BILLION-DOLLAR JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND BARS DONATIONS TO PROGRESSIVE JEWISH GROUP

THE JEWISH COMMUNAL FUND is one of the country’s largest donor-advised funds: a type of charity that collects often large donations, then lets the contributor direct the funds to nonprofits. Now, the Jewish Communal Fund has barred its members from directing their own contributions to the organization Jewish Voice for Peace, according to an interview with a Jewish Communal Fund member, backed up by correspondence reviewed by The Intercept.

In December, Jordan Bollag, who uses the Jewish Communal Fund to organize his contributions, began making distributions from his accounts. As had always been the case, they all went through, except for the contribution to JVP, a progressive Jewish American group that criticizes Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians.

Bollag assumed there must be some mistake — the money is effectively his, after all. He contacted the organization and eventually got a call back in January from Rachel Schnoll, the Jewish Communal Fund CEO.