A Fraudulent Jewish Charity

Forward: Donors to a charity on Manhattan’s Lower East Side are claiming that they have been misled by a Jewish calendar mailed annually to thousands of homes.
The calendar, illustrated with images of old bearded rabbis and filled with pleas for donations, is a fundraising appeal that an Orthodox charity called the Home of the Sages of Israel distributes in the weeks before the start of each Jewish new year.
“As you turn the pages of this Calendar, look well at the faces of the Aged Sages and Scholars for whom we care,” reads the latest calendar, which arrived in mailboxes in July. “Won’t you extend a helping hand to your old sages?”
Recipients appear to respond to the solicitations en masse: The group raises around $500,000 a year from donors, according to tax filings. Yet three donors have now filed papers in New York State Supreme Court saying that they thought the calendar was asking for money for the nursing home that Home of the Sages opened in the 1960s. In fact, the charity has not operated the nursing home since 1996.