The Aleh Foundation posted an image of Ayala Yakobzon on it website, seeking donations to help her. Her family allege that they have not seen any of the proceeds.
A Brooklyn-based non-profit has been using the story and photo of a disabled little girl to solicit donations — but her parents did not see a single dim, the couple claimed in a $ 5 million lawsuit.
The politically-powerful Aleh Foundation, which boasts accolades from former President Bill Clinton, Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and others, posted an image of Ayala Yakobzon on its website and asked for money to assist her.
“Ayala a beautiful, bright five-year-old (who) was born with spinal bifida and is paralyzed from the waist down,” said the accompanying text. “Aleh Foundation is here to help her family adapt their home to become disabled-accessible, and to ease their staggering financial burdens.”
But Midwood parents Masha and Shaul Yakobzon contend in a suit filed in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Aug. 28 that the campaign has been done “without her permission” and that “monies have been collected but have not been provided to her.”
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Aleh was established in 1984 to assist disabled children in Israel. A fundraising arm in the U.S. was formed in 1989, according to its website.
The ad was taken off the site recently and replaced with a story of another child. But a still-available cached version is asking for donations ranging from $ 27 for a pet therapy session to $ 7,000 for adjustable furniture.
The Yakobzons and their lawyer Howard Wexler could not be reached.
Messages to Aleh, its founder Rabbi Shlomo Braun and administrator Shlomo Berger, who are also named in the suit, were not returned.
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The organization raised $ 523,799 and spent $ 513,460, leaving just over $ 10,000 to distribute, according to financial disclosures from 2011, the latest year on record.
Charity Navigator, a web site that tracks performance of non-profits, gave Aleh a woeful one-star rating.
The lawsuit blames the foundation for “misuse of photographs obtained under false pretenses and in furtherance of a fraud” and concludes that Ayala “and her parents have suffered extreme humiliation and anguish.”
— With Barry Paddock
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