Ideology: Dedicated to transforming "the center of Hebron into a Jewish city."

Noted For: Moving Jewish settlers into the Palestinian city of Hebron, one of the hot spots in the Jewish-Palestinian struggle. Hebron has been the site of some of the worst violence in the West Bank.

Key Leaders: Irving Feigenblum, David Seidermann, Jerry Platt, Judy Grossman (the fundraising director whose salary is over $100,000 a year)

Money from Moskowitz's Bingo: $754,300 between 1991 and 2001.

More Information:

Hebron is a Palestinian city located in the middle of the West Bank with a population of over 160,000. Most settlers live in an exclusive Jewish suburb of Hebron called Kiryat Arba while a small number - about 500 - live among the Arab majority. The settlers are infamous for their radical ideology and violence against Arabs.

In 1996 an on-duty Israeli soldier, Noam Friedman, went on a shooting spree in the Hebron central market; he wounded eight Palestinians. In an interview with Israeli television, an unapologetic Friedman said that all Palestinians, women and children included, are "not innocent. They hate the Jews." In 1994 another Hebron settler, an extremist from New York, Baruch Goldstein, killed Arab worshippers and wounded 125 as they prayed at the Ibrahimi mosque in the "Tomb of the Patriarchs" in Hebron. The Hebron settlers hailed Goldstein as a hero.

The Hebron Fund leadership seeks to create conflicts with Arabs by staging marches and other events such as the 1995 Pessah (Passover) trips sponsored by the Hebron settlers to various Jewish sites. They also held a cornerstone laying ceremony for a new apartment building at the settlement. Peace Now tried to stop the controversial events, but Hebron went ahead, according to a 1995 Jerusalem Post article.

In 2000, Hebron Fund president David Siedermann wrote an open letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in which he contested the Oslo Accords and called Israel "G-d given land" and called Arabs "enemies."

A 1997 Salon.com article described the Hebron Fund as "a New York foundation that raises money for the ultra-nationalist Jewish settlers in the West Bank city of Hebron. The settlers' presence in the overwhelmingly Palestinian city has caused constant friction and unrest, the latest example of which occurred a few months ago when a settler put up posters in the town depicting the prophet Mohammed as a pig."

An article by Margot Patterson in National Catholic Reporter described the tension and violence that exists in Hebron: "If the settlers attack me and I respond back, I will either be shot dead, shot wounded or arrested. But if it's a settler who attacks a Palestinian, he will be protected by the soldiers at least and many times by the police," said Muhtaseb, a Palestinian in Hebron.

In Patterson's article, resident and spokeswoman for the municipality Rachel Klein states: "We shouldn't give up one inch of Israel, whether this will bring war or not. We're in the middle of a war because the Arabs are trying to take over bit by bit the whole of Israel."

Read articles about Hebron Fund:
Peace Now wants Hebron events canceled
Hebron protocol consolidates occupation
The Ideology Behind Hebron Massacre