Decertifying Charitable Status of the Jewish National Fund

"The Charity, and its counsel, noted the unusual refusal by the Canada Revenue Agency [CRA] to meet with the Charity despite several attempts."

"Please let us know if you would be open to a brief teleconference or video conference with [CEO Lance Davis] and [CFO Edit Rosenstein] on a day and time that suits you."

Lawyer in letter to CRA representing the Jewish National Fund

"They [CRA agents[ came into the meeting without an agenda and didn't seem all too interested in what we had to say."

"What has happened with Jewish National Fund Canada [JNF Canada] is an example of the increasing weaponization of the CRA to target any Jewish organizations in Canada, and even those from the non-Jewish community who support those in need in Israel."

"This is a broad-based attack designed to make Canadian charities an ideological issue."

"The list from Just Peace Advocates, sends a chilling message to the Jewish community that this is another means to target us."

JNF CEO Lance Davis

Jewish National Fund sign in Toronto. The group's CEO suspects that outside pressure campaigns may have influenced the Canada Revenue Agency's dealings with his organization. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post/File

For years, given past notice from the Canada Revenue Agency  that it has issues with the JNF's charitable status linked to its activities in Israel, the Jewish National Fund made a number of attempts to bring itself into compliance with the rules for charities established by the revenue agency.  In all that time the Canada Revenue Agency refused to meet with the JNF senior officials, as they are meant to do, in all fairness as is routinely done with the agency interacting with other charities it notifies of perceived irregularities.

 

Documents provided by the JNF to investigative reporters in explaining the dead-end issue of compliance and cooperation, reveal a puzzlingly unacceptable one-sided series of correspondence in the years 2019 to 2023, during which time the CRA failed to respond to overtures on the part of the leadership of the Jewish National Fund to ameliorate issues brought to their notice in the final audit of the Jewish charity by the agency. 

Three years earlier the legal team representing the Jewish National Fund recommended that Canada Revenue Agency officials meet virtually with the CEO and CFO of the charity. In a correspondence dated October 2020, it was noted that the two parties had "not had any direct contact ... outside of written correspondence" since the audit began in 2015 (in-person meetings restricted at the time due to COVID).

The Canada Revenue Agency in May 2024, finally agreed to an audience with the Jewish National Fund executive. A meeting that solved nothing. Three months later the Agency informed the Jewish National Fund that it was in the process of revoking their charitable status. This, after a meeting when the charity's CEO was left frustrated by the agency's officials going through the motions of finally fulfilling their request for a meeting and dialogue, accomplishing precisely nothing during the long-delayed meeting.

In the August 10, 2024 edition of the Canada Gazette, the CRA announced its termination determination of the JNFs charitable status, citing its failure to meet specific parts of the Income Tax Act that pertained to registered charities. In the same news release the announcement was made that a second Jewish charity, the Ne'eman Foundation, would be de-registered for similar reasons. 

A postcard campaign meant to urge the minister of national revenue was organized by the anti-Zionist group Independent Jewish Voices Canada to "Stop the JNF". Marie-Claude Bibeau's spokesperson for the National Revenue Minister responded that the CRA's investigation of the JNF involved "no consultation (with the minister) nor any involvement of political staff", in response to the Jewish National Fund's CEO's suspicion that outside pressure campaigns played a part in their deregistration.

Yet in a joint press release circulated a week ago, Just Peace Advocates and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institution called on the CRA to investigate 200 "Israel-focused" charities in which their list included a number of widely respected charities such as the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies and Birthright Canada, along with multiple Jewish hospital foundations. Clearly, the CRA's decision encouraged such activists to cast their charitable status decertfication net wider.

The Jewish National Fund of Canada has filed a suit against the minister for national revenue over plans to revoke the organizations charitable status. (Buntola Nou/CBC)