On the polished avenues of the 7th arrondissement and in the exclusive circles of Parisian philanthropy, Adriana Schor is building a new life. An interior architect and founder of the design firm Iconique, she publicly presents herself as the President of United Hatzalah of Israel’s French fundraising operation. United Hatzalah itself is just one of more than a dozen Hatzalah emergency medical organizations active in Israel. Her Instagram profile, a curated gallery of high design and social engagements, explicitly lists her presidential title.
It is important to emphasize that while Ms. Schor’s own public materials describe her as “President,” it is not clear whether this is reflected in the official French association registry. French non-profit filings determine the legal officers of record, and no independent confirmation has yet established her presidency in a legal sense.
What is beyond dispute, because it is a matter of public record, is her past. Under her former name, Adriana Benhamou Weiss, she was convicted in 2022 in Australia for financial misconduct. According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), she was found guilty of three counts of falsifying financial records in relation to her company, Benhamou Designs. The conviction stemmed from events in 2016, when she directed a junior employee to create false bank transfer receipts totaling approximately $270,000. In his remarks, the sentencing judge was clear: “They were elaborate forgeries of official NAB documents, which she presented in an effort to deceive others.” He further noted that her conduct was “elaborate and calculated,” and that she had exploited a “vulnerable and susceptible young employee.” The outcome was a ten-month custodial sentence, a $20,000 fine, and an automatic disqualification from serving as a company director in Australia until December 2027.
This individual question, whether United Hatzalah of Israel’s French fundraising arm has entrusted financial authority to a person with a conviction for falsifying records, must also be seen in the context of the larger transparency concerns I have documented in United Hatzalah’s Global Puzzle.
As I reported there, Friends of United Hatzalah in the United States disclosed on its 2023 IRS Form 990 that it sent $132 million abroad, ostensibly to Israel. Yet United Hatzalah of Israel’s official filings list only $77.8 million in revenue for that same year. That leaves more than $54 million unaccounted for in the public record. Reasonable questions follow: how can the U.S. entity’s reported disbursements be reconciled with the Israeli amutah’s reported revenues? Was some portion of the money directed to other Israeli nonprofits tied to United Hatzalah? Were funds routed through international associations such as United Hatzalah Switzerland, whose financial filings are not consistently public, or through United Hatzalah France, which now carries an additional question about Adriana Weiss’s involvement?
When viewed together, the concerns are impossible to ignore. There are unexplained discrepancies between what is reported in the United States and what is reported in Israel. There are opaque pathways through which donor money may move, sometimes across borders with little visibility. And now, in France, there is a self-described president with a documented history of financial fraud.
These are not accusations. They are reasonable questions grounded in public filings. But they go to the heart of credibility. United Hatzalah asks the public to trust it with large sums of money raised across multiple jurisdictions. Trust requires clarity. Donors deserve a full reconciliation of international fundraising flows and explicit disclosure of who holds financial authority in each national branch. Without that, the questions will only grow louder.
Yikes. I had never heard of this organization until your other post earlier this week. Glad I've been making donations to MDA all along. There are sure a lot of unanswered questions about United Hatzalah. Thanks for the informative post.