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(FEBRUARY 19, 2024) If you’re a Broadway theater fan, you’re probably familiar with Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. It’s a non-profit organization that, as its name reflects, helps to mitigate the suffering of individuals affected by HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening illnesses. Broadway Cares describes itself as “the philanthropic heart of Broadway, helping people across the country and across the street receive lifesaving medications, health care, nutritious meals, counseling and emergency financial assistance.”
Donations are often solicited at the end of a Broadway show: A cast member makes a compelling speech about helping people in need in the theater community. Audience members then leave donations in collection buckets stationed at the theater’s exits. Sometimes, posters signed by the show’s cast are available for purchase, with the proceeds purportedly going to support the organization’s stated mission.
You may be surprised to learn that even though Broadway Cares claims to focus on helping people in the U.S. who are struggling with serious health issues, the organization has directed substantial funds elsewhere for other purposes.
Last month, Broadway Cares gave two grants totaling $400,000 to those in need in the Hamas-controlled terrorist enclave of Gaza. In publicizing the grants, the organization’s executive director said, “As those in Gaza continue to face seemingly endless devastation and loss, their rippling heartbreak resonates across the world and in our corner in the Theater District.”
The Zionist Organization of America immediately contacted Broadway Cares and questioned the grants. We asked whether the organization would also be providing financial support to address the devastation, loss and heartbreak that Israelis have endured since the mass slaughter, rape and displacement of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.
We received an immediate and respectful response from Broadway Cares’ executive director, though not one member of the board of trustees ever reached out. We felt the organization’s reaction was deeply troubling.
Broadway Cares identified the two organizations that received the grants: Doctors of the World and the International Rescue Committee. It is implausible if not impossible that either one is directing any of its grant money to Israelis in need.
The website for Doctors of the World identified the places in the Middle East in which the organization does its work. “Palestine” is among them. Israel is not.
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