Magen David Adom May Sever U.S. Ties
The dispute between Israel’s Magen David Adom and its American fundraising arm has reached a critical point as the Israeli organization has formally announced its intention to sever its contractual ties with American Friends of Magen David Adom.
A letter sent on March 10 from a New York attorney representing MDA, which is the Israeli organization similar to the American Red Cross, informed AFMDA that the group “intends to cancel/not renew” the contract that has made AFMDA the exclusive representative of the Israeli body for the purpose of raising funds in the United States.
The announcement, while harshly worded and filled with allegations against the American group, still leaves the door open for further negotiations. On March 14, MDA’s attorney sent another letter to AFMDA, in which he clarified that while the notice of termination is in effect, MDA would still “like to continue to negotiate possible renewed agreements between MDA and AFMDA as soon as possible.”
AFMDA is the largest funder of MDA and has raised nearly $30 million annually in recent years from American donors. Relations with the Israeli body, however, have been rocky and marred by mutual mistrust, due to complaints on the Israeli side that the American body has been too tight in releasing funds, and to arguments made by the American side that MDA is trying to intervene in its work.
The contract defining the relationship between the two organizations stipulates that AFMDA is the sole representative of MDA in the United States. The seven-year contract, set to expire in September, also allows the American group to use the Magen David Adom symbol for fundraising purposes. It requires a six-month warning in case MDA wishes not to extend it.
The dispute was discussed in a meeting March 7 and 8 of the AFMDA board in New York and in talks held on the sidelines of the meeting between leaders of the American body and MDA. These talks did not succeed in yielding an agreement on renewing the contract.
The failure to reach an agreement resulted in the March 10 letter written by attorney Joel Karni Schmidt on behalf of MDA. The letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Forward, lists a dozen grievances. Among them, MDA alleges “serious financial mismanagement” on issues relating to payments to the former CEO of the American group. The Israelis also complained that AFMDA “has not transferred millions of dollars of donated funds to MDA.”
Lewis Krinsky, national chairman of AFMDA, said in an e-mail to the Forward that MDA’s notice of termination was only a “technical and formal step” taken by MDA “pursuant to specific terms of the Corporation Agreement.” Krinsky defended the management of AFMDA, noting that independent financial audits of his organization in 2007 and 2008 were “clean” and that he expected the same for 2009.
In the e-mail, Krinsky said that further public discussion of the ongoing negotiations between his group and MDA “would not serve either organization well.”
AFMDA has been holding on to a significant cash surplus that, according to 2007 tax filings, exceeded $46 million. MDA would like to see the money transferred immediately for use in Israel, but AFMDA has cited a strict policy of remitting funds directly to vendors in Israel in exchange for invoices for work they’ve done for MDA. AFMDA also explained that most of the surplus money is already designated for projects in Israel and will be transferred as work on these projects progresses.
Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected]
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 3
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 4
Fast Forward Columbia staff receive texts asking if they’re Jewish, as government hunts antisemitic harassment on campus
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump nominee Ed Martin, who praised a Nazi sympathizer, also compared Biden to Hitler
-
Opinion RFK Jr. and Trump are talking about an ‘autism registry’ — this sounds disturbingly familiar
-
Fast Forward Heavy police presence blocks anti-Israel protest in Brooklyn from reaching Jewish neighborhood
-
Yiddish קאָקני־ייִדיש“: אַ פּאָדקאַסט, אַ לשון און אַ שטײגער לעבן‘Cockney Yiddish’: A podcast, a language and a way of life
צװײ לאָנדאָנער היסטאָריקערינס לעבן אױף דאָס ייִדישע „איסט ענד“ אין אונדזער פֿאַנטאַזיע
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.