The Israel Lobby

Israel Affinity Organizations: Education

Data

Education & Training Israel Affinity Organizations are directed both inward and outward. The internal component includes spreading “Zionist education” programs from kindergarten through college in the U.S. for Jewish students. It includes the movement for the expansion of Jewish day schools as part of an anti-assimilation campaign and to create closer cultural ties to Israel. It also funds the network of Hillel organizations on campus. Hillel originated as a means for ensuring equal opportunity for Jewish students but today increasingly functions as the primary on-campus advocate for Israel.

The external education campaign is aimed at elites and the general American public. This includes Holocaust memorial museums across the country, law enforcement “tolerance” and counter-terrorism training in Israel (mostly inappropriate for real-world American law enforcement needs) as well as producing and promoting Israel studies departments and Holocaust memorial curricula for public and private schools. These programs create a feeling of affinity with and sympathy for Israel as a refuge, particularly during the formative years of young Americans. It also crowds out far more relevant and useful histories much closer to home.

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Incorporation or IRS Ruling Year EIN Employees Volunteers Organization Actual US Revenue 2012 Forecast US Revenue 2020

1980 521309391 453 400 United States Holocaust Memorial Museum $     124,145,507 $     171,860,770

1999 134092050 53 0 Birthright Israel Foundation $     101,960,863 $     473,160,839

1984 521844823 1541 69 Hillel Foundation $        27,903,405 $        17,966,418

1985 953964928 121 274 Simon Wiesenthal Center $        23,754,251 $        19,457,068

1917 135599486 64 0 Jewish Community Centers Association of North America - JCC Association $        21,120,717 $        35,744,537

1980 133041381 13 100 Women's International Zionist Organization $          3,411,787 $          4,561,983

2004 113666684 5 0 Aish International - Hasbara Fellowships $          2,915,757 $             908,783

1914 430769468 16 100 Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity $          2,784,475 $          4,087,568

1994 521865861 6 0 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise $          2,642,808 $        27,933,788

1917 130887610 21 Jewish Telegraphic Agency $          2,565,355 $          2,963,430

1931 131681984 10 100 Women's League for Conservative Judaism $          2,102,258 $          2,130,011

1945 136141078 0 0 Alpha Epsilon Pi Foundation, Inc $             917,677 $          1,350,588

1979 521171542 2 0 MERCAZ USA Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement $             334,440 $             242,787

2006 204903202 4 10 Holocaust Education Center in the Desert $             175,892 $                17,278

Total 2,309 1,053 $     316,735,192 $     762,385,848

In aggregate, Israel Affinity Organizations were the number two “charity” in America in 2012, just behind the United Way, but ahead of the Salvation Army. Given their above-average growth rate, it is reasonable to assume they will soon be number one, if they are not already. That is because the Iran nuclear threat campaign—a manufactured crisis—appears to have mobilized levels of financial support not achieved since the late 1930s through the end of the 1940s.

Most of the financial data in this report and in the following tables has been gathered by examining the IRS form 990 tax returns filed by each IAO. To achieve a common basis of comparison, data reported by an IAO on a year 2012 form 990 is counted entirely as 2012 data, even if an organization’s fiscal year does not end on December 31. The figure in the “launch” column is the year the organization was established, incorporated or received IRS tax-exempt status. EIN (employee identification number) is the organization’s unique taxpayer ID number. EE is claimed employees for the year 2012, while Vol. is the claimed number of volunteers.

The revenue figure used in the column “2012” is from IRS form 990 line 12, “total revenue.” This line, the net of public and government contributions (most government contributions are negligible), plus any program-related activities, plus or minus investment returns, provides the best snapshot of actual year resources available to implement an IAO’s programs. No attempt is made to net out conduit transfers. Therefore, if an IAO solicits and receives $10,000 in public contributions, only to transfer that amount to another IAO, aggregate IAO revenue counted for the year will be $20,000. Figures for IAO employees and volunteers are those reported by the organization’s most recent available IRS form 990. Figures for year 2020 revenue are the author’s forecast using regression analysis of revenue growth from 2001-2012 (or from the IAO’s launch year, if that occurred after 2001).

A blank in the 2020 column indicates an IAO appears to be on revenue track to become defunct by that year or earlier. Some organizations are listed that have no 2012 revenue or that may have been defunct by that year. Many of these appear in the full online database at IsraelLobby.org if they were involved in interesting activities, such as illegal settlements, or espionage, as mentioned in the case of the Alliance for Competitive Technology.

Source: Big Israel: How Israel's Lobby Moves America

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