The CJN’s coverage of JNF Canada’s charitable status revocation from August 2024

(Photo courtesy of JNF)

For the past month, The Canadian Jewish News has followed events surrounding the Jewish National Fund of Canada, ever since the charity announced it would be going to court to fight a decision to revoke its status. Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) subsequently pulled the trigger that ended 57 years of being allowed to issue tax receipts, a development discussed further on our news podcast.

Thanks to our charity-law expert Mark Blumberg, we learned we could ask the CRA for its trove of documents outlining the communications between JNF Canada and the tax department over the years leading up to revocation. They gave it to us: all 358 pages, whose contents we reviewed, along with interviewing JNF CEO Lance Davis for his response to what the documents said. We knew this was a wider story that we had to tell, as the documents shed light on years of problems between JNF Canada and the CRA. The charity had kept quiet about this dispute for nearly a decade, all while receiving millions in donations from thousands of Jewish Canadians for worthy projects in Israel. During the past couple weeks, our team produced four stories: two written reports, plus two additional podcast episodes.

The Canadian Jewish News is dedicated to serving you with independent journalism that follows the highest ethical standards of transparency and rigorous research, and reporting of this nature is reviewed by our lawyer prior to publication. You can find links to all of the related pieces below—and stay tuned for more from The CJN Daily.