I wish I knew some Evangelical Christians who were interested in an exchange of information. All I know about conservative Christian leaders and politicians is what I read in the news.

My opinion about Dr. Dobson and "Focus on the Family" is based solely on the quality of his financial statements and that Dr. Dobson refrains from making the same kind of inflammatory statements made by other conservative Christian leaders such as the Reverend Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson

I don't know if Evangelical Christians understand or even know how some of us here in New York felt when we read what Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson had to say about 9/11.

Here's an excerpt from the 9/13/01 Falwell-Robertson CBN interview:

"Falwell said, "...I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen."

Robertson said, "I totally concur..."

Enough said.

I'd really like to pick the brains of Evangelical Christians and get their reasons for supporting one candidate over another one, who has what reputation and why in the Evangelical Christian community and how things are in their neck of the woods.

I think I have information to offer in return but I get the impression that Evangelical Christians are not interested in exchanging ideas and information with anyone outside of their circle.

I am a life long Democrat but, as I just said in another comment, I have voted for Republicans in the past if I thought he or she was a better candidate. I don't see myself voting for a Republican now until the Democrats have control of either the House or the Senate but that does not mean I disagree with the entire conservative Christian platform. Sometimes our differences are just a matter of degree.

Take pornography on the internet. When I first used a search engine, "Hotbot" IIRC, the pornographers were always trying to trick you into visiting their sites. Kids using the internet then could not help but come across pornography.

What looked to be an innocuous link to "Snow White" could end up being a link to seven real life dwarves "doing" a Snow White who looked like her last gig was on 42nd Street. Trying to get out of one of those porn sites was a pain in the neck. Close one window and three more would open.

Then, seemingly overnight, it stopped. You don't get those trick porn links anymore. Someone looking for sex on the internet has to intentionally search for it.

That works for me. As long as the porn is not being shoved in children's faces, I don't have a problem with it being sold on the internet. Here on Long Island, most of the local video rental places have a separate porn section and no one thinks much about it.

But I do have a really big problem with child pornography and I would support any effort to stop it. Attorney General Gonzales seems like a nice enough man but he is on Mars if he thinks adding ten or so FBI special agents to the anti-porn detail will make any difference.

A couple of years ago, I came up with my own do-it-yourself anti-child pornography campaign that was more suited for conservative Christians who know how to mobilize on issues important to them than a bunch of ragtag liberals.

Here's my idea. In any one month or so, every parent sits with his or her child in front of the computer and together, they search for child pornography for sale on the internet. When they find it, they buy some for, say, $20 or $30.

Of course, they pay for the pornography with a credit card. When the parents get the bill, they call the credit card companies and find out who the vendor is. Then the parents and their children forward all of this information to their representative in Congress or their senator. Or, a conservative Christian leader like Dr. Dobson could organize and coordinate my campaign with Congress.

Here's where the conservative faction in Congress could really shine and we would all benefit from their efforts. Hold televised hearings and shame these wealthy porn vendors in front of the entire world. Names names and tell everyone who they are and where they live so we can all harrass them and they would be humiliated in front of their family and friends.

A few really sickening photos of the worse kind of child pornography held up on the House floor would make not just conservative Christians furious but a lot of other people, too. Then maybe we could work on sending the creeps who are raking in the big bucks to jail.

My plan offers many rewards. One, parents would find out just how much their children know about navigating the internet. Two, children would feel proud of themselves for making their own positive contribution to society. Three, parents and children would be doing something pretty darned interesting and useful together. How often does that happen?

Has to be a catch, right? Yup, the credit card companies will never go for it and we all know how much sway the credit card industry has in Washington DC.

Putting my idea aside, I can't figure out why the conservative Christians who are not members of Congress beholden to the credit card industry never lobby Congress to put pressure on the credit card industry to not finance porn vendors. No credit card account, no porn sold. End of story.

Time out. More to come.

The regard that conservative Christians have for Rudy Giuliani's political opinions confounds me. Today's New York Times reports that Rudy endorsed Ralph Reed. And?

I know why Evangelical Christians and a lot of other people outside of metropolitan New York have high regard for Rudy Giuliani as a person. Rudy was the first and, at times, it seemed like the only New Yorker on television after 9/11.

I was as thankful as everyone else in New York on 9/11 when Rudy reassured us that New York was going to be all right. I know Rudy put in long hours in the weeks after 9/11 despite his health problems but, on the other hand, he wasn't the only one in NYC busting his hump.

In the days after 9/11, New Yorkers breathed a sigh of collective relief when Rudy went back to being Rudy again. When he nominated himself to be King of New York City for a few months, everyone on the City Council was up in arms and back to being outraged at the mayor's latest stunt. That was a good sign that everyday life could go back to being normal.

I wasn't working in the months after 9/11 so I had a lot of fun trying to keep track of how many celebrities had their picture taken with Rudy at the WTC. IIRC, President Jacques Chirac of France was the first world leader after President Bush to show up in New York City after 9/11. The usually very dignified looking Jacques Chirac wore an NYCFD baseball cap when he appeared on television standing next to Rudy. That kind of set the tone for things to come.

No one in New York, as far as I know, begrudges Rudy Giuliani his financial success but most New Yorkers have not lost sight of the fact that Rudy has been repaid and handsomely rewarded for his efforts after 9/11 and he most definitely is not on a pedestal in New York.

Outside of 9/11, how much do conservative Christians know about Rudy Giuliani?

I don't mean Rudy's three marriages or even that he had several affairs while he was mayor and married. Or the New York Times magazine cover shot of Mayor Giuliani living with a couple of gay guys after he separated from Donna.

How Mayor Giuliani increased attendance at the Brooklyn Museum is a cute story and illustrates how well Rudy knows New Yorkers. The Brooklyn Museum had put on a somewhat controversial exhibit of "modern art". IIRC, there were pieces of art that involved urine or dung and, I think, the Virgin Mary in an awkward pose. Stuff like that.

Mayor Giuliani pretended to be outraged at the offensive nature of the art and vowed very publicly to cut the Brooklyn Museum's funding. Rudy, of course, knew perfectly well when he said it that he had absolutely no say over the museum's funding but most New Yorkers did not know it at the time.

Rudy knew exactly what would happen when he promised to seek revenge on the Brooklyn Museum. A whole bunch of New Yorkers would become just as outraged at the mayor's threat and go out of their way to attend the exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum to demonstrate to Mayor Giuiliani what they thought of him and his opinion about art.

Pretty tricky on Rudy's part, don't you think?

To me, this is the kind of story that tells someone a lot about Rudy and New York City. I still get a chuckle out of it!

More to come.

Time out for a Personal Observation:

A few posts ago, I wrote about Dr. Dobson and "Family in Focus" and said that his financial statements looked clean. After I wrote the post, I saw Dr. Dobson's name on the Council For National Policy membership roster.

I'm not going to assume that every member of the CNP is dishonest but it sure looks likes a couple of them are crooks.

At least $260 million of hard-earned Evangelical Christian money has been donated to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

Ralph Reed is on record as already having tricked conservative Christians into unknowingly supporting casino gambling. Ralph Reed is or was involved with Rabbi Eckstein and the IFCJ.

I know there is enough suspicious information here to provide a basis to open an investigation of Rabbi Eckstein, Ralph Reed and the operations of the IFCJ.

What I want to know is which Christian leader is going to come out publicly about the need for an investigation of the IFCJ on behalf of the Evangelical Christians who sunk $260 million into the IFCJ.

Is Dr. Dobson going to step up to the plate? How about Pat Robertson or the Reverend Jerry Falwell?

The 5/24/05 New York Times Magazine story, "The Rabbi Who Loved Evangelicals (and vice versa) by Zev Chafets is about Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. The author, Zev Chavets, grew up in Michigan but after graduating from college, lived in Israel for 33 years and recently worked for the New York Daily News.

I accessed the New York Times archives through my library account. I assume the story is available on the NYT's website. The problem is that the story is in PDF format and, for some, reason, is difficult to read.

According to the New York Times story, the number of Evangelical Christians contributing to the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is 400,000 and Christian Evangelicals have contributed $250 million to the IFCJ in the last eight years.

Those numbers are much higher than the 250,000 contributors and contributions of $60 million quoted in the Forward article and elsewhere.

Total revenue for the eight years ended 12/31/05 is approximately $259 million so the New York Times story is right. I added all of the contributions by year from available 990s and 2005 contributions from the IFCCJ annual report to arrive at the $259 million.

Chafets points out that the $250 millon was given to Jewish causes chosen personally by Rabbi Eckstein. According to Chafets, "Eckstein has the power, unique among the heads of major Jewish charities, to write checks at his own discretion.." I read a few other references to Rabbi Eckstein's latitude as to who gets funding from IFCJ elsewhere.

$ 250 million is a lot of money to leave in the hands of one man.

If ECs have done their homework with regard to Rabbi Eckstein and the IFCJ and they still want to give to the IFCJ, that's their business. Of course, even if they haven't done their homework, giving to the IFCJ is still their business but I'd have to conclude that ECs are hopelessly naive and way too trusting.

I don't want to hear that I'm picking on the Jews here. As noted above, every other major Jewish charity has a system of internal controls as do most every other big charity.

I don't have to supply credentials to criticize Jews but I will say that I have lived on Long Island most of my life. Some of my nieces and nephews are Jewish. I have had Jewish boyfriends, Jewish teachers, Jewish doctors and Jewish bosses.

I'm nosy by nature and after reading about the IFCJ, I want to know what those 400,000 ECs know about American Jewish philanthropy and US foreign aid to Israel.

For example, I stopped by the Virtual Jewish Library and randomly picked the page for Alabama-Israel relations. 22 states have trade agreements with Israel. Alabama has its own representative in Israel.

I took my own advice and searched "Israel" at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder. Literally, hundreds of organizations provide financial aid to Israel and some of them have hundreds of millions of dollars in net assets.

Take a look at the Jewish Agency for Israel 2004 990. Revenue was $485,733,000. That's one year only. The Jewish Agency for Israel spent $386, 833,000 on program services in 2004.

Here's how some of the money was spent:

Immigration & absorption - $124,196, 400
Former Soviet Union Dept. - $9.742,000
Education Dept. - $74,034,000
Social housing - $19,732,000
Social programs - $135,325.000

This is just one single charity that benefits Israel. There's Friends of Israel - fill in the blank - Museum, Philharmonic Orchestra, University, Economic Development, Environmental Defense and on on. Only 6,000,000 people live in Israel.

Do the ECs know how much money Rabbi Eckstein raises and personally spends with apparently little oversight? What do they know about him that makes him so trustworthy in their eyes?

Do the ECs know anything about the Israeli organzations that receive funding from the IFCJ? All Rabbi Eckstein says about them in the 990s is that he looked at their operations and they looked okay to him.

This quote about EC giving bothers me almost as much as a previous one about EC contributors being worse off financially than the people who were being funded by the IFCJ.

Rabbi Eckstein on the giving spirt of Evangelical Christians:

"Kids donate their birthday money and Christmas gifts. One family in Florida sends us $15 every day. They don't feel comfortable sitting down to dinner unless they've helped Jews. These people ask not to publicize their gifts. They feel the Lord knows who they are".

You have to shake your head here. I wonder how many Jews know about the ECs who won't eat their dinner unless they've helped a Jew.

After reading the NYT story, I know one group of Jews who knows a lot about the generousity of ECs - other Jewish fundraisers. They have been bugging Rabbi Eckstein to tell them how they can get their foot in the EC door.

I'll come clean here. What I really want to do is ask the ECs who give money to the IFCJ if they are out of their frigging minds. LOL - That would go over really big in ECdom, I'm sure.

More to come.

Jerusalem Post, 12/16/99

"On Friday, the US Internal Revenue Service approved the New Jerusalem Foundation as a non-profit group, effectively allowing it to operate as the Jerusalem Municipality's new fundraising arm, four months after the city requested approval.

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert decided to set up the new foundation and will serve as chairman because, since he took office in 1993, the Jerusalem Foundation has functioned independently from the city and not under his chairmanship. Other city foundations throughout the country are chaired by the mayor...

"The need (for the new foundation) arose from the fact that the Jerusalem Foundation did not respect the democratic elections in 1993," Tzvi Raviv, a mayoral adviser who began the new foundation and will serve as its executive director, told The Jerusalem Post yesterday. "Subsequently, there is a rift between the Jerusalem Foundation and the municipality, and as a result, the mayor doesn't have access to its funds for the betterment of the city."..

The New Jerusalem Foundation will have five areas of funding. It received a pledge last year of $ 1 million annually in perpetuity from an anonymous American donor who had moved to Israel and who died after making the pledge. That money will fund 80 projects presented by municipal departments.

A second track of private funding will support various non-city-run social assistance projects. A third will fund efforts to attract and keep immigrants in Jerusalem, a fourth will support parks and other quality-of-life projects, and a fifth will fund religious projects."

Jerusalem Post, 2/25/00

There's little that surprises Jerusalem residents about City Hall these days - six city officials have been arrested since November, three others have resigned, and the police investigation continues - but there's more than ever that gets them riled.

Residents agree that the arrests for alleged corruption, bribery, and breach of trust, are only a symptom of a general deterioration in city management and city life over the past several years. The discoveries are only a tip of the iceberg of problems that have collectively and effectively chilled public trust to its worst state in memory.

Adding to the public's eroding trust in its municipal government, the Finance Ministry recently released its wage report on overblown salaries of 25 City Hall officials; tensions mounted in the Jewish Quarter over property sales and illegal construction; over 350 city workers held a one- day strike to protest the breakdown in communication between the city union and management; and rumors are circulating in Kikar Safra that police will question at least 200 more employees in the coming weeks, as it appears the alleged corruption may involve more city departments than initially suspected.

"It's not as if people didn't know that being rich and influential in this city helps sometimes with certain things," says city councilwoman Anat Hoffman (Meretz).

In June, the city's comptroller, Shlomit Rubin, turned over evidence to police of corruption within the city's building inspection department. A six-month undercover investigation led police to believe that at least four top officials from that department had either received bribes from building contractors, or were aware of the acceptance of bribes by others.

In November, police arrested the four, in addition to several contractors, and municipal workers' union head Danny Bonfil. Bonfil's deputy - and head of the city's transportation department - Avi Chen, was arrested earlier this month.

Police arrested the union heads on suspicion of corruption, bribery, and breach of trust, but whether they are thought to be involved in some of the same deals as the inspection department officials isn't yet clear. Decisions on indictments are expected in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the city engineer, the head of the sanitation department, and the head of the building inspection department all announced their resignations this month.

With all this happening, Hoffman says, the public is finally becoming aware of how pervasive the corruption really is...

Jerusalem Post, 4/10/2000 

"In response to an article in The Jerusalem Post that maintained the New Jerusalem Foundation is not registered as a nonprofit association, based on information provided by the mayor's adviser, Zvi Raviv, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert said yesterday that contributions made to the body met with "all legal demands both in Israel and the United States..."

Jerusalem Post, 7/5/01

"Ten days after the disastrous collapse of Jerusalem's Versailles banquet hall, the contractor who built the hall in 1986 alleged yesterday that he had warned authorities nearly a decade ago of dangers at the site...

The municipality has set up a relief hot line for anyone wishing to contribute to victims of the disaster.

Donations can be sent to The New Jerusalem Foundation c/o Gary Wallin, 1087 Elm St., Suite 412, PO box 1030, Manchester, NH 03101, USA. The IRS tax exemption number is 02-0509486. Please indicate relief funds on checks.

Donations can also be sent directly to the Jerusalem Municipality, New Jerusalem Foundation, One Safra Square, Jerusalem."

Jerusalem Post , 6/11/02

IRVING, TX - More than 4,000 Christians gathered in this Dallas, Texas, suburb Sunday to mark the 35th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, offering prayers for Israel's capital and donations to its children who have fallen victims to terrorism.

The crowd packed to capacity the Calvary Temple to hear remarks by Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, who noted the Jerusalem Prayer Summit was being held on the eve of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's meeting with US President George W. Bush in Washington...

Jerusalem Post , 9/10/02

Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert has accepted an invitation to co-host a massive prayer meeting of support for Israel at the Virginia church of American evangelical leader Rev. Jerry Falwell next month.

The event, known as a "Jerusalem Prayer Summit," is part of a campaign kicked off by Olmert in a visit to Dallas in June. Participants in the Dallas gathering gave more than $ 400,000 in cash and pledges to the New Jerusalem Foundation for terrorism victims in Jerusalem.

Leading up to the Virginia event, Olmert is to host a World Jerusalem Prayer Summit in Jerusalem this month for some 300 of America's most influential Christian leaders.

Michael Evans, an evangelical leader and best-selling author based in Texas, is the originator of The Jerusalem Prayer Team concept. The initial goal of The Jerusalem Prayer Team, he explained, is to enlist 1 million people in America to pray daily and 100,000 churches to pray weekly for the peace of Jerusalem by reciting Psalm 122 every Sunday.

At an estimated average membership of some 100 persons per church, the campaign's initial goal is thus to reach 10 million supporters of Israel.

"At this time, when the Bible land is being ravaged by terrorism, all Christians should heed the words of King David to 'pray for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that love thee,'" Evans said. "Praying for the peace of Jerusalem is not praying for the stones. Stones don't bleed, people do."

The prayer summit is sponsored by a coalition of some 300 US churches, the Churches United for Israel. It is to take place at Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church on October 27. The Jerusalem Prayer Team Web site is: www.jerusalemprayerteam.org.

Note: Rabbi Eckstein and Ralph Reed were supposed to hold their big prayer day on October 1, 2002.  What was so special about October 2002? - MRS P

San Diego Union-Tribune, 10/15/02

His trip to San Diego was financed by the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship, which is raising money for him to take back to Jerusalem.

Olmert is scheduled to speak at a $1,000-a-plate dinner tonight at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines, which church officials said will be attended by 800 people.

Local Palestinians are planning to protest the speech by Olmert, an Orthodox Jew, and San Diego police will be monitoring the hotel.

Proceeds from the dinner will fund a $500,000 gift to the New Jerusalem Foundation, headed by Olmert, said Leo Giovinetti, the church's pastor. The money will be handed out to victims of terrorism, both Jews and Palestinians, Giovinetti said...

His church has supported Israel for eight years, he said, and last year he met the mayor when he took 100 people to visit Jerusalem.  

The Jerusalem Report, 11/18/02

OUR FRIEND, PAT ROBERTSON?

"A recent press release from The New Jerusalem Foundation announced that Ehud Olmert, mayor of Israel's capital, has enlisted a new partner in his campaign to recruit financial and political support from American evangelicals. The outreach effort is called the Jerusalem Prayer Team. The new co-chairman: Pat Robertson...

Olmert created the NJF after long conflict with the city's veteran fund-raising organization, ex-mayor Teddy Kollek's Jerusalem Foundation. The new body reports raising $ 15 million its first year for worthy causes...

Which brings us back to Olmert: On October 15, the mayor appeared at a fund-raising dinner in San Diego, organized by the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship, an evangelical church. Seats cost $ 1,000 each, allowing the church to present the mayor with a $ 500,000 check to help terror victims. Again, a worthy cause...

The same applies to Olmert's appearance at the Christian Coalition's Washington rally for Israel. That rally was part of a convention intended to revive the hard-right organization. Jewish supporters of working with the Christian Right claim they've never been asked to support its domestic agenda. Yet Olmert's presence was in itself part of the quid pro quo: He was helping to rally the faithful for a program that includes much more than Israel. It's summed up in a website run by the Mission Valley Christian Fellowship at www.americablessgod.com, which declares "America was established as a 'Born-Again Christian Nation.'" 

Jerusalem Post, 12/27/02

"The Christians for Israel Association in Germany, recently donated 100,000 euros for terror victims in Jerusalem. Chairman and founder of the organization (pictured) presented mayor Ehud Olmert with the check for the New Jerusalem Foundation. The association is a non- profit organization of German Christians who see their roots in biblical Judaism. The organization is engaged in Jewish-Christian dialogue and fights antisemitism, anti- Israelism, and anti-Zionism."

Jerusalem Post, 7/30/03

Forty five Jerusalem lions, painted, pastelled, and plastered in different, sometimes strange yet original and funky ways, left the capital this week to make the long journey to Aventura, Florida.

There they will be displayed, paraded, and, eventually sold at auction, with all the proceeds going to support various activities and programs run by the New Jerusalem Foundation, all directed at supporting needy children in Jerusalem...

In December there will be an auction presided over by Florida Governor John "Jeb" Bush and former mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert, at which the lions will be sold, with 95% of the proceeds going to benefit the New Jerusalem Foundation's programs.

According to Aventura mayor Jeff Perlow, the placement and sale of the lions in Aventura is bound to be "an international event." Raviv added: "Last year, when we went through with a similar project in Israel, we raised $ 300,000. We hope to raise more than $ 1 million in Aventura."

Jerusalem Post, 7/30/03

"After a four-month delay, a $ 500,000 donation from Christian supporters of Israel earmarked for special welfare cases in Jerusalem has been claimed by the Jerusalem Municipality, a Chicago-based joint Christian- Jewish organization said Monday.

The donation to the city's needy from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) was part of the $ 3.5 million raised by the organization from Christian contributors in the United States for Israeli welfare cases, the fellowship's president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, said.

Since the contribution was first made public four months ago, 80 cities and towns across Israel have received donations of varying size, based on recommendations by the Social Affairs Ministry, Eckstein said.

For a mixture of largely bureaucratic reasons that remain unclear, coupled with a murky but nasty feud between two organizations, Jerusalem was the last Israeli city to complete the paperwork needed to receive its share of the donation, doing so only last week.

In July, Eckstein, IFCJ's founder, said he sent a letter to Mayor Uri Lupolianski the previous month - as he did to all the other mayors involved - telling him to contact his organization to receive the funds...

Lupolianski spokesman Gidi Schmerling said Monday that the delay in processing the funds stemmed from a dispute between the IFCJ and the New Jerusalem Foundation, and the city's need to find an alternate body to channel the donation to the municipality's welfare department.

In a July interview, Eckstein confirmed that he would not work with the New Jerusalem Foundation - which was set up two years ago as an alternate fund-raising body to the venerable Jerusalem Foundation - but would not say why.

New Jerusalem Foundation director Zvi Raviv said at the time that the municipality never approached his group in the matter, but that there had been previous "difficulties" with IFCJ projects...

The organization said that in light of its NIS 2.35 million contribution, the city's annual welfare department budget increased nearly threefold."

Palm Beach Post, 12/20/03

At some charity events, the guest of honor's mere presence reaps thousands of dollars for a nonprofit organization.

But Israel's deputy prime minster, Ehud Olmert, wasn't so lucky at a charity auction at the Norton Art Museum Friday. With sparse attendance, Olmert had to leverage any political clout he had to raise money for the New Jerusalem Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to help underprivileged children of Jerusalem.

Forty-five Israeli artists along with three from South Florida (Britto, Amram Ebgi and Daniel Meyer) lent their talents for the project, which earned the organization about $250,000.

Jerusalem Post, 1/12/05

A half a million dollars in donations for Jerusalem's needy from American Evangelical Christian supporters of Israel has been held up for the past 18 months due to a feud between the head of the charity and the Jerusalem Municipality, city officials and the organization said Tuesday.

At issue is a $ 600,000 donation by the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which raises tens of millions of dollars for Israeli welfare projects each year, earmarked in 2003 for the city's social welfare department. The group said this week that it has contributed $ 22 million to Israeli welfare projects in the last year.

The group's president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, said $ 500,000 of the donation has been withheld because Mayor Uri Lupolianski has refused to take part in a photo-op with him.

He had previously said that the dispute was resolved and that the money had been claimed.

But Eckstein said Tuesday that repeated phone calls and correspondence with the mayor's office over the photo- op have gone unanswered, leading the group to withhold the funds.

Lupolianski spokesman Gidi Schmerling said the mayor would be happy to meet with Eckstein provided that the money is given up front, due to the organization's "long history of unfulfilled promises" regarding money-transfers.

In a written statement, Schmerling listed four donations Eckstein had previously promised the municipality, both during Lupolianski's term and that of his predecessor, including relief aid for the Versailles banquet hall collapse, only to have them subsequently reduced or canceled.

The long-running feud between the city and the organization was condemned by Jerusalem opposition leader Nir Barkat, who in a December letter urged Lupolianski to reach a solution so that the badly-needed money could get to the needy.

It was not immediately clear why the charity kept the dispute under wraps for the past 18 months. Eckstein said it was because he did not want to embarrass the haredi mayor, who has been criticized by the opposition in City Council for shying away from meetings with Christian Evangelical leaders, who have been among Israel's strongest supporters.

Eckstein said Tuesday that he "does not have time" to "play politics" with the Jerusalem Municipality, while Tzvi Raviv, head of the New Jerusalem Foundation, the city's chief fundraising body, accused Eckstein of using the good will of Evangelical Christians for "ulterior motives," including his own ego.

Euromoney Institutional Investor, 3/1/05

Yehuda Raveh Yehuda Raveh & Co

Yehuda Raveh studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and New York University and practised law with a well-known Wall Street firm before establishing his own firm in the 1970s.

Raveh is an expert on corporate and commercial transactions, with an emphasis on project finance, M&A, real estate and infra structure transaction, BOT projects, hotels, banking and finance and in particular infrastructure projects.

Raveh represents many large local and international companies in a variety of industry sectors ranging from real estate, hotels, construction, infrastructure, environment, project finance, banking and other corporate and commercial matters.

His work has included the $ 1.3 billion cross-Israel highway, the $ 450 million Jerusalem light train, the $ 450 million water desalination project and power stations in Ashkelon, a $ 500 million natural gas pipeline across Israel, a $ 90 million student dormitory project at the University of Jerusalem, a 1000-classroom project, a PFI project to build a prison in Beer Sheva, and many more such projects based on BOT and PFI structures. Raveh has also been involved in the construction of highways in Greece, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Raveh is the chairman of the board of the New Jerusalem Foundation, the president of the association of Friends of the Israel Museum; the president of the Israel-Canada Chamber of Commerce; the vice-chairman of Yad Sara, and holds many other public posts. Raveh is also a lecturer on commercial law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Raveh was also chosen to serve as a member of the United Nations BOT expert group established to assist with BOT projects in eastern Europe.  

Jerusalem Post,11/2/05 

THE JERUSALEM skyline is now graced with a new piece of sculpture - Golden Ratio Jerusalem by distinguished Australian sculptor Andrew Rogers. The installation adjacent to Teddy Stadium was commissioned by The New Jerusalem Foundation 

The "Stand Up For Israel" campaign is funded by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFJC). The IFCJ 2004 Annual Report is online as is the IFCJ 2005 Annual Report.

The IFCJ 2002, 2003 and 2004 990s filed with the IRS are online at the Foundation Center's 990 Finder (no registration rquired) or at Guidestar (free registraton required). The IFCJ 2005 Annual Report is online at Guidestar. The 1997-2001 ITCJ 990s are available to Guidestar paid subscribers (which I am not ).

(Note: The Foundation Center and Guidestar provide an invaluable and free public service and I commend both organizations for their contribution to civil society.)

Ralph Reed owns Century Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm which was last in the news in connection with the Jack Abramoff scandal. A compendium of articles about Ralph Reed and Jack Abramoff is available at the TPM Muckraker which has devoted one of its "Hot Topics" slots to Reed's financial shenanigans.

On the 990 Schedule A, Part II, IFCJ listed compensation of five of the highest paid independent contractors for professional services as required. Century Strategies was among the five in 2002 and 2003. The type of service provided by Century Strategies was described as "project management fees".

Century Strategies "project management" fees:

2002 - $472,498

2003 - $295,775

2004 - $0

The IFCJ does not account for "Stand Up For Israel" campaign expenditures separately in its 990s. A breakout of "Stand Up For Israel" expenditures is, however, provided in the IFCJ annual reports. As noted above, the ITCJ 2004 and 2005 annual reports are available online.

"Stand Up For Israel" campaign expenditures:

2002 - not available

2003 - $545,905

2004 - $3,761

2005 - $772,995

Ralph Reed's firm, Century Strategies, was paid almost half a million dollars in 2002 and almost three hundred thousand in 2003 for what is described in the IFCJ 990 as "project management". Presumably, Ralph Reed and his team at Century Strategies were hired by IFCJ to manage the "Stand Up For Israel" campaign.

No one, not even the TPM Muckraker, as far as I know. has ever defined exactly what it is that Ralph Reed and Century Strategies sells in the way of services. Nor have I ever read about Ralph Reed's employees or who his other clients are who don't make the evening news. Do any of Ralph Reed's clients expect Ralph Reed and his team at Century Strategies to perform any useful service other than providing access to Ralphie's Rolodex?

From what I can gather online, Century Strategies has about fifteen employees, tops.

Century Strategies, LLC was registered in Delaware in 1997. I don't know the current status of the corporate registraton because Delaware charges fees for that kind of information.

I think Delaware is the only state that depends on fees from corporate registrations and related information as a significant source of revenue. As such, I am out of luck when a company is registered in Delaware.

I've visited a number of state secretary of state websites and, without a doubt, the Florida secretary of state website is the best in the country. Sunbiz.org has provided me with many hours of enjoyment!

I had a discussion with someone online a few years ago about who is responsible for creating such a fabulous and user-friendly corporate database. My argument was that Katherine Harris was Florida Secretary of State when the website was put up so she gets the credit. Which, let me tell you, goes a long way to mitigating hard feelings on my part about her conduct during the 2000 presidential election.

My counterpart told me that Katherine Harris was not responsible for the corporate database but never identified who was. If anyone knows anything about this issue, please tell me. I'd like to send a letter of appreciation to whoever it was (but I'd never send one to K. Harris - the database is not that good, trust me.)

The worst state secretary of state website is, hands down, New York. Part of the problem is that New York State requires virtually no information from the registrant. The other part of the problem is that New York state and local governments do not want its citizens to know anything more about government operations than is absolutely necessary. That's because New York State is a cesspool of corruption and that's how things work when your government is run by a bunch of crooks.

I once wrote a letter to then Secretary of State Randy McDaniels and suggested that New York emulate Florida. I got an email in response and the person (not Randy McDaniels) invited me to call him and discuss the issue. I didn't follow up because I was posting a lot about  Charlie Gargano being a crook in the now-defunct New York Times Abuzz forum and the now-defunct Center for Cooperative Research's People's Investigation of 9/11 forum at the time and did not want to draw any attention to myself.

Any surprise that the Texas secretary of state is the most intrusive? Texas requires the inquirer to provide a credit card number just to do an initial search. The state of Texas is happy to give you information at a very reasonable price but Texas wants to know who's asking for it. 

I paid twice for information from Texas and, both times, I bet an eyebrow was raised. First, I searched for "Texana Resources" which owns, or did own, oil leases in Nepal. Texana is owned by the very private Texas billionaire, Max Mazy. James A. Baker III is somehow connected to Texana because when Baker was in India in April 2002 pushing war in Iraq, he also negotiated with an Indian oil company on behalf of Texana. 

The other search was for a company owned by Bruce Mauldin. Mauldin briefly was a director of Eagle Building Technolgies which I have written about extensively on the internet. In the early '80s, Mauldin was a member of a DoD intelligence team that operated in South America.

I found Mauldin's name in a NY Times story by Seymour Hersh about corruption in the Army's intelligence unit.  Still worth a read! That's if you can find it - I'm having a terrible time these days with Proquest, a subsidiary of Bell & Howell.

Proquest manages the newspaper archives for the Suffolk County public library system here on Long Island. As a member of a local branch of the library system, I am entitled to free access to the archives of most major newspapers including the archives of the New York Times from the 1860s to 2001. This database is especially interesting because it is in PDF format and the articles include the original photos.

In the last year, I have noticed that Proquest omitted certain articles about Charles A. Gargano from my search results that I know exist, and in effect, censoring my research.  I know the articles exist in the archives of the New York Times and Newsday because I have accessed them on many other occasions. As it so happens, the ones that were omitted were unfavorable towards Gargano.  

I mentioned this problem to one of the reference librarians at my library but she could not offer any help. I also wrote about Proquest here in the TPM Cafe last fall when I posted under a different screen name. LOL - No matter what screen name I use, I'm always bitching about Charlie Gargano being a crook.  

I'm in luck today. I found the Seymour Hersh story in the New York Times archives so Proquest, at least for the moment, is not censoring access to negatives stories about the DoD. The title of the 11/22/87 story is Who's In Charge Here -A covert Army unit was freewheeling, high spending and top secret - till scandal struck". The name of the unit was Special Operations Division and it was headed by Army Colonel James E. Longhofer. 

Here's a tip about searching for crooks. Always start with Florida and Nevada. LOL - I have a fondness for Dean Heller, Nevada SOS. The Nevada site is very user-friendly and I've always had good luck there. Like Florida, Nevada permits search by officer name.

I'd like to add that the Mississippi SOS website is terrific and I found exactly what I was looking for when I was searching for information about Travis Lott, a crook, who may or may not be related to Senator Trent Lott.

Century Strategies, LLC is registered and the registration is current in Georgia. On the original 1997 registration, Ralph Reed's wife, Joanne, is listed as the manager of Century Strategies, LLC. The current address on the registration is PO Box 47877, Atlanta, GA 30362-0877.

On the Century Strategies, LLC annual registration, the address is 3235 Satellite Boulevard, Suite 575, Duluth GA. The suite number was changed from 105 to 575 in 1999.

Cathy Cox, Georgia Secretary of State, did a first-rate job with the Georgia corporate database, not quite up to Florida standards but still very user-friendly. I first visited the Georgia SOS site in the spring of 2001 and found exactly what I was looking for - a couple of crooks who were swindling old people out of their life savings. So kudos to Cathy Cox!

I don't think Century Strategies even does business in Virginia and Washington DC anymore because its corporate registration was revoked by the Virginia secretary of state in 2003 and by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs in the District of Columbia (undated).

Imo, Virginia and Connecticut should ditch their search systems. You need to learn functions just to do a search. No one has the time or the interest to muddle through their cumbersome and outdated systems.

According to Lexis-Nexis (1), the Virginia address for Century Strategies, LLC was 3921 Savannah Drive, Chesapeake, VA. The owners of the property, which is residential, are James R. Porter Jr. and Michelle K. Porter. I can't find any indication of the nature of the relationship between Ralph Reed and the Porters online.

I looked through the online campaign finance reports filed by Ralph Reed's campaign in 2005 in Georgia out of curiousity. Two officers of Century Strategies contributed to Ralph Reed's campaign fund in 2005. I can't access the Georgia SOS website at the moment to doublecheck the information but the two officers are:

Bill Armistead, Vice-President
1685 Briergate (?) Drive
Duluth GA
Contribution: $1,000 (?)

Gretchen Purser, Vice-President, Federal Affairs
7714 Ridgecrest Drive
Alexander (sic) VA
Contribution: $5,000

Note: Craig Purser, at the same address, contributed another $5,000. He is listed as a lobbyist for the beverage (?) industry.

What is really striking about the difference between the contributors to Ralph Reed's campaign as compared to the ones who contributed to Casey Cagle's campaign in 2005 is that at least a third of Ralph Reed's money came from outside Georgia. Casey Cagle, of course, is Ralph Reed's opponent in the primary election for lieutenant governor to be held on July 18.

(1) Lexis-Nexis - If anyone is wondering how I afford to pay for access to Lexis-Nexis, I can't. (For those who don't know about Lexis-Nexis, it is an excellent but expensive information service.). I first had access a couple of years ago when a relative in law school gave me her password. Law school students, in case anyone doesn't know this, have free access to Lexis-Nexis. My relative knew why I wanted access and she supports my interest in civics.

She researched whether I could legitimately use her account and concluded that, as long as I was not profiting by it (which I am most definitely not), there was no reason I couldn't use it. She has since graduated and another relative in law school who supports my research gave me her password.

LOL - Here I am being so conscientious about not abusing access to Lexis-Nexis and a friend of my relative who recently became an assistant district attorney in a unnamed county in New York City offered me her password for $50. To compound her violation of what must be some sort of ethical standard, she was not even offering her own password but that of an intern's she worked with.

I don't want to cause any problems for my relative so if Lexis-Nexis objected to my use of her account, that would be the end of it. But, on the other hand, if I thought what I was doing was worthwhile and important enough, I'd come up with the $50. You do what you gotta do.

I've been rambling on long enough here. Time for a break.

After reading scads of articles about Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and his affiliation with conservative Christian leaders, I noticed that he does not seem to be in Dr. James Dobson's circle.

I visited Dr. Dobson's "Focus on the Family" website out of curiosity awhile ago and was pleasantly surprised to learn that Dr. Dobson has four years of "Focus on the Family" annual reports and 990s available online at his website. I took a look at a couple of the reports and, as far as I could tell, Dr. Dobson runs an aboveboard ship which is my only real interest in Dr. Dobson's operations. As long as Dr.Dobson isn't bribing politicians, he can say anything he wants about Squarepants SpongeBob.

I've noticed, too, that Dr. Dobson seems to stay out of the fray for the most part, and he refrains from making the kind of untoward remarks about other people's beliefs that the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson are so famous for. Good on him.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying I think Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is a huckster who takes advantage of the naivety of Evangelical Christians about Jews to line his pockets. What is funny is that Rabbi Eckstein never misses a chance to take a swipe at the Jews.

A 7/5/02 letter he wrote to the Jerusalem Post about 531 Jews who immigrated from the US to Israel is telling. He upbraids the Jewish immigrants for not saying "thank you" to the Christians who laid out $2 million to finance the immigration through the IFCJ.

This is the remark that says it all about Rabbi Eckstein and the IFCJ:

"But the fact that only one immigrant out of all the 531 beneficiaries of
our Christian supporters' sacrificial giving (many of our donors are actually
poorer than the recipients) bothered to thank us is shameful."

Rabbi Eckstein takes money under false pretenses.