Hi there,
Yesterday a thread was started about the fact that the Watchtower wanted funds allocated to the organization itself for remembrance work. Thus far I cannot determine that this ever happened but what is known is that funds were disbursed to JW holocaust survivors in Central, Eastern Europe as well as Russia.
Here are some notes on the organization which the Watchtower started for this purpose.
The information below comes from a project I am working on:
Appendix D: Some notes on the
JWHESF tax reporting from 2001-2005
In
1995, fifty years after the end of World War II, the World Jewish
Congress started a massive class action lawsuit against Swiss banks
regarding bank accounts that had been indefinitely held since the end
of the war. In
November 2000 a settlement plan was announced under which 1.25
billion dollars would be distributed to surviving holocaust victims.
The funds would be controlled
and dispersed by the Jewish Banking Trust. Jehovah's Witnesses were
identified as possible recipients and eventually 1876
witnesses
were assisted through the Humanitarian Support Program (HSP) which
was tasked with distributing the funds and
needed services. The HSP preferred assisting the recipients with food
aid, medical assistance,
winter assistance
and lastly
emergency
financial assistance. The Watchtower organization started a fund
called the Jehovah's
Witness Holocaust-Era Survivor Fund (JWHESF)
to handle the final distribution to their recipients and the HSP
subsequently identified the JWHESF as a distribution partner. Between
2001 and 2005 the funds were allocated and disbursed.
The 2006 Humanitarian Support Program
report indicated that “The JWHESF [Jehovah's Witness
Holocaust-Era Survivor Fund] relied on its network of local
bethels (church centres) and volunteers for the implementation of two
consecutive projects over a three-year period...The programme
benefited from substantial input by Jehovah’s Witness community
members that was not charged to the programme. The efforts of these
'volunteers' helped keep administrative project costs among the
lowest in [the] HSP. Nevertheless, the lack of administrative funds
allocated by [the] IOM’s partner to its country teams
also contributed to making the regularity of their work, reporting
and follow-up with beneficiaries problematic.”
So
what the above paragraph
means is that the ordinary
witnesses in the recipient countries bore most of the expenses
too keep costs as
low as possible and to
therefore maximize the
benefits
to the recipients. The volunteers
gathered the names and
details of the survivors in
their area and then sent
it to their
countries
branch office
(Bethels) where the
information would be
compiled.
These
witness volunteers also did
the in person and
telephone follow ups with the
recipients and thereafter the
reporting. The Humanitarian
Support Program (HSP)
was very particular
in this regard in that
it would not release the next round of funds to
any
of its partners unless
the reporting was in order.
As
quoted earlier
the HSP pointed out
one
specific
area
that could have been improved upon
and
that was
that the
JWHESF
denied
any funds to the country
teams. This
meant telephone calls and travel expenditure was defrayed to the individual
witness
volunteers which
made the follow-ups
dependent upon
each individuals personal budget. It
therefore
made
reporting irregular. The
organization
itself did
not have this problem and substantially
charged
general administrative expenditure for
its own
volunteers
in
the USA to maintain efficiency. The
expenditure
accounted for 6% of the total funds available over the period of the
program*.
*
990
forms
for the Tax years
2001 to
2005 for Jehovah's Witness Holocaust-Era Survivors Fund, Inc. The
JWHESF personnel did not receive any salaries for their work except
for some professional fees that were charged. Charges were made for
materials and equipment, internet usage, telephone,
travel,
postage
etc. The volunteer witnesses did not have the opportunity to recoup
their
expenditures
such as travel costs,
phone bills and
postage.
The
cost breakdown between 2001 and 2005 for the JWHESF is as follows:
Total
funds received: $911 356
General
Administrative costs: $54 871 (6%
of total funds received)
Total
funds available for recipients: $856 485
Total
recipients benefited: 1876
Average
amount per recipient received: Approximately $456
The
only expenditure charged by the JWHESF program that seems out of the
ordinary occurred in the last year of HSP fund distribution in 2005.
The JWHESF indicated in its accomplishments that its functions were
that recipients were identified and that "Funds were disbursed."
The identification was done through the Branch offices and
volunteers, compiled and forwarded to the JWHESF at no cost. The
JWHESF then dispersed the funds in blocks to the Bethel Branch office
accounts in the various recipient countries where the funds would
have been allocated according to each individuals needs. As shown in
the HSP report the Branch Offices and volunteers could not charge any
costs to JWHESF for the final distribution to the recipients.
So
it comes as a surprise that in 2005 the JWHESF charges $16 141 for
postage and shipping. Between 2001 and 2004 postage and shipping only
accounted for $635. The bulk of the funds
($782 546) were received and disbursed during that period. In 2005
$128 810 was received and disbursed using the same previous methods
but now $16 141 was spent on postage and shipping.
It
could not have been fund dispersal (the posting of cheques) directly
to the recipients as there is no indication that any methodology
changed in 2005. Also the HSP preferred assisting recipients directly
through items such as food, winter and medical assistance and as
previously stated any associated costs were left to the Branch offices
and volunteers. Only 12.5% of recipients received direct emergency
financial support.
The
$16 141 printing and shipping expenditure could not have been the
costs involved in sending a final comprehensive report to each
recipient via post seeing as there was no printing costs indicated in
the 2005 tax return. In previous years printing costs had been
indicated so it was not a cost the organization would defray. It is
unclear why postage and packaging costs had increased so
significantly in 2005.
Another
small matter of interest is that in the 2003 tax report the following
question was asked: “80a Is the organization related (other than
by association with a statewide or nationwide organization) through
common membership, governing bodies, trustees, officers, etc. to any
other exempt or nonexempt organization?”
On
the form the response was indicated as No. If it was answered Yes the
organizations that these individuals were connected with had to be
indicated. In the 2003 list of officers of the organization the
following names appear: James Pelechia, Daniel Bland, Max Custer anc
Jolene Chu. Daniel Bland is a director of the Watch Tower Bible and
Tract Society of Pennsylvania. James Pelechia was the
associate editor of Watch Tower publications and director of public
affairs. Max Custer and Jolene Chu are both on the Watchtower
corporations legal team. Over the years all other individuals listed
as representatives of the JWHESF
have ties to Watchtower related
organizations.
It is unclear why they
omit to state these connections when it is actually quite plainly stated in the
name of the organization itself. Possibly a simple oversight.
The
last item discussed is also just an interesting curiosity. In the
2004 JWHESF tax report, the Swiss Vogel foundation contributed $49
900 for a specific project to be carried out by the Jehovah's Witness
Holocaust Era Survivors Fund. The Vogel foundation was Alfred Vogel's
who was already diseased by 2004 but which continued his legacy. Since
the 1930's Vogel was a Naturopath and Phytologist. He had started a
company called Bioforce AG which until today still produces
Naturopathic remedies and which are distributed around the world,
including the USA. The most well known is a cold remedy called
Echinaforce.
Vogel
was also a Jehovah's Witness and a personal source who knew him
informed me that he also claimed to be part of the “anointed”
group of Jehovah's Witnesses. Thus Vogel and his legacy foundation
would have had very personal reasons to contribute to the JWHESF
fund. Seeing as the nature of the assistance to the recipients was
mostly material in nature, it could be speculated that the Vogel
Foundation wanted to assist the elderly recipients through the
provision of Naturopathic remedies. The project (whatever it may have
entailed) was not initiated by the JWHESF and so the Vogel foundation
asked for the funds to be returned.
Sources:
990
form reports for organizations exempt from income tax for the
Jehovah's Witness Holocaust-Era Survivors Fund for the years
2001,2002,2003,2004,2005
The
2006 Final Report on Assistance to Needy, Elderly compiled by the
Humanitarian Support Program which is part of the International
Organization for Migration under the subsection Jehovah's Witness
Survivors
Essay:
Alfred Vogel (1902–1996) as an example of the development of
non-physician naturopathy – especially phytotherapy – in
Switzerland by Jörg Melzer, Christian Kleemann, Reinhard Saller -
Institute of Complementary Medicine, Dept. of Internal Medicine,
University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland
