In an interview with The Forward, Daniel Kurtz, Chair of Pryor Cashman's Nonprofit + Tax-Exempt Organizations Group, discussed whether loans made to two high-ranking executives at the Jewish National Fund (JNF) violated New York state law.

In 2015, JNF, one of the oldest, most well-established Zionist organizations in the United States, made a $525,000 loan to its CEO, Russell Robinson, and another $185,000 loan to CFO Mitchel Rosenzweig. After learning of the loans, which were purportedly made to help Robinson and Rosenzweig purchase real estate, the New York State Attorney General's Office sent a letter to JNF demanding that both loans be repaid by the end of 2017.

Under New York law, charities are expressly prohibited from making loans to their officers. The ban is virtually complete; only educational corporations, such as schools or universities, are exempt, Kurtz told The Forward

JNF has denied that the loans violated state law and told the Attorney General's Office that both Robinson and Rosenzweig have been repaying them with interest. JNF also claimed that in spite of their titles, neither of the executives are officers of the charity, and are therefore not subject to the ban on loans.

According to Kurtz, JNF will have a difficult time defending this position: "It's hard to see how they can say this with a straight face. I've never seen anybody successfully raise that defense."

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