Donations to the Kohelet Policy Forum, a right-wing Israeli non-profit think tank, dropped by 43.2 percent in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to the financial report that the organization submitted to the Registrar of Associations which was obtained by Shomrim. According to the report, Kohelet received a total of 13.6 million shekels (just over $4 million) in 2024, compared to 24 million shekels ($7 million) in 2023. The report also shows that the decline in donations began before last year: in 2022, the organization received a total of 30 million shekels ($8.9 million) in donations.

In August 2023, Calcalist reported that Kohelet’s primary benefactor – American businessman and philanthropist Arthur Dantchik – announced that he was halting his donations to the organization. Dantchik’s announcement came after protests in Israel and overseas, including outside his home in Philadelphia, against the backdrop of the judicial overhaul that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government was carrying out – reforms that were in part inspired by ideas put forward by the Kohelet Policy Forum.

The report also suggests, however, that Kohelet may have found a new chief benefactor to replace Dantchik. Of the $4 million that the organization received in 2024, around $3.5 million came from the Central Fund of Israel, which is also identified with the right wing of the political map and which is headed by Jay Marcus, a resident of the West Bank settlement of Efrat. In the past, Dantchik donated money to Kohelet via the Central Fund of Israel. According to the financial report, the rest of the key donations came from an organization in the United States called Friends of Kohelet.

In August 2024, Kohelet launched a crowdfunding campaign under the headline ‘Davka Kohelet’, or ‘Kohelet: Now More Than Ever!’ in English. According to the campaign’s website, more than 4.1 million shekels ($1.2 million) have been raised through crowdfunding – money that is not directly mentioned in Kohelet’s annual report, but the narrative section of the report stated that the donations came from “crowdfunding, foundations and donors,” without specifying individuals. A spokesperson for Kohelet also declined to confirm whether the organization had a new chief donor.

Even before the annual report was published, there were reports of widespread layoffs following Dantchik’s withdrawal of his support. Among its many cost-cutting measures, Kohelet fired dozens of researchers and stopped its own support of other right-wing groups. In February 2023, Shomrim published an investigation revealing how Kohelet’s activities were spread out through other right-wing organizations, some of them with common staff members or similar goals.

The financial report confirms the extent of the cuts:

Payroll expenses were cut by 44 percent – from 14.6 million shekels ($4.4 million) to 8.2 million shekels ($2.4 million).

Fellows and cooperation department – dropped from 2 million shekels ($600,000) to 700,000 shekels ($210,000).

The legal department – dropped from 1.2 million shekels ($360,000) to 1.1 million shekels ($330,000).

The financial department – dropped from 1.2 million shekels ($360,000) to 480,000 shekels ($144,000).

Administration and accompanying payroll – dropped from 1.7 million shekels ($509,000) to 900,000 shekels ($270,000).

Research expenditure – sharp decline of 52.5 percent, from 9.2 million shekels ($2.75 million) to 4.4 million shekels ($1.3 million).

Kohelet submitted the following response: “The moment that Shomrim publishes an investigation into donations to ‘Brothers in Arms’ and all the other left-wing organizations that have invested millions of dollars in anti-government protests, we will be happy to answer your questions about private donors to the Forum.”