Genesis Prize laureate's foundation gave $597K to dark money conduits, anti-Israel advocacy groups, the Iran deal echo chamber, and a movement that accused Israel of genocide.
Part of the Global Jewish Philanthropy investigation.
In June 2024, the Genesis Prize Foundation honored Barbra Streisand as its 10th anniversary laureate — unanimously chosen following nominations from tens of thousands of Jews around the world. The Genesis Prize, often called the "Jewish Nobel," celebrates "outstanding individuals who serve as a source of inspiration for the next generation of Jews worldwide." Previous laureates include Michael Bloomberg, Natalie Portman, and Michael Douglas.
Streisand is Jewish. Brooklyn-born, daughter of a Jewish schoolteacher, proudly identified her entire life. She is among the most visible Jews on earth.
Her foundation — the Streisand Foundation, which she has run as sole president since 1986 — sits on $30.5 million in assets. In the last five years, it has distributed $5.5 million across 403 grants to 222 organizations. Lifetime: more than $25 million to over 800 nonprofits. The foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals. Grantmaking is by invitation only. Every grant is deliberate.
Among the deliberate grants: $195,000 to the Arabella Advisors dark money network. $139,000 to the Tides Foundation. $74,000 to Media Matters for America. $70,000 to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. $55,000 to J Street. $32,000 to the Ploughshares Fund. $20,000 to the New Israel Fund. $12,000 to the Movement for Black Lives.
Total: $597,000 to dark money conduits, anti-Israel organizations, the Iran deal echo chamber, and a movement that accused Israel of genocide — funded by the Genesis Prize laureate, by invitation, across multiple years.
Who Runs the Barbra Streisand Foundation — and Who Approves Every Grant
The Streisand Foundation (EIN 13-2620702), Woodland Hills, California. FY2024: $4.8 million revenue. $2.0 million expenses. $30.5 million total assets. The foundation files IRS Form 990-PF annually as a private foundation. All grantee data in this article is drawn directly from those public filings.
Barbra Streisand — President (1986–present). Sole final authority on all grantmaking.
Margery Tabankin — Treasurer/Secretary (1986–present). One of the foundation's key decision makers for 40 years. A progressive political strategist trained at Saul Alinsky's Industrial Areas Foundation in Chicago. Served as VISTA National Director under President Carter, making her the youngest person to lead the federal volunteer agency. Ran the Hollywood Women's Political Committee through the early 1990s, channeling entertainment-industry money into Democratic campaigns. Tabankin holds a senior role at other major philanthropic foundations, giving her unusual influence over the direction of progressive Jewish philanthropy in America.
Francis Smith — Executive Director (2013–present). Also serves as a political advisor to the Democracy Alliance, the left-of-center donor network co-founded by George Soros and other progressive billionaires to coordinate political giving.
Jason Gould — Board Member (Streisand's son). Lester J. Knispel — Assistant Secretary.
No independent directors. No outside oversight. No advisory board. No public grantmaking criteria. The foundation's IRS filings list its application process as "by invitation only."
Streisand Gave $195,000 to the Arabella Advisors Dark Money Network
The Streisand Foundation's single largest grantee is the New Venture Fund — $160,000 across five grants (2020–2024). An additional $35,000 went to the Hopewell Fund across two grants (2021–2022). Both entities are managed by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consultancy that operates the largest dark money network in progressive American politics.
The Arabella network — which includes the New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, Sixteen Thirty Fund, Windward Fund, and North Fund — has moved billions of dollars through its entities. New Venture Fund alone reported $669 million in revenue in 2023. The network serves as fiscal sponsor for dozens of pop-up organizations that launch, run political campaigns, and dissolve — with no independent board, no donor disclosure, and no public accountability.
In 2021, the New York Times called the Arabella network a leading vehicle for dark money on the left, criticizing its "system of political financing, which often obscures the identities of donors." The D.C. attorney general opened an investigation into Arabella in 2023 following reports that the New Venture Fund used charitable donations to push expanded mail-in voting. A whistleblower alleged that timesheets were altered to hide that New Venture Fund, a 501(c)(3), was engaging in forbidden political activity. Americans for Public Trust filed a complaint with the IRS in August 2023, noting that NVF had told the IRS in 2006 that its management by Arabella was "anticipated to be temporary and, indeed, only has a one-year term." It was still being managed by Arabella two decades later.
Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss — a non-U.S. citizen — moved $475 million into various organizations through the Arabella network to influence American politics and elections, exploiting the loophole that allows foreign nationals to fund nonprofits even when they cannot contribute to candidates, parties, or PACs. The Capital Research Center traced $265 million of Wyss's money directly to Arabella entities.
The connection between Streisand's foundation and the Arabella network is structural: Francis Smith, the Streisand Foundation's executive director since 2013, also advises the Democracy Alliance — the same progressive donor coordination network that channels funding through Arabella's entities.
Barbra Streisand gave $195,000 to the left's largest anonymous funding operation — more than she gave to J Street and the New Israel Fund combined.
Streisand Gave $55,000 to J Street — Israel's Ambassador Called It "a Cancer"
The Streisand Foundation gave $55,000 to the J Street Education Fund across three grants (2022–2024), according to its IRS Form 990-PF filings.
On May 19, 2026, Israel's Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter called J Street "a cancer within the Jewish community" at a National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism gathering at the Museum of the Bible in Washington.
"The worst thing about J Street is it's duplicitous. How can you be pro-Israel and advocate for an arms embargo on a state that's fighting a seven-front war against Iranian proxies? They are like a cancer in the heart of the Jewish community."
In April 2026, J Street published a formal policy memo calling for a "responsible and relatively rapid phase-out of all financial assistance, including for ballistic missile defense." The memo calls for ending $3.3 billion in annual Foreign Military Financing and $500 million in Department of Defense missile defense funding when the current $38 billion memorandum of understanding expires in 2028. That means Iron Dome. David's Sling. Arrow. The systems that intercepted over 300 Iranian missiles and drones on April 13, 2024.
J Street is now the mainstream Israel lobby among Democrats, endorsing more members of Congress than AIPAC. In April 2026, a record 27 Senate Democrats voted to restrict $660 million in weapons sales to Israel — at J Street's urging.
Barbra Streisand's foundation funds them. $55,000 across three years. By invitation only.
Streisand Gave $20,000 to the New Israel Fund — Now Under Congressional Investigation
The Streisand Foundation gave $20,000 to the New Israel Fund across two grants (2023–2024).
On July 9, 2026, the House Judiciary and Ways and Means committees opened a formal investigation into the New Israel Fund.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) alleged the organization violated its tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) charity "by providing millions of dollars in funding to groups that engaged in political campaign activities in the 2019 Israeli elections." Under U.S. law, 501(c)(3) charities are "absolutely prohibited" from directly or indirectly engaging in any political campaign for or against a candidate for elected office.
The committees cited specific grants: $356,000 from NIF to Zazim, which bussed thousands of Bedouin voters to the polls as part of the opposition to Netanyahu. An additional $95,000 to Adalah, which provided legal representation to the Joint Arab List — the alliance of Arab parties that centered their 2019 campaign around ousting Netanyahu in favor of Benny Gantz.
According to NGO Monitor, NIF has donated more than $300 million to Israeli nonprofits since its founding in 1979. Among its grantees: Adalah, Breaking the Silence, +972 Magazine, B'Tselem, and Gisha — organizations primarily active in BDS and delegitimization campaigns. Breaking the Silence — NIF's largest recipient ($700,000+) — dispatches former soldiers on international tours accusing the IDF of war crimes. Birthright Israel banned NIF.
Barbra Streisand is writing checks to an organization under congressional investigation for illegal electioneering in Israeli elections.
Streisand Gave $139,000 to the Tides Foundation — Fiscal Sponsor of Terrorist-Linked Groups
The Streisand Foundation gave $139,000 to the Tides Foundation across five years (2020–2024). The Tides Network has mobilized over $3 billion since its founding in 1976 and manages nearly 400 donor-advised funds. According to NGO Monitor's Tides profile, the foundation serves as fiscal sponsor and grant channel for some of the most active anti-Israel organizations in the United States.
Jewish Voice for Peace ($312K from Tides) — the largest Jewish BDS organization in the U.S., which describes Israel as an "apartheid state." IfNotNow ($358K) — campaigns to end American Jewish support for Israel's "occupation." CODEPINK ($293K) — organized protests at the U.S. Capitol and disrupted congressional hearings on Israel. Alliance for Global Justice ($3.5M) — fiscal sponsor of Samidoun, designated a terrorist entity by the United States and Canada for its ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Center for Constitutional Rights ($173K) — filed a federal lawsuit accusing Israel of "genocide" in Gaza.
The Tides Foundation operates as a fiscal intermediary: donors give to Tides, which then distributes to grantees. This structure provides donor anonymity. Barbra Streisand's $139,000 to Tides funds this entire ecosystem.
Streisand Gave $70,000 to the Soros-Backed Quincy Institute — Dismantling U.S.-Israel Military Ties
The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft was founded in 2019 with seed funding from George Soros's Open Society Foundations ($500,000) and the Charles Koch Foundation ($500,000). Led by Trita Parsi — formerly president of the National Iranian American Council — Quincy advocates reduced U.S. military engagement in the Middle East, conditioning military aid to Israel, and what it calls "military restraint."
Barbra Streisand gave $70,000 to the Quincy Institute across three grants (2021–2024).
Streisand Gave $74,000 to Media Matters — the Operation That Employed the "Israel Firster" Slur
The Streisand Foundation gave $74,000 to Media Matters for America across four grants (2020–2024).
Media Matters was founded in 2004 by David Brock, described by Time as one of the most influential operatives in the Democratic Party. The organization was incubated inside John Podesta's Center for American Progress and built as a rapid-response attack operation targeting conservative media. Brock also founded American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic super PAC, and Correct the Record, which supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Media Matters reported $21.9 million in revenue in 2024.
In 2012, Media Matters drew heated criticism from Jewish organizations after its senior foreign policy fellow M.J. Rosenberg repeatedly used the term "Israel firster" — a borderline antisemitic slur implying that American supporters of Israel have dual loyalties. Several prominent Jewish charities were criticized for donating to Media Matters while Rosenberg was on its staff. Fox News reported that both Media Matters and the Center for American Progress faced condemnation for their writers' repeated downplaying of the threat posed by a nuclear Iran and criticism of American supporters of Israel. The Simon Wiesenthal Center responded that these organizations were trying to make it "difficult for others to take a position sympathetic to the Jewish state."
Brock refused to distance himself from Rosenberg's language. When asked directly whether Media Matters condoned the term, his executive vice president intervened and declined to answer.
Barbra Streisand gave $74,000 to a partisan operation whose own staff employed antisemitic tropes.
Streisand Gave $32,000 to the Ploughshares Fund — Architect of the Iran Deal Echo Chamber
The Streisand Foundation gave $32,000 to the Ploughshares Fund across four grants (2020–2023).
The Ploughshares Fund is a grant-making foundation dedicated to nuclear disarmament. In practice, it became the financial and organizational backbone of the Obama administration's campaign to sell the Iran nuclear deal to the American public — what senior White House adviser Ben Rhodes publicly described as an "echo chamber."
In a 2016 New York Times Magazine profile, Rhodes admitted that Ploughshares had helped create an echo chamber of nongovernmental organizations, proliferation experts, and sympathetic journalists to build public support for the deal. "We created an echo chamber," Rhodes said, adding that "outside groups like Ploughshares" carried the administration's message. Ploughshares gave $100,000 to NPR to report on the nuclear deal. Its president, Joseph Cirincione, appeared on NPR as an on-air expert to advocate for the deal — while NPR was being paid by his organization. In one appearance, NPR identified the funding relationship; in the other, it did not.
Ploughshares also gave $576,000 to J Street to push the Iran agreement, $282,500 to the Arms Control Association, $225,000 to the Brookings Institution, and $182,500 to the Atlantic Council — all for Iran-related analysis and advocacy. The Washington Free Beacon reported that Ploughshares requested $750,000 from Soros's Open Society Foundations specifically to pay "experts and validators" to support the administration's diplomacy with Iran.
The Iran deal that Ploughshares helped sell unfroze tens of billions of dollars for the Iranian regime — money that funded Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and the IRGC's operations across the Middle East. Ploughshares is also a longtime supporter of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which critics allege lobbies in Washington on behalf of the Iranian government.
Barbra Streisand gave $32,000 to the organization that built the propaganda infrastructure for the Iran nuclear deal.
Streisand Gave $12,000 to the Movement for Black Lives — Which Accused Israel of Genocide
The Streisand Foundation gave $12,000 to the Movement for Black Lives in 2020.
In August 2016, the Movement for Black Lives — a coalition of more than 50 Black-led organizations — released its first comprehensive policy platform. The document labeled Israel an "apartheid state" and accused the United States of being "complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people" through its alliance with Israel. The platform endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign and called for ending U.S. military aid to Israel.
According to NGO Monitor, Adalah — an NIF grantee — was directly involved in drafting the anti-Israel sections of the platform. The document originally listed Nadia Ben-Youssef, Director of the Adalah Justice Project, as a co-author. Her name was subsequently removed, with Adalah instead listed as a "contributing organization."
A string of Jewish organizations condemned the platform — the Anti-Defamation League, the Reform movement, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Rabbinical Assembly, which said it was "stunned and outraged by the erroneous and egregious claims of genocide and apartheid." Even T'ruah, a liberal rabbis' human rights organization that opposes Israel's West Bank occupation, criticized the document.
Barbra Streisand funded them. The Movement for Black Lives never retracted its genocide accusation.
What the Genesis Prize Got Wrong About Barbra Streisand
The Genesis Prize celebrates Jews who inspire the next generation. In 2024, they chose Barbra Streisand. She accepted.
Her foundation funds J Street — which Israel's ambassador calls a cancer, advocating for ending $3.8 billion in annual U.S. military aid. Her foundation funds the New Israel Fund — under congressional investigation for illegal electioneering in Israeli elections, banned by Birthright, and the largest funder of BDS-aligned NGOs in Israel. Her foundation funds the Tides Foundation — fiscal sponsor of Samidoun, a designated terrorist entity, and grant channel for Jewish Voice for Peace and the Alliance for Global Justice. Her foundation funds the Quincy Institute — working to dismantle the U.S.-Israel security relationship.
Barbra Streisand's foundation is the single largest identified donor to the Arabella Advisors dark money network among Jewish-affiliated private foundations — $195,000 to a system the New York Times called the left's leading vehicle for anonymous political financing. Streisand funds Media Matters — whose staff employed the "Israel firster" slur. Streisand funds the Ploughshares Fund — architect of the Iran deal echo chamber that unfroze billions for the regime arming Hezbollah and Hamas. Streisand funds the Movement for Black Lives — the coalition that accused Israel of genocide and endorsed BDS.
Every grant was made by invitation. Barbra Streisand approved every allocation. No independent director reviewed the decisions. The foundation has no public grantmaking criteria and no mechanism for accountability beyond the annual IRS filing.
Total: $597,000 across eight organizations — dark money conduits, anti-Israel advocacy groups, the Iran deal propaganda machine, and a movement that accused Israel of genocide. All funded by Barbra Streisand. All by invitation. All deliberate.
Barbra Streisand knows what her foundation funds. She is the president. The grants carry her name.
Sources
All grant amounts are from the Streisand Foundation's IRS Form 990-PF filings (EIN 13-2620702), available at ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, Grantmakers.io, and philanthropy.org. Tides and NIF grantee data sourced from NGO Monitor's Tides profile and NIF profile. Ambassador Leiter's remarks reported by JNS. J Street's policy memo published at jstreet.org. Arabella Advisors network documented by InfluenceWatch, Capital Research Center, and the New York Times (via Wikipedia). Ploughshares Fund's Iran deal role documented by InfluenceWatch and the New York Times Magazine (Ben Rhodes profile, 2016). Media Matters "Israel Firster" controversy reported by the Washington Free Beacon and Fox News. Movement for Black Lives platform documented by the Times of Israel, JTA, and NGO Monitor.