Siblings in legal battle over R1 million donation to Gaza

Dianna Yach, managing director and chairperson of the Mauerberger Foundation Fund (MFF) is being sued for, among other things, donating R1 million to Gift of the Givers that was clearly destined for Gaza. She then, according to the allegations, used this very donation to conceal her underfunding of Israeli entities.

The MFF is one of the oldest, most reputable Jewish charitable foundations in South Africa and is primarily a Zionist foundation. It was Yach’s grandfather, the late Morris Mauerberger, who stipulated that 50% of MFF grants must go towards Israeli entities.

Derek Yach, Dianna’s brother, and his cousin Steven Levy, both directors of the MFF, are taking Dianna Yach to court over this donation and other of her decisions, which they say are redirecting the MFF away from its Jewish and Zionist identity.

Court papers show that Dianna Yach categorised the donation to GOTG under “grants to Israeli entities”, which the applicants say was a purposeful attempt to inflate the recorded amount donated to Israeli organisations. 

Court papers also show that she stopped the MFF donating to Telfed, an organisation that supports South African olim. Telfed chief executive Dorron Kline recorded in a letter to the MFF in March 2026 that she told him in 2025 that “Israel’s reaction to the 7 October atrocity is outrageously disproportionate, and Israel is committing genocide. Therefore, Israel has lost its right to call itself a nation among other nations. There is no reason for Telfed to approach the MFF for funding until the Israeli government ceases to kill innocents and agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian state.” 

Derek Yach and Levy emphasise that this is not a family dispute, but a battle for “institutional integrity”, to ensure the MFF abides by its founder’s wishes and ethos. “The allocation regime [of 50% of donations to Israeli entities] is a binding constitutional obligation that reflects the express wishes of the founder and defines the very purpose for which the foundation exists,” they say. 

Furthermore, under Dianna Yach’s leadership, “the foundation’s relationships with key grantee institutions are being destroyed in real time”, say the applicants. Listed among those grantees are Tel Aviv University, Ben Gurion University, the Israel Museum of Jerusalem, and many others. 

“Every day that passes deepens the foundation’s contractual exposure and compounds the reputational harm to the founder’s legacy,” they say. 

They say that as far back as 2022, Dianna Yach allegedly tried to alter the distribution of donations, so that “the distributable income of the MFF [is decided] on the basis of need to entities in Israel, Palestine, and South Africa”. 

Levy recalls in the court documents that “the insertion of ‘Palestine’ as a beneficiary territory alongside Israel and South Africa was a departure of the most profound kind from the founder’s objectives. It foreshadowed the revelation in the Telfed letter that the First Respondent [Dianna Yach] had represented to external stakeholders that it was foundation policy to support Palestinian rather than Israeli organisations.” 

Regarding the GOTG donation, Derek Yach and Levy allege that “the scale of the distortion is material”. Records show a total Israeli allocation of R4.15 million for the 2025/2026 financial year. But remove the GOTG grant, and the true Israeli allocation falls to R3.15 million, “a reduction of approximately 24%. The reported Israeli allocation of 26% of total distributable income falls to approximately 20%. This is not a rounding error. It is a million-rand misclassification that moves the foundation’s reported Israeli allocation further from the mandatory 50% threshold, not closer to it.” 

The Israeli category “is being artificially inflated through creative accounting, while the presentation obscures both the true destination and the true character of the funds being allocated”, they say. 

The applicants allege many areas of misconduct by Dianna Yach and fellow directors Igshaan Higgins and Professor Brian Figaji. They are asking the court to suspend them from the MFF board, and to declare them “delinquent directors”, a classification for leaders found guilty of gross abuse of position, wilful misconduct, or a total breach of fiduciary trust. 

The applicants also raise concerns about Dianna Yach voting in favour of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT’s) anti-Israel resolutions. They claim this puts her in direct opposition to the MFF, and question why she dragged the foundation into the legal dispute over the resolutions, which they say damages the MFF’s standing. 

They note that these decisions have destroyed the MFF’s relationship with the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies at UCT. In turn, this affected the production of a book the Kaplan Centre was commissioned to write about the MFF. 

According to the court papers, Dianna Yach also agreed to bestow the Li Boiskin Jewish Social Justice Fellowship (in memory of the late community leader) to the Kaplan Centre, which would then choose a social justice initiative as a beneficiary of that funding. However, Dianna Yach allegedly moved the funding to fall under the management of local Jewish nonprofit Mensch, against a signed agreement with the Kaplan Centre. 

The board of Mensch issued a statement to the SA Jewish Report, saying, “Mensch confirms that, to the best of its knowledge, the [Li Boiskin] grant was validly provided to Mensch in good faith. Mensch was not involved in, nor privy to, any internal deliberations within the MFF that preceded the payment.” 

According to Mensch, “we have processes to identify and manage conflicts of interest, and we are not aware of any conflict relating to the acceptance of this grant. This is the first time that concern regarding the grant has been brought to our attention. The matter will be placed before Mensch’s board, and any appropriate steps will be taken in due course.” 

Kline said that when Dianna Yach told him that funding was dependent on Israel’s actions, it was the first time in 40 years that the political stance of the Israeli government had been invoked as a basis for withholding access to educational funding for disadvantaged students in Israel. 

He describes the relationship between Telfed and the MFF as “one of deep and long-standing significance”. 

In 1992, “[Dianna Yach’s parents] Solm and Estelle Yach established the Mauerberger Trust in Israel, with the administration entrusted to Telfed. Through this trust, Telfed administered scholastic bursaries for tertiary education in Israel, with a particular focus on Jewish students of South African heritage and disadvantaged student populations.” This was ended by their daughter, Dianna Yach. 

Now, he says, “Telfed hopes that the court case will bring about a change in the implementation of the Mauerberger Trust’s distributions in Israel and, once again, provide vital scholarships, enabling students to pursue their academic dreams.” 

Back in Cape Town, where Dianna Yach lives, her actions are already impacting communal organisations. Communal leaders are choosing to resign rather than work with her, because of her antizionist choices and her alleged decisions at the MFF. Some communal leaders say that Yach is attempting to shift communal organisations away from their Zionist identities. 

The case will be called in open court on 4 May. 

Asked to comment by the SA Jewish Report, Dianna Yach said, “The matters to which you refer have yet to be decided by a court. I am happy to respond after the court decides on 4 May 2026.” She, Figaji, and Higgins have filed a notice of intention to oppose the application.