[Please click on image to enlarge.]
Oorah sent the above e-mail to its list today. Note what it says:
Proceeds benefit Joy for Our Youth. J.O.Y. is an international organization providing for the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of distressed and at-risk youth.
Again, J.O.Y. gifts all of its money to Oorah. Oorah is a sectarian missionary organization whose sole declared purpose according to it's IRS filings is "kiruv," Jewish religious outreach, and related educational scholarships to Orthodox Jewish Schools. And Oorah gives less than 38% of its income to those causes and shows extremely high expenses.
Oorah, J.O.Y. and Kars4Kids are all run by Rabbis Chaim and Eliyohu Mintz. Kars4Kids and J.O.Y. serve as front-organizations for Oorah, allowing Oorah to raise money from non-Jews and from Jews who would not support Oorah's programs. Kars4Kids and J.O.Y. gets those people to give money to what appears to be a non-sectarian charity that aids children who are really in distress – homeless, abused, abondoned, etc. – but in reality all the money is gifted to Oorah for Orthodox Jewish missionary activity. Kars4kids is also using a Kirbycard e-mail address. Kirby Card is owned by Cucumber Communications which is a totally owned subsidiary of Oorah. Cucumber claims:
Cucumber Communications is one long distance provider that makes it easy for busy people to support causes they care about.
Cucumber Communications is a division of Oorah inc.
ALL our profits [this appears to be false – see here] are directed to non-profit groups working for human rights and children’s education. Through our long distance services, customers can generate progressive donations for non-profit groups just by doing what they do every day – best of all, it costs you the customer not a penny more.
With Cucumber, every call you make builds a better world.
Oorah is endorsed by almost every leading rabbi in the Orthodox world.
In most states, this is criminal fraud, and it certainly violates IRS rules.
Will Oorah lose its IRS 501 (c) (3) status? Will Oorah's board be prosecuted? Only time will tell.