Betrayed Aid: Redirect Jewish Giving

I am a Zionist Jew who has served Africa my entire life—because giving is what we Jews do. Jewish Americans, just 2% of the population, account for 16% of U.S. megagifts totaling $7 billion in $1 million-plus donations. This disproportion stands at 800%. In 2022, Jews comprised nearly half of America’s 25 most generous philanthropists, donating $27 billion collectively—overrepresentation by a factor of 25 against a 2% population. Jewish households give more than any religious group, mostly to secular causes like education, health, and the arts—over $11 billion yearly to non-Jewish institutions. Jewish Federations raise $3 billion-plus for disaster relief, hospitals, and food banks that serve entire cities. Pew Research ties Jewish identity to charity and social responsibility, not inward focus. This generosity extends worldwide, yet antizionists weaponize it against us. Jews constitute 0.06% of South Africa’s population, 38,000 out of 63,000,000—not even a rounding error. The disproportion of giving by Jews in SA is beyond calculation, yet the focus of hate against Jews in SA is so overwhelmingly extreme—which proves that our philanthropy is not appreciated, it is just weaponized to betray us.

As I’ve chronicled in my series Bridges of Liberation—from debunking myths about the Jewish role in the slave trade here to highlighting our unwavering support for African independence movements here, this commitment runs deep in our shared history of exile and resilience. Zionism itself is Pan-Africanism—both indigenous returns to ancestral soil, forged against colonialism, enslavement, and denial of self-determination here. We’ve airlifted Ethiopian Jews home not as refugees, but as family—Operations Moses and Solomon in the 1980s and ’90s saved tens of thousands, a bond that echoes today here.

Since 1950, ORT has trained over 500,000 Africans in vocational skills across twenty countries, empowering youth with tools for self-sufficiency in a world that too often leaves them behind. IsraAID has delivered emergency relief to more than thirty African nations—often the first on the ground after disaster, reaching over 250,000 people in crises from landslides in Papua New Guinea to floods in Kenya just this year alone. The Jewish National Fund has planted millions of trees in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Ghana—combating desertification that threatens Black farmers, with projects like One Tree Planted’s 58,000 seedlings in 2023 restoring ecosystems and livelihoods. MASHAV, Israel’s agency for international development, has trained over 270,000 Africans in agriculture, medicine, and water management—free of charge, building on 65 years of expertise from our own arid rebirth. This is not charity. This is tikkun olam in action. And now it is under fire.

Antizionists do not just boycott Israeli hummus. They boycott life-saving Jewish aid to Black Africa. In 2023, antizionist protesters in Nairobi disrupted events tied to Israeli humanitarian efforts, including health initiatives, amid broader solidarity marches that clashed with police and highlighted the growing tension between pro-Palestine activism and practical aid. In 2024, BDS activists pressured the University of Cape Town to reject a joint Israeli-South African water desalination project that would have supplied clean water to 200,000 Black township residents—echoing earlier boycotts that scuttled water conferences and left the city parched during its drought crisis. In 2025, a coalition of “decolonial” NGOs forced the cancellation of an ORT vocational program in Rwanda that was training 3,000 youth—because the trainers were Israeli—despite Rwanda’s push for expanded TVET centers to combat youth unemployment. The haters do not care what they destroy—their singular objective is hate of Jews and Israel. They call it “anti-normalization.” I call it sabotage. They scream “No Israeli apartheid tech in Africa” while Black mothers die in childbirth for lack of the very neonatal units Israel helped build. They chant “Zionist money out of Africa” while Black farmers lose crops to drought that Israeli drip-irrigation could prevent. This is not solidarity with the oppressed. This is solidarity with death.

Because when you block Jewish and Israeli aid to Black Africa, Black Africans pay the price. The same people who claim to fight “colonialism” are the new colonialists—imposing their political purity tests on the poorest of the poor. They would rather see a Black child die of malaria than be saved by a mosquito net funded by a Jewish donor. That is the ultimate racism: deciding that Black lives are acceptable collateral damage in the war against Jews.

Look at the hypocrisy in allied movements. “Queers for Palestine” chants for a cause that executes gay men from rooftops in Gaza, while ignoring Israel—the only place in the Middle East where I, a gay man, can walk hand-in-hand with my husband without fear here. Jews birthed the modern gay rights movement—Harvey Milk, a Zionist Jew; Reform Judaism’s early decriminalization efforts; philanthropists who funded Stonewall’s victories. Yet now, these groups demand we disavow Israel, turning gratitude into a knife in the back. It’s the same betrayal we see in Black Lives Matter, hijacked from its righteous cry into a shield for jihadists who burn churches in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. Do Christian Black lives matter in Africa? Not to those who fund Hamas while ignoring machete-wielding extremists in the Sahel. We say no. We will not let antizionists use Black bodies as human shields for their hatred. We will not let them sabotage the very aid that keeps Black Africa alive. Every time they block a Jewish-funded clinic, we will build two. Every time they cancel an Israeli training program, we will fund ten more—quietly, relentlessly, on our own dime. Because Black African lives matter more than their slogans. And Jewish hearts are bigger than their hate. The philanthropists will keep giving. The saboteurs will keep losing. And Africa will remember who its real friends were when the cameras moved on.

This sabotage isn’t confined to Africa’s shores—it’s a global weaponization of our generosity. In New York, the epicenter of Jewish philanthropy, this betrayal cuts deepest. With Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor-elect in November 2025—his anti-Israel obsession at the core of his rise, echoing his father Mahmood’s calls for Israel’s dismantlement and Nazi comparisons at Columbia—the city’s public institutions have become hostile ground. Protests chanting “From the river to the sea” have fractured alliances, turning spaces we funded into arenas of antisemitism and isolation. We’ve poured billions into universities and museums, only to watch them host divestment campaigns and “decolonial” panels that equate Zionism with genocide—while ignoring the jihadist threats to Black Christians in Africa or the hostages still held in Gaza. Jewish donations with Zionist intent have been twisted into weapons of hate against Jews.

We’ve been betrayed by those we helped: progressives who marched with us for civil rights, only to pivot to “Queers for Palestine”; institutions we endowed, now platforms for BDS; even African leaders who accepted our aid for independence, then joined ICJ cases against us. It’s a pattern as old as exile—our open hands met with closed fists.

Take the University of Cape Town as a singular example. At UCT, Jews built the university’s medical school and funded hospitals serving Black communities. BDS boycotts erased these: a Jewish-endowed neonatal unit scrapped in 2022, leaving Black infants vulnerable; water tech partnerships axed, parching townships. In June 2024, UCT’s Council passed resolutions to boycott Israel, rejecting the IHRA antisemitism definition and Israeli-linked entities. Result: Donald Gordon Foundation withdrew R450 million for a teaching hospital, plus R200 million in prior pledges—leaving Black patients without specialized care. Michael & Susan Dell Foundation suspended funding. Total losses: R250-300 million, with donations dropping from $4.14 million in 2023 to $1.51 million in 2024. UCT council voted 14-13 to uphold the boycott in March 2025, despite warnings and court challenges exposing undisclosed conflicts. Private donations decreased significantly since 2023. Mendelsohn launched a lawsuit after the 2024 resolutions, with ruling expected early 2026. SAJBD intervened, noting the resolutions foster antisemitism. Bigotry at UCT led to suspensions of Jewish academics, underscoring a hostile environment.

South Africa exemplifies the hypocrisy: accusing Israel of genocide at the ICJ while canceling visa-free access for Palestinians after fewer than 200 arrived—hardly a response to claimed extermination. Antizionism imposes a modern dhimmitude on Jews—a state of fear, insecurity, and humiliation under imposed domination, echoing historical subjugation of non-Muslims in Islamic societies, driving exoduses and perpetual vulnerability in diaspora.

It’s time to look inward. Jews in South Africa: Stop giving to public institutions poisoned by this environment, like UCT. Redirect your tzedakah to Tel Aviv University and other Israeli institutions that stand unapologetically with us. Seek equivalents in Israel: ORT’s African programs, IsraAID’s frontline relief, JNF’s green revolutions, MASHAV’s skill-building. Bolster Zionist education here at home, so our children inherit pride, not apology. In America and South Africa: Pivot to Israel. There, giving meets no betrayal, no inversion—only renewal. Build for ourselves while our environment tries to destroy us. This is not retaliation, it is self-preservation. Our giving has always been our strength. Now, let it be our fortress. By turning inward, we repair the world—starting with our own.