TIES

Charity suspected of Hezbollah ties (JTA)
Two Michigan charities were raided by federal agents on suspicion of ties to the terrorist group Hezbollah. The Goodwill Charitable Organization and the Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization, both based in Dearborn, Mich., were visited by federal agents Tuesday morning, according to the Detroit News.

The raids were part of crackdown by the Treasury Department on alleged financial supporters of Hezbollah and the Iranian Martyrs Foundation. Al-Mabarrat will be allowed to continue operations, according to an official of the Council on American Islamic relations who was briefed by the FBI. But the government alleges that the Goodwill organization is the local front of the Iranian Martyrs Foundation, which supports Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, in addition to helping Palestinian suicide bombers and their families.

U.S. PUTS ANOTHER ISLAMIC CHARITY ON TERROR LIST

US Treasury bans dealings with Hezbollah supporters
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday it has moved to block financing to Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah by banning U.S. transactions with a foundation in Iran and a finance company in Lebanon.

The Treasury said in a statement it was designating the Tehran-based Martyrs Foundation and the Al-Qard al-Hassan finance firm in Beirut as providing financial support to terrorist organizations.

The move invokes an executive order to freeze any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit any Americans from conducting transactions with them. Two individuals associated with Hezbollah support activities also were blacklisted.

The designation includes a Dearborn, Michigan-based fundraising office set up by the Martyrs Foundation under the name Goodwill Charitable Organization. The Treasury said Goodwill is a “front organization that reports directly to the leadership of Martyrs Foundation in Lebanon.”

The Treasury said the foundation channels financial support from Iran to several militant groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

NY BAR AND BAT MITZVAHS DONATE $1 MILLION TO ISRAEL

Batmitzvah gifts go to Kiryat Shmona (YNet)
Eleven playgrounds are being built in Kiryat Shmona thanks to contributions from the Jewish community abroad. However, the money did not come from wealthy adults, but from children who have reached bar and batmitzvah age and are donating the money they received as gifts.

One of the benefactors is Rachel Hibner (12) of New York. She was both proud and moved to be at the unveiling ceremony of the playground her gift money helped build in northern town.

Rachel who donated all of the $11,000 she received for her Bat mitzvah said: “I attached a card to my batmitzvah invitation asking for money instead of a gift. I explained that the money will be donated to Israel."

Rachel is not alone. Ten playgrounds were built in the last month in Kiryat Shmona thanks to donations by Jewish American youth. The connection was made by the Jewish Agency after having received several appeals by young Americans. The Jewish Agency proposes different
projects and the kids decide which one to contribute to. One youngster who enjoys cooking donated $25,000 to build four kitchens in homes of new immigrants from Ethiopia.

The Jewish Agency's Jeff Kay said that “there are young people in the United States, who already have everything, and (they) want to donate to a unique cause, and for the most part we choose projects that girls and boys can connect to."

Jewish teenagers and children from the New York area contributed about a million dollars to support 100 different projects.

The town's mayor, Danny Kadosh, says that when the playground is completed, the young benefactors are invited to the unveiling ceremony. He said that the kids donate most of the $20 000 it costs to build a playground and are always happy and excited to see the results on the ground.

SAVE THE CHILDREN, UNLESS THEY'RE PALESTINIAN

Outrage over child soldiers: "Save the Children" forgot some (TigerHawk)
The British arm of the charity "Save the Children" is getting some pick-up of a press release decrying the recruitment of child soldiers ten years after the promulgation of the Cape Town Principles against that practice. According to Save the Children, there are 13 offending jurisdictions:

Fighting forces are recruiting and using child soldiers within Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Nepal, Phillipines, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

Save the Children "forgot" to notice some child soldiers. Here are the names of just a few of them (age at death or capture): Ismail Abu Nada (12), Anwar Ill Azi Mustafa Hamarna (13), Yosef Basem Yosef Zakut (14), Abdullah Quran (12), Hussam Abdo (16), Nasser Awartani (15), Muataz Takhsin Karini (16), Ahmed Bushkar (17), Ayub Maaruf (16), Aamer Alfar (16), Mahmoud Tabouq (15 or 16), and Hassan Hashash (15).

They are Palestinian Arabs.

The question is, did Save the Children ignore them because it does not care about Palestinian Arabs, or because it supports the cause of the armies recruiting them to such a degree that it is unwilling to condemn their crime even in a press release devoted to the subject? What could be the third explanation?