Madonna: More Money to Kabbalah Than AIDS, Education

Fox News/October 5, 2006
By Roger Friedman

I told you last July that Madonna was giving millions of dollars to the Kabbalah Centre, an IRS-sanctioned religion founded by Karen and Philip Berg. The Kabbalah Centre is not part of Judaism; it is an independently organized religion.

Madonna’s largesse comes through her Ray of Light Foundation. She parks money there tax free, then distributes it to other causes. Wednesday's announcement that she’s going to build an orphanage in the African country of Malawi is linked to the planned curriculum: Kabbalah.

Madonna, you see, is hooked on Kabbalah.

The newest tax filing for the Ray of Light Foundation shows she hasn’t given up on the Bergs yet. She gave their Spirituality for Kids branch $268,106 in 2005. Madonna donated another $184,250 to the Kabbalah Centre itself. And that’s what she’s reporting publicly and in the United States.

What’s interesting about Madonna’s donations to the Bergs is that they far exceed anything she gives for music or education. Her donation to the Grammy Foundation’s MusiCares program — $2,500 — is laughable by comparison.

The same goes for the sum she handed over for AIDS research in 2005 — $10,000 to AIDS Project Los Angeles and $15,000 to the T.J. Martell Foundation for Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research.

For all of her preaching about AIDS, Madonna lists nothing on her Ray of Light return for groups like amfAR, Elton John's AIDS Foundation or dozens of other organizations trying to stamp out the disease in Africa.

Only one charity besides Kabbalah — Habitat for Humanity at $100,000 — got a large amount of Madonna's money. The material girl — who is said to be adopting a Malawian baby to keep in step with Angelina Jolie — has her priorities.