Four stars for philanthropy

Last week, the American Jewish Committee’s Weekly update #279 (not posted on the website yet, but probably will be here soon) boasted,

AJC has moved up significantly on the Chronicle of Philanthropy annual ranking of the top 400 non-profit organizations in the U.S. (out of a total of over 900,000 registered groups). On the just-released 2007 list AJC is 313, up from 355, with a 35.7 percent increase in revenue over the previous year. This achievement, in addition to earning Charity Navigator's highest 4-star rating, continues to underscore AJC's strength and fiscal responsibility.

Well might you wonder how an organisation that devotes its resources to publishing drivel like Israel’s quest for peace (see my critique) can qualify as a charity at all, much less a highly rated one. Among their other recent philanthropic efforts was Alvin H Rosenfeld’s immortal pamphlet, ‘"Progressive" Jewish thought and the new anti-Semitism’ (see this), demanding sanctions against Iran (see here) while excoriating the campaign for a boycott of Israel (‘The Ideological Foundations of the Boycott Campaign Against Israel’, see here), and publishing mendacious full page newspaper advertisements. What better use could any well meaning donor hope to see their money put to than honouring Colombian President Alvaro Uribe with its Light unto the Nations Award?

At least they’ve been extremely generous in providing me with a constant stream of material.