Tens of millions of shekels in donations to ZAKA, the Israeli volunteer search and rescue organization, have allegedly disappeared, according to a report in Haaretz citing the nonprofit’s own internal audit.
The newspaper says the donations in question are largely those raised abroad by Friends of ZAKA arms of the Israel-based charity. According to the report, the organization’s auditor, Chaya Asch, discovered the irregularities after questions were repeatedly raised by its former president, Eyal Mashiach.
ZAKA is an Israeli organization whose largely Haredi volunteers are often on the scene of terror attacks and deadly road accidents, collecting body parts and blood for burial according to Jewish law. The group also provides first aid and search and rescue services and has participated in international operations.
The organization’s volunteers were key in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas massacre, when they were a major part of the effort to collect and identify the close to 1,200 victims of the attack across the ravaged swathes of southern Israel. In the wake of the attack, ZAKA also launched an extensive fundraising campaign, raking in donations from many supporters abroad.
Haaretz reports that in 2023, the US branch of Friends of ZAKA received NIS 45 million from donors, compared to less than NIS 2 million a year earlier. Of that NIS 45 million, only about NIS 15 million was sent to the organization in Israel, ZAKA USA reportedly told US authorities. Meanwhile, the Israeli branch of the organization reported to Israeli authorities that it only received NIS 9 million.
The newspaper cites a letter sent by Mashiach to Asch in which he wrote about his attempts to locate the funds: “I contacted all the relevant people, I held dozens of conversations with board members and the CEO, but none of my queries bore fruit.”
In its own statement to Haaretz, ZAKA wrote that it has “carried out extensive changes since the report. The organization is not directly – or in any obligatory legal way – connected to the various nonprofit organizations abroad.” It claims that “to the best of our knowledge, every donation that was intended for the organization arrived and was documented in accordance with the law.”
The often-lauded organization has been plagued by controversies in the past. Its founder and longtime chairman, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, attempted suicide in 2021 after an investigative report revealed numerous allegations of rape and sexual assault by him against men and women, including minors, over several decades. Meshi Zahav remained unconscious for a year following the suicide attempt until his death in 2022.
While the actions of the organization’s volunteers received high praise in the wake of October 7, there have also been instances of criticism. According to a Haaretz report from February 2024, some ZAKA officials were accused of creating promotional content while on the job and releasing sensitive and graphic photos to shock people into donating.
A number of ZAKA volunteers also came under fire for being the source of since-debunked stories of the October 7 atrocities that spread rapidly online before they were revealed as fabrications.
Those stories include that of a pregnant woman who was found with her fetus cut out of her body, and that of a baby which was baked in an oven, neither of which was ever confirmed or verified by Israeli authorities. The organization has said that volunteers who worked for days without sleep may have been traumatized and confused about what they had seen, and were not trained in forensics and may have misidentified findings due to extensively charred remains.