đ You Thought You Were Helping Kids. You Were Funding Zionism.
Inside the Orthodox religious machine behind that inescapable car donation ad.
âď¸ IMPORTANT: Youâre reading one of the most important investigations Iâve published this year. While many of you have already become paid members of The North Star, we are in 15th place in paid members on Substack - with the leading platforms having 10,000 or more members than we do. Help us get the resources we need. đđ˝ Join here to support fearless journalism.
đ§ You know the jingle. But do you know the truth?
1-877-Kars-4-Kids... donate your car today.
Itâs the earworm no one asked for. I hate it. I hated it before I knew what I am about to tell you, but after you learn who they really are, youâll hate it so much more.
You hear it on ESPN. On satellite radio. On YouTube. On billboards across the country. A cartoon convertible. A fake guitar solo. And the vague promise that if you give away your used car, youâll be helping a child.
But hereâs what they donât tell you in the ad:
Youâre not donating to help kids in poverty. Youâre not funding public education. Youâre not supporting children in your state or your city.
Youâre giving money to a massive, secretive operation that funnels tens of millions of dollars a year into Orthodox Jewish indoctrination, Zionist religious education, and real estate development in Israel. And youâre being misled about it.
đ What is Kars4Kids?
Kars4Kids is the brand name of a registered nonprofit called Joy for Our Youth, and itâs not what it seems. Founded in the 1990s by Rabbi Chaim Mintz and now run by his son, Eliyohu Mintz, the organization is tightly intertwined with another nonprofit called Oorah. Oorah is essentially the operational engine behind the entire scam â and it receives nearly 90% of all Kars4Kids program money every single year.
Both groups operate out of Lakewood, New Jersey â a town that serves as one of the epicenters of Orthodox Jewish and Zionist religious infrastructure in the United States. And what theyâve built isnât just a fundraising operation â itâs a laundering system. The steps are simple: they flood the airwaves with cutesy jingles, asking Americans to donate cars, boats, and property. They then sell those assets for tens of millions of dollars, year after year, funnel those dollars directly into Oorah, and use the funds to support camps, yeshivas, matchmaking services, and Zionist outreach programs in both the U.S. and Israel.
What they do not do is serve all children. Their outreach is almost exclusively reserved for non-religious Jews they hope to make more religious, Orthodox children already in the system, and Zionist-aligned religious programs with direct ideological goals. Thatâs not charity. Thatâs a political and religious operation.
đ The Numbers: Where Your Donation Actually Goes
I reviewed four years of IRS Form 990s for Kars4Kids and found consistent and overwhelming patterns. Since 2020, Kars4Kids has raised a staggering $429 million in donations and car sales. During that same time, they spent $130 million on advertising and promotions â much of it with Google, YouTube, and satellite radio â and granted over $130 million directly to Oorah. In every single year reviewed, over 84% of their "program expenses" went to this one religious nonprofit.
And thatâs not just a detail â itâs the entire point. As one professor at Columbia University told The Forward,
âI donât think donors would be pleased if they found out that some of these monies were going toward anything other than programming and reasonable overhead.â
đ Zionist Indoctrination & Foreign Transfers
So where does the money actually go? According to filings from both Kars4Kids and Oorah, the organization operates luxurious summer camps for Orthodox Jewish children, complete with horseback riding, video game lounges, petting zoos, and Torah instruction. They provide tuition assistance for families pulling their kids out of public schools and placing them into Yeshivas. They offer scholarships to send high school graduates on ideological "gap year" trips to Israel. They even run matchmaking programs for the newly religious.
In fact, in their 2023 Form 990, Kars4Kids disclosed that they spent $1.88 million that year on direct "program and outreach spending in the Middle East." The money trail doesnât just stop at the U.S. border â it reaches directly into Israeli territory.
One state attorney general put it bluntly: In Minnesota alone, Kars4Kids raised $3 million from car donations over a two-year span and sent less than $12,000 back to children in that state.
âThatâs fine if people want to raise money for Orthodox Jews,â said CharityWatch president Daniel Borochoff, âbut they need to be clear and state thatâs what the purpose is.â
â Legal Trouble, Real Estate Scams & Shell Corporations
The financial trail is riddled with lawsuits, mismanagement, and scandal. In 2009 and 2010, Kars4Kids lost more than $8 million speculating on real estate â including failed hotel developments in Staten Island, a Jerusalem investment gone bust, and other collapsed property ventures. In a separate federal court case, they were found liable for more than $300,000 in unpaid scholarships to a Jewish day school in Staten Island.
The schoolâs president called it, "the saddest episode in my more than 55 years of devotion to Torah education."
In another case, Kars4Kids (through Oorah) attempted to seize a synagogue by suing its congregants for $1 million. The deal had been arranged in secret by a single board member. When Oorah tried to convert the sanctuary into classrooms, the congregation resisted â and Oorah went to court.
"Why would they try to do this to us when their main emphasis is on Jewish outreach?" asked one longtime congregant.
As if that werenât enough, the organization was fined in Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota for misleading advertising, including promising fake vacation incentives and failing to disclose their religious mission.
đŤ Youâre Not Helping "All Kids."
Letâs be clear: Unless you are an Orthodox Jewish child being pushed into a Zionist ideological structure, Kars4Kids is not here for you. They do not help Black kids in public schools. They do not help Muslim or Christian youth. They do not support undocumented children, foster youth, or survivors of violence. They do not provide books, meals, or school supplies to marginalized communities. They arenât even here for 98% of white kids. They are here for Zionist Jews. Thatâs what this whole thing is about.
The illusion that this is a multicultural aid organization is part of the scam. Their own fine print admits it: Kars4Kids exists to support the "educational, material, emotional, and spiritual needs of Jewish children and their families." And nearly all of those children are concentrated in New York and New Jersey. Theyâve raised nearly HALF A BILLION DOLLARS in the past few years and itâs just turbocharging Zionism.
âď¸ The Political Implications
This is not just a religious issue â it's a geopolitical one. At a time when the Israeli government is carrying out a genocide in Gaza, and as over 60,000 Palestinians have been killed, Americans are being tricked into donating to an organization that sends money to Israeli religious institutions under the guise of childrenâs charity.
This is how Zionist influence is built and protected: through charitable fronts, religious laundering, and strategic opacity. Most donors have no idea that their car donation is helping to fund a matchmaking program for newly Orthodox Jewish adults, or helping a teenager transition from public school to a Zionist yeshiva with donated tuition aid. And the moment that people do find out? The organization calls it an attack on religion.
This isnât about Judaism. This is about deception. Itâs about power. Itâs about money.
đŁ Time to Shut It Down
Kars4Kids is not a true public charity. It is a Zionist-aligned fundraising operation designed to look like a childrenâs charity while operating as a religious pipeline.
We demand a full federal investigation into Kars4Kids and Oorah. We demand disclosure of every foreign disbursement. We demand that their religious affiliations and ideological goals be stated clearly in every ad, every radio jingle, and every billboard. No more hiding behind smiling kids and pink convertibles. No more pretending.
This isnât charity. Itâs a pipeline. Itâs a lie. Itâs Cars for Zionism.
đ Become a paid member to support journalism like this: https://www.thenorthstar.com/subscribe
Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun King
Did you know any of this? It's one of the LARGEST CHARITIES IN AMERICA and just funds Zionism.
First time hearing this! Thank you for the valuable investigative work!