Canadian Jewish charity loses status over aid to Israel

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A Jewish aid group, Ne’eman Foundation Canada of Thornhill, Ontario, was stripped of its charitable status for indirectly providing aid to the Israeli Defence Forces, as revealed by Access To Information records.

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The foundation argued that its assistance helped individual ex-military personnel and that national service is an integral part of Israeli life, as reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

“While increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Canada’s armed forces is charitable, supporting the armed forces of another country is not,” wrote auditors at the Canada Revenue Agency.

The Ne’eman Foundation and a separate charity, the Jewish National Fund of Montréal, were both deregistered on Aug. 10 after being accused of violating the Income Tax Act.

The Jewish National Fund challenged its ruling in Federal Court, while the Ne’eman Foundation remained silent.

The Foundation was cited for $40,886 in payments to Israel’s Benji Hillman Foundation. The group “aims to help lone combat soldiers and soldiers from deprived backgrounds in the Israeli Defence Forces both during and after their army service,” wrote auditors.

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Another $25,536 was paid to Lone Soldier, an Israeli charity with a mission “to assist lone soldiers before, during and after their army service.” Auditors documented $1.9 million transferred from the Ne’emen Foundation to Panim el Panim, a charity that operates Israeli high school programs “to strengthen Jewish identity and values and motivation to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces.”

The Ne’emen Foundation consistently asserted that Canadian auditors failed to recognize the significance of military service in Israeli society.

In the case of the Lone Soldier charity, “individuals are lone soldiers because they are immigrants without a family” and in need of aid.

“Israel is a country that closely identifies religion with the land and there may be ancillary effects of strengthening one’s desire to serve their country as a proxy for religious belief,” it told auditors. “The organization stated it is teaching religion to kids in high school and if there is an effect on the child’s interest in military service, it is an unavoidable side effect.”

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The Ne’emen Foundation, a registered charity in Canada since 2011, has been criticized by auditors for its poor recordkeeping practices.

“The organization does not keep its books and records in Canada,” wrote the Revenue Agency. “All source documents, agency agreements, banking records, general journal, emails, etcetera are kept in Jerusalem.”

“The organization provided many of its records in Hebrew, including spreadsheets, reports and invoices,” wrote auditors. “While the Income Tax Act does not explicitly require records to be kept in one of the two official languages of Canada, charities are strongly advised to do so.”

In a 2022 guide, the Agency urged caution for registered charities working “in parts of the world where terrorism and other forms of violence prevail” such as the Middle East. “Leaders of Canadian charities are called on to weigh such troublesome questions as to how to meet desperate cases of need without providing support to one or another political faction or without prolonging the violence,” said the guide Charities In The International Context.

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