My Nonprofit Reviews

This "Heritage Foundation" is really an alter ego publishing company disguised as a Charity. How is it that this "Charity's" program expenses continually and repeatedly exceed its revenue? How can it continue to operate as a charity? Because the program expenses include advertising and salaries that benefit its alter ego, Artscroll.

Does Mesorah Heritage Foundation have any plans on whether in the future the ipad version of its books (the Talmud, Midrash etc.) be made available for free? A legitimate Heritage Foundation makes books accessible to the population it claims to work for, as opposed to placing a price on everything as Mesorah does. It does this because it is a book retailer disguised as a charity. There are countless cultural preservation organizations that make respective holy books and all related literature available for FREE (in both print and interactive digital form). Mesorah, on the other hand, doesn't provide anything for free unless it has advertising value. Clearly an indicator that this "charity" is the product development team and advertiser for publishing company Artscroll (whose salaries it pays as well).

Mesorah Heritage Foundation's mission statement is that it preserves and makes accessible (via translation) ancient texts to modern Jews who are illiterate or novice at Hebrew. Really? The projects that it has undertaken, however, are of texts that have long been translated into English, including the Talmud, Sefer HaChinuch, Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, Rashi commentary on the Torah etc. It has not "preserved" or made available unlocked texts, but is rather targeting a specific consumer base within the modern Orthodox Jewish community.

If you are not convinced that this charity is a business and not a heritage foundation as it claims to be, try picturing what it may have looked like if the prophet Moses charged everyone for hearing the Torah, and paid himself a hefty salary as part of the process.

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