FOLLOW THE MONEY
Zionist influence in the arts
Zionist influence within arts institutions has had an outsized role with staff departures and the suppression of pro-Palestinian views among artists and art workers. This influence is often exerted through donor pressure, where major donors interfere with the programming and operations of the organizations where they give funds. Philanthropists often make their way onto the boards of arts institutions, where they take on positions of power within the internal governance structure of the organization. This weaponization of philanthropy is not limited to the enforcement of Zionist values, but has become front and center over the past three years given shifts in the political climate and the broad failure of arts institutions to address the ongoing genocide.
Judy Schulich’s internal push to prevent the acquisition of a Nan Goldin work by the AGO was a recent, high-profile example of donor interference in service of Zionism. Judy Schulich, scion of the Schulich family and current president of the Schulich Foundation, was previously a Trustee and board member of the AGO. As a member of the acquisitions committee, she campaigned against the acquisition of Nan Goldin’s work Stendhal Syndrome. Schulich is said to have taken issue with Goldin’s expressions of outrage against the genocide in Gaza, and used this as the main criteria for her push not to acquire the work.
Aside from Judy Schulich’s personal Zionist views, the Schulich Foundation also makes substantial donations to Zionist charities (defined as charities which transfer Canadian taxpayer-subsidized donations into the hands of Israeli intermediaries) such as the United Jewish Appeal and Technion Canada. These represent tens of millions of dollars in tax-receipted donations to complicit Israeli institutions. The Schulich Foundation is a prominent arts funder, having made significant donations (some in the range of millions) to arts institutions including the AGO, MOCA, and the McMichael.
There are many other private family foundations with significant financial ties to Zionist charities that also serve as major donors to the arts. The Azrieli Foundation, which is the subject of an ongoing NAITA campaign, transferred $46.8 million directly to Israeli organizations like Darca (which operates schools in the occupied Golan Heights) and the Jerusalem-based American Joint Distribution Committee (which runs an IDF preparedness program.). The Azrieli Foundation is the charitable arm of the Azrieli Group, Israel’s largest real estate company, which is currently profiting off of settlements via its stake in Bank Leumi and its ownership of ZMH Hammerman. It formerly owned Granite HaCarmel, whose subsidiary Sonol operated gas stations throughout illegal settlements. The Azrieli Foundation was a former sponsor of the Giller Prize and the Toronto Arts Foundation Breakthrough Artist Award, and has made significant donations to the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Royal Ontario Museum, the National Ballet of Canada and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
As public funding for the arts become increasingly austere, Canadian arts institutions become more reliant on private funding. Even so-called public institutions become more vulnerable to the sway of Zionist interests. This relationship not only threatens the autonomy of artists and institutions, but enlists them as a philanthropic cover for the charitable sector’s funnelling of Canadian funds to Israeli institutions actively participating in genocide and the dispossession of Palestinian land. This obfuscation of supposed charitable activity combined with the censorship of artists and artsworkers forms a two-fold forgetting that we simply cannot allow.
No Arms in the Arts (NAITA) is a broad coalition of cultural workers including Artists Against Artwashing, Canlit Responds, Filmworkers for Palestine, Mapping Power, Musicians Against Artwashing and Writers Against the War on Gaza (Toronto). To follow our work, visit noarmsinthearts.com