Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) revokes Jewish group [Beth Oloth Charitable Organization]'s charitable status
SOURCE: cjnews.com (Canadian Jewish News), 2019-01-29 | Internet Archive, 2019-03-24
This page last modified: 2020-08-17 17:47:17 -0700 (PST)
[Image source. Click image to open in new window.]
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has stripped a small Toronto-based Jewish organization of its charitable status, citing its support for Israel's armed forces, the funding of projects in the Palestinian territories and sloppy administration.
The revocation of Beth Oloth Charitable Organization's charity status was published on Jan. 12 in the Canada Gazette. On Jan. 25, the CRA released a 94-page document detailing its case against the organization.
The decision means the charity is no longer tax-exempt and thus cannot issue receipts to donors. It has 90 days to appeal the ruling.
The online source Charitydata listed Beth Oloth's revenues in 2017 at $61 million -- $31 million of which was received from other registered charities. The total eligible amount for which it issued tax receipts that year was $28 million. CRA rules permit a charity to donate to another Canadian charity.
The charity's fortunes have fluctuated over the years: Charitydata shows revenue of $44.5 million for 2016 and $9.4 million in 2012. The CRA said it was largely inactive from 2003 to 2011.
The CRA document shows that Beth Oloth is registered to an address on Coldstream Avenue in Toronto. It was founded in 1980 and does not appear to have a website.
Rabbi David Ehrentreu, whose name is listed in the CRA documents as a principal with Beth Oloth, had no comment and advised the Canadian Jewish News to speak to his lawyer.
Among the CRA's charges is that Beth Oloth acted as a "conduit" to channel funds to projects conducted by other organizations.
According to the CRA document, large parts of which are redacted, Beth Oloth's goals were "to stimulate interest in providing higher Jewish education and Jewish religious training for the perpetuation of the Jewish religion and the training of teachers of the Jewish religion."
Among its other goals were "to commission authors and scholars to write articles, monographs and books on the subjects of Bible interpretation, Jewish religious philosophy, Jewish religious law and all other topics" that will advance Jewish religion and culture, and to promote the distribution of such works to schools and students.
The CRA said these purposes "are broad and lack the degree of certainty and clarity required" for Beth Oloth to be considered a charity.
The CRA also cited Beth Oloth's support for "increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the Israeli armed forces, which is not a recognized charitable purpose in Canada."
Return to BuriedTruth.com