New Charity Dedicated to Israeli Protest Movement Targets U.S. Donors
NEW YORK – A first-of-its-kind charity registered in Pennsylvania has started raising money from American Jews and Israeli expats to support the pro-democracy protest movement in Israel.
America-Israel Democracy Coalition, as it is known, is currently the only U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated exclusively to fundraising for the movement. Its recently approved 501(c)(3) status allows American taxpayers to deduct their donations to various Israeli organizations that are active in the protest against the Netanyahu government’s efforts to weaken the judiciary.
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Other nonprofits registered in the United States, such as the New Israel Fund, also donate to groups that support the protest movement. Unlike the AID Coalition, however, that is not their exclusive mandate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to travel to the United States in two weeks to address the UN General Assembly and possibly meet with U.S. President Joe Biden. Leaders of the protest movement are planning to speak at several big demonstrations scheduled to coincide with the trip. They also plan to use the opportunity to launch a major fundraising drive in the United States.
Their long-term goal is to raise tens of millions of dollars to help sustain and grow the protests. To date, most of the donations to this grassroots movement have come from wealthy Israeli high-tech entrepreneurs and local crowdfunding campaigns. The costs involved in organizing each Saturday night demonstration – there have been 35 to date– is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The driving force behind the new fundraising initiative is Israeli-American Jonathan Barsade, an attorney and semi-retired serial entrepreneur based in Philadelphia who is active in the nonprofit world.
Israeli-American attorney and semi-retired serial entrepreneur Jonathan Barsade.Credit: Courtesy
After holding several meetings in recent months with representatives of the protest movement, he realized they needed help “breaking into the U.S. market,” as he termed it in a conversation with Haaretz.
“To be effective, you can’t just go and ask for money,” Barsade said. “It’s got to be in the context of something – and it was pretty clear to me at the time that they didn’t have the infrastructure for raising funds in the U.S.
“They didn’t understand that the process has to be simple, because the more buttons you require a potential donor to press, the more potential donors you’re going to lose in the process. And they didn’t understand that if you can’t provide tax deductibility through a 501(c)(3), you’re not going to be as effective.”
Barsade met with Israeli pro-democracy activists back in June when they came to New York to lead protests against the backdrop of the annual Celebrate Israel Parade, and a month later while he was visiting Israel.
Following these meetings, he became concerned that the protest leaders would encounter difficulties engaging American Jews in their cause because of their basic unfamiliarity with the community.
Pro-democracy demonstrators at the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York last June.Credit: Ron Adar / SOPA Images/Sipa USA
“They tended to lump everyone in the U.S. together,” he said, “not really understanding that there are two separate communities here: the American Jews and the Israeli expats. And as much as they care about one another, these two communities operate in parallel spheres.”
This is what prompted him to set up AID Coalition.
The charity’s mission is not only to serve as a pipeline for fundraising, Barsade said, but also to educate the American Jewish community about the Israeli pro-democracy movement.
“We’re here to serve as a bridge between all the different players,” he added.
‘Very good responses’
Barsade, who has been living in the United States for the past 30 years, is also president of the America-Israel Friendship League – an organization founded in the early 1970s by a group of prominent American politicians, mainly Democrats. He is also a member of the Israeli and American boards of IsraAid, which provides humanitarian aid to victims of global disasters.
Registered in Bryn Mawr, Pa., AID Coalition is, according to its website, dedicated to “educating, strengthening and preserving the democratic foundations of the State of Israel. The organization stands for the values of equality, pluralism, freedom and justice, values enshrined in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.” It does not raise money for groups that support political agendas or call for violence.
Since the charity was incorporated several weeks ago, Barsade said, “there have been some very good responses.” He would not say exactly how much money had been raised, sufficing with “good numbers, definitely respectable.”
Based on the names of his donors, he noted, most at this point are Israeli expats – which he saw as natural.
Demonstrators at the latest pro-democracy protest, the 35th of the year, in Tel Aviv last Saturday.Credit: Olivier Fitoussi
“The Israelis live what is happening vicariously,” he said. “They’re talking constantly to friends and family, they’re up to speed and they’re really living it. It seems to me that the American Jews are experiencing everything with a lag. They want to know more, though, and that’s why we need to open channels that will engage them directly.”
Barsade said that AID Coalition had not established a specific fundraising goal. Among the Israeli organizations in its network are Brothers and Sisters in Arms – a group of army reservists at the forefront of the protest movement – and Kaplan Force, which sponsors the main Saturday night protests in Tel Aviv (it is named after the street on which they are held).
Representatives of these organizations will be among those arriving in the United States later this month, at the same time as Netanyahu, for fundraising purposes.