LAKEWOOD, New Jersey (AP) — An Israeli group that assists Jewish prisoners convicted of some of the country’s most infamous hate crimes has announced a new deal through a US-based Jewish charity following an investigation by The Associated Press and the Israeli nonprofit news organization Has paused its fundraising efforts. Shomarim.
Fundraising through the Lakewood, New Jersey-based World of Tzedka had allowed American donors to make tax-free contributions to the hard-line Israeli group, and suggested Israel’s far-right was making new inroads in the US.
World of Tzedaka confirmed that it was no longer working with Shalom Assyraich, while a fundraising link on the Israeli group’s website that had connected donors to the American nonprofit has stopped working.
Yaakov Cohen said, “We don’t do any business with them anymore, so we don’t have any more dealings with them.”
Shalom Aseiraich, or “The Well-Being of Your Prisoners”, has been raising money in Israel since at least 2018. The group was officially registered as a non-profit in 2020, consisting mostly of Israelis from hard-line settlements in the West. Edge.
According to its promotional materials, the group has provided assistance to Yigal Amir, who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995; Amiram Ben-Uliel, who was convicted in 2015 of killing a Palestinian child and her parents in an arson attack; and Yosef Haim Ben David, who was convicted of kidnapping and killing a 16-year-old Palestinian boy in Jerusalem in 2014. The group also supports an extremist ultra-Orthodox man who murdered a 16-year-old Israeli girl at a Jerusalem gay spot. Pride Parade in 2015.
Police escort Yosef Haim Ben-David, one of the suspects in the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, to the district court in Jerusalem in July 2014. (Photographer: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
A spokeswoman for Shlom Aisireich slammed the phone twice when called for comment by The Associated Press on Thursday.
It is not clear when the US fundraising efforts on behalf of Shalom Aisireich began. Being a relatively new organization, the group’s official filing to Israel’s Nonprofit Registry provides little data and does not indicate how much money it has raised. But in its promotional fliers recently broadcast by Israeli Channel 13 news, the organization indicated it had raised 150,000 shekels, or about $43,000.
It is also unclear how much money was raised in the US by World Tzedka, a group that helps Jewish families in crisis, according to its website. Lakewood, New Jersey, is home to a large Orthodox Jewish community.
Cohen, a representative for World of Tzedka, said his group had raised just $200 for Shalom Assyraich before the connection was closed, though that figure could not be verified.
Men cross a street on Friday, Nov. 4, 2022 in Lakewood, NJ. (AP/Wayne Parry)
“It didn’t really get off the ground that much. Then we heard some questionable information about them. Then the rabbis advised us to stop doing business with them, so we did,” he said.
It is not clear when the break happened. Cohen said it happened “a few months ago” when “some people locally” brought the connection to his attention.
But he could not specify when, and a link on the Shalom Assyriech website that links to the World of Tzedaka donation page was still working when the Ap-Shomrim investigation was published on January 24. There’s also another link directly to World of Tzedka’s website Vanished.
Cohen said, “We removed them from our website, and we asked them to remove our name from their website and whatever else they had and we completely disassociated ourselves from them.”
Israeli universities, hospitals and charities often have fundraising operations in the US, but activities by extremist groups such as Shalom Assyraich are rare.
It is not known whether Shalom Asireich or World of Tzedka has broken any US laws.
The US Internal Revenue Service’s rules for fundraising by non-profit organizations are vague – saying that groups cannot exert political influence or benefit private interests.
The exterior of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) building in Washington on March 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
The IRS declined to comment on the matter. The US State Department said it was aware of the reports about Shalom Assyriac, but referred questions to the Justice Department.
The State Department said, “We condemn all forms of extremist violence.”
The Justice Department did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new far-right government took office in late December, giving ultranationalist and extremist lawmakers unprecedented power.
There is no direct link between Shalom Assyraich and the government, although it was registered with Israeli authorities by a top aide to Israel’s ultranationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
