Oorah, the Lakewood-based haredi missionary organization whose deceptive advertising practices were exposed by the Saint Louis Post Dispatch, distributes less than 38%*** of its income to the childrens programs it champions. According to the most recent IRS 990 filing available (Download oorah_2003_irs_990.pdf) , Oorah had gross revenues of almost $2,000,000 yet used only $741,639 of that revenue for outreach and for underwriting Jewish education. Almost $741,000 went to cover expenses and another $482,000 was held as "assests" and not disbursed.
Oorah's for-profit subsidiary, Cucumber Communications, is shown with a total income of $208,609. Even though Oorah claims that "every penny of profit" is given to Oorah, Ooorah's IRS filing shows that Cucumber transferred only $144,391 to Oorah. Cucumber also shows assets of $367,301.
Oorah is run by Rabbi Eliyohu Mintz.
*** By way of contrast, in 1998, the last of the five probationary years preceding the IRS decision on whether or not to grant permanent tax exempt status, Oorah raised $262, 657 and gave away $238,207, just over 90% of what it raised. Download oorah_1998_irs_990.pdf
[Previous report here.]