JCA refutes media report that it had funded the “Yes” campaign
Sydney’s Jewish Communal Appeal has taken issue with national spreadsheet The Australian, which reported that the JCA had donated $200,000 of community funds to the “Yes” campaign ahead of The Voice referendum.”
JCA president Ian Sandler
The Australian reported: “Australian Jewish Association president David Adler, who sits on the advisory board of No organisation Advance Australia, took issue with Jewish Community Appeal – which asks the community for money to help fund organisations’ programs and services to those in need – giving money to a group advocating for the voice.
The report goes on to say that the NSW-based JCA gave social justice group Stand Up, which is running the Kol Halev Jewish voice for Yes campaign, a $200,000 grant.”
Stand Up told The Australian that money had not been used for the campaign.
JCA has strongly rejected the report saying that any inference of general communal funds being used for such purposes is false.
In a statement, JCA said: “The JCA has not and will not fund any campaign supporting or opposing The Voice. We do not take any political positions and we never will.
The newspaper article containing these claims is wrong, and we are taking steps to address that.
The JCA funds NSW resources for Stand Up – a national organisation. The resources are dedicated to running engagement programs for youth in NSW, including the Step Up B’nei Mitzvah program and the Derech Eretz volunteering program and social justice education in our Jewish day schools. These programs are focussed on Jewish engagement of young people in NSW on issues that matter to them through these clearly defined programs. Over the past three years these programs have engaged 100s of Jewish NSW youth and taught them values of Tikkun Olam.”
JCA CEO Alain Hasson
JCA CEO Alain Hasson said: “We are deeply disappointed that others would seek to tarnish the work of JCA by misleading donors and community into believing that communally raised funds have been inappropriately applied.
“The annual JCA allocations process has multiple layers of governance and review. We are constantly ensuring our limited communally raised funds are applied towards supporting and enabling our vision of a thriving and inclusive local Jewish community. Stand Up receives a JCA allocation for their regular Jewish communal programming, which is aligned to this vision.”
Any claims these funds were provided for the Kol Halev initiative are entirely false and misrepresentative of the facts.”
“As a Jewish communal organisation, we always need to appreciate and be respectful of the extremely diverse views and opinions within our community.”
President Ian Sandler added: “As the primary communal fundraising and funding organisation, JCA takes it role in supporting and enabling the diverse needs of our local Jewish community very seriously. While JCA’s annual funding recommendations need to align with and support our diverse communal needs, we do not and will not provide funding towards any politically motivated programming. Any assertion that JCA has done so is entirely false.
We are grateful for every dollar we raise from the community, and we take our role in allocating those funds towards community needs very seriously.”
Stand Up CEO Courtney Winter-Peters said: “I can confirm that no funds from the JCA or JCCV have been used for any Kol Halev events, or on the “Kol Halev” campaign more generally. The campaign is funded by individual donors who have decided to give directly to our community campaign and is not considered a part of our regular programming.”
David Adler told J-Wire: “The JCA refutation published in J-Wire is rather odd being entirely based on a falsehood. There was never a claim that JCA had directly funded the “Yes” campaign.
AJA President Dr David Adler
That’s a misinterpretation and is not what the Australian article referenced says. The relevant statement in The Australian reads:
“The NSW-based JCA gave social justice group Stand Up, which is running the Kol Halev Jewish voice for Yes campaign, a $200,000 grant.” That statement is accurate.
That the grant was made is irrefutable, it’s in the JCA annual report and on the JCA website with the 2022 allocation actually stated as $203,300. There was no claim that this JCA grant was used specifically for Yes campaign activities so JCA is refuting something that never existed! There is also no doubt the recipient of this grant is active in the Yes campaign and The Australian article fairly reports their claim this is funded from other sources.
But there is an important issue arising as money is fungible. It may well be that JCA funds were used for the general operations of Stand Up including staff and office facilities which are then used in turn for the political activism such as the undertakings supporting the Yes campaign of the Voice.
Most donors to JCA would likely think they are supporting important services and needs in the Jewish community. Whether it is an appropriate use of community donations to fund an organisation involved in general external political activism is something which needs to be brought to the attention of our community and debated. The view of the Australian Jewish Association is that this is NOT appropriate for a communal body.
The predominant presentations on the Stand Up website https://www.standup.org.au/ are related to Aboriginals and refugees. The top one is support for the Voice. If anyone wants to support political activist organisations which run campaigns outside the Jewish community, they are of course free to do so.”
The easiest way to clear the air is for Stand Up to give a full accounting of how the $200000 received from the JCA was spent or is intended to be spent in NSW for the purposes for which this grant was made to Stand Up by the JCA.
If one reads the Standup website and history its purpose is to collect from from Jews – and support NON JEWISH causes. They should NOT be on the JCA recipient list at all. Their slogan is ‘Tkkun Olam ‘ = Social Justics. Joathan Neumnann who investigated this in his book ‘ To Heal the World’ describes this as ‘bastardisation of Judaism’ . Social Justics has 3 to 4 elements the main one is redistribution of wealth. I checked with a few Orthodox Rabbis they do not allow Standup to teach Bnei Mitzvah lessons in their schools because of the focus on Social Justice and not Judaism.