Jews Appointed to Panel on Taxes for Religious Groups
Four top Jewish officials were named to a commission studying tax accountability for religious groups.
Nathan Diament, who directs the Orthodox Union’s Washington office; Rabbi David Saperstein, who directs the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center; Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, who directs the Conservative move net’s Rabbinical Assembly; and Steven Woolf, the senior tax policy counsel to the Jewish Federations of North America were among 25 members of a panel of religious representatives announced Thursday by the Commission on Accountability and Policy for Religious Organizations.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has long pushed for greater accountability for religious groups seeking tax exemptions in January asked the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, a group established by evangelical churches in the 1970s, to set up three panels to examine proposals to eliminate abuses his staff uncovered, particularly among media-based ministries.
Aside from the religious representative panel, there is one of legal experts and one of non-profit representatives.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
