There’s A LOT Of Sketchiness Surrounding The Money Linda Sarsour ‘Raised’ For The Tree of Life Synagogue

Moral of the story: Never trust ANYTHING Linda Sarsour does.

After the horrific Pittsburg shooting, Sarsour raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, and it was ASSUMED that it would all go to the Tree of Life synagogue or Jewish charities.

Except…that’s not quite what happened.

So @lsarsour raised $400,000 for the Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, but ONLY $10,000 got to them. Not enough for one funereal even. I think it’s great that other people support us, but not when they use our tragedy to fundraise and not even 10% gets to the real victims.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 27, 2018

The propaganda arm (The Forward) tried to twist it, in another deceiving article by the ever so smart journalist, Pink, but the truth is clear.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 27, 2018

Source: https://t.co/VtoTVyheQn

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 27, 2018

Correction: ~$160K was raised as part of one general cemeteries campaign that pre-dates the TOL massacre and ~$240K was raised as part of the TOL campaign after the massacre. The $10K was from the first campaign.
I was wrong about the 10%, still troubling.
H/t @Jeff__Davenport https://t.co/X1oghcOxz3

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 27, 2018

OK so what’s the deal?

So how much went to the synagogue since the fundraising effort on their behalf?

— Burp_Reynolds (@BurpReynolds60) November 27, 2018

$10,000 went to Tree of Life synagogue, while $155,000 went to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh (!). People should be demanding their money back from @lsarsour.https://t.co/fx0a6eiWN2

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 27, 2018

Money raised for the Tree of Life went to the ISLAMIC CENTER OF PITTSBURGH?!?!?

From The Forward, which seemingly does its best to whitewash what happened here. pic.twitter.com/t2UQJIFznW

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 27, 2018

Update: Update: Islamic Center claims it will send the $155k check to Tree of Life synagogue. As for remaining $83,634, it will go to vague “projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity.” So all that $ raised will simply vanish, it appears.

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 27, 2018

Here’s a thread “clearing up” any confusion, and trust me. There’s a lot of it.

Thread: Clearing up the abuse of charity & donations for Jewish causes by Linda Sarsour
Sarsour’s charity raised over $400,000 for Jewish causes in 2 fundraisers:
A. “Repair Jewish cemeteries” (160k)
B. “Support Tree of Life shooting victims (Funeral Expenses, Medical Bills)” >>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

What you need to know:
-There were significant delays in disbursing the Colorado cemetery funds (A) (it took six months for them to receive anything). It raises legitimate questions about whether Sarsour and El Messidi can be trusted to manage funds for Jewish causes. >>>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-Out of the money raised for the cemeteries (A), more than a third still has not been paid out, a year and a half later and it’s not earmarked for a specific recipient ($62,000)
-$10,000 was sent to the victims of the TOL attack so far from the Cemeteries Fundraiser (A). >>>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

– $155,000 (B) “will be sent” to the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to “distribute to the Jewish communities” (according to contract) by the end of the year.
– $86,000 (B) will be kept by Sarsour’s charity for “projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration & solidarity.”>>>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-Interfaith efforts are important, but raising money under the guise of helping victims of tragedy (B), then repurposing to interfaith efforts is wrong.
– Similarly, it’s important that there is accountability for $155K raised for Pittsburgh to get to victims (a month+ later)>>>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-The rest of the money from (B), $86,000, which is going to interfaith projects should also be accounted for.
-Sarsour’s charity “CelebrateMercy” is a missionary organization- there should be scrutiny of what they consider to be Muslim-Jewish collaboration. Sarsour’s work?>>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-If they invite the Jews to an iftar celebration where they preach about the prophet, is that really benefiting the Jewish community?
-In response to requests for transparency, Sarsour lashed out on social media at what she called “right wing Zionists and the alt-right”>>>

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-In the same sentence, Sarsour claimed she was “using her brand” to help Jews. This hypocrisy and demonization are unacceptable.
Thank you @kweansmom for the amazing research and help on this.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-Radical Jewish publication (that investigates Jewish foundations&charities and Jews, while defended Sarsour for years) tried to twist the story, in extremely vague and misleading article, that was the reason for the confusion.
I am sorry for the inaccuracy of my tweet yesterday

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-Celebrate Mercy is Tarek El-Messidi’s charity, “Its aim is to teach the life and character of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon”. They are based in Philadelphia. Sarsour helps to run MPower Change which is primarily political. She put their name on the fundraising campaign.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

-When criticized, Sarsour insists she didn’t take their the money, it’s CM that handles all of it, she’s just lending her name to the project. While these are two separate organizations, both names are on the fundraising page.

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

On the fundraiser page CM updated that any donation over $150k will go to interfaith projects. We don’t know when that was added, but evidently they continue promote the campaign and money that was raised as “donations to the victims and their families” pic.twitter.com/pJyO7YWcYG

— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) November 28, 2018

Do you really trust the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh to properly “distribute [the money] to the Jewish communities”? I don’t.