{"id":318032,"date":"2026-05-16T00:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318032\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T00:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T00:17:17","slug":"judge-bars-kars4kids-from-advertising-in-california-saying-it-misled-donors-about-jewish-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/318032\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge bars Kars4Kids from advertising in California, saying it misled donors about Jewish mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

JTA \u2014 A California judge has ordered Kars4Kids<\/a> to stop airing its ubiquitous jingle in the state unless the Jewish car-donation charity discloses that its funding is dedicated to Orthodox Jewish programs for families and adults in New York, New Jersey, and Israel.<\/p>\n

The ruling last week by a California Superior Court judge found that Kars4Kids had violated the state\u2019s false advertising and unfair competition laws by failing to disclose where it allocated funds from its donations.<\/p>\n

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit brought by a California donor, Bruce Puterbaugh, who argued that he would not have donated his vehicle to the nonprofit if he had known that the funds were \u201cdirected at a Jewish organization in New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esti Landau, the chief operating officer of Kars4Kids, testified that the nonprofit serves as the primary funding mechanism for Oorah, a Jewish outreach nonprofit that runs a summer camp in upstate New York, according to court filings. Kars4Kids is based in the heavily Orthodox city of Lakewood, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Landau said in the filing that Oorah\u2019s programs include \u201cmatchmaking\u201d for young adults as well as \u201cgap year\u201d trips to Israel for 17- and 18-year-olds and that the nonprofit operates no functional programs in California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure to disclose that funds benefit adults and families \u2014 and that this support is contingent upon a specific religious affiliation \u2014 is a material omission,\u201d Judge Gassia Apkarian said in her ruling. \u201cA reasonable consumer donating to a \u2018kids\u2019 charity would attach importance to the fact that their donation is actually supporting adult matchmaking and general family subsidies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kars4Kids was given 30 days to stop airing ads that do not disclose its religious affiliation, the location of its beneficiaries, or the beneficiaries\u2019 ages.<\/p>\n

In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Kars4Kids denounced the decision and said it planned to appeal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe this decision is deeply flawed, ignores the facts, and misapplies the law,\u201d said Wendy Kirman, the organization\u2019s communications director. \u201cIt\u2019s well known that we are a Jewish organization and our website makes it abundantly clear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization\u2019s website includes this line: \u201cKars4Kids is a registered nonprofit Jewish organization who, together with Oorah, our sister charity, help thousands of children develop into productive members of the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The California lawsuit was not the first time that Kars4Kids has faced allegations of false advertising. In 2009, Pennsylvania and Oregon fined the organization for deceptive advertising, accusing the nonprofit of obscuring that most of the money it raises goes to Orthodox outreach rather than needy children.<\/p>\n

And in 2017, the Minnesota attorney general said she was \u201cconcerned and troubled\u201d by the organization\u2019s practices after finding that only 1% of its funding went to children in the state.<\/p>\n

The California ruling is separate from a federal class action lawsuit filed in Northern California last year, accusing Kars4Kids and Oorah of deceptive fundraising practices.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Kars4Kids\u2019 founder, Eliyohu Mintz, who is also the CEO of Oorah, filed a lawsuit challenging New York state\u2019s concealed carry law, alleging that it left children vulnerable to antisemitic attacks. That lawsuit is ongoing.<\/p>\n


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\t\t\tAlready a member? Sign in to stop seeing this<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JTA \u2014 A California judge has ordered Kars4Kids to stop airing its ubiquitous jingle in the state unless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[91947,7,9,8,2702,132904],"class_list":["post-318032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-american-jews","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-charity","tag-new-york-jews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}