Once again, wealthy Jewish donors, this one from the Levi Strauss Company, have been funding much of the anti-semetic and anti-Israel protests on college campuses. This article quotes research from the Daily Beast. It is hard for one to believe American Jews are actually funding this work. This is akin to a wealthy Englishman funding the IRA in Northern Ireland.
Tens of thousands of dollars pumped into organizations involved in recent anti-
Israel demonstrations on college campuses originated in the fortune of one of America’s most venerable and politically active Jewish families—one that includes a sitting U.S. congressman and a former contender for ambassador to Jerusalem, and which owes its wealth to the
Levi Strauss denim dynasty.
A much-publicized
recent report by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, an
Israeli-backed think tank, ranked the Bafrayung Fund as the single largest sponsor of pro-Palestinian activist groups involved in campus demonstrations and adjacent actions....
The Daily Beast’s own research confirms that the Bafrayung Fund, based in Covina, California, ranks among the most consistent supporters of the Palestinian Youth Movement, which played a major role in the rash of encampments that spread through U.S. colleges this year. The Fund has also contributed substantially to two of the Palestinian Youth Movement’s allies: the Arab Resource and Organizing Center and Critical Resistance.
Notably,
each of these
organizations has
employed the controversial slogan “
from the river to the sea,” which
critics interpret as calling not for two coexisting states between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, but for Israel’s extinction as a polity. Some, including Rep.
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), dispute this characterization.
Behind the Bafrayung Fund is a 33-year-old Bay Area resident, Rachel Gelman, scion of the family behind the Levi Strauss company and cousin to Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY). The money for the Bafrayung Fund comes from just two sources: Gelman herself, and the Morningstar Philanthropic Foundation—the personal charity of her parents, a pair of major Democratic Party donors who own a chain of publications catering to East Coast Jewish communities, have been long active in organizations promoting American-Israeli relations, and even
got engaged on a kibbutz.
The thread connecting Rachel Gelman to the congressman and to the clothing empire runs through her mother,
Susie Gelman, who President
Joe Biden appointed last summer to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom after reportedly
considering her previously for U.S. ambassador to Israel. Born Susan Goldman, the elder Ms. Gelman’s grandfather was Walter Haas, the businessman who spun up Levi Strauss from a small San Francisco wholesaler into a global denim brand. Her father,
Richard Goldman, was the founder of a major insurance concern and made the
Forbes billionaire list a few months before he sold the company in 2001. Her late brother, also Richard, was a federal prosecutor and father to the now-U.S. representative.
Justin Sullivan/GettyTens of thousands of dollars pumped into organizations involved in recent anti-Israel demonstrations on college campuses originated in the fortune of one of America’s most venerable and politically active Jewish families—one that includes a sitting U.S. congressman and a...
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