Toward Tradition

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Toward Tradition is a politically conservative non-profit organization founded by Rabbi Daniel Lapin based in Mercer Island, Washington, United States. The organization's activities, as described in its IRS statement, are to "educate the public through conventions, seminars, public speaking, and class studies on Judeo-Christian values." These values are detailed on the Toward Tradition[1] web site as: "faith-based American principles of constitutional and limited government; the rule of law; representative democracy; free markets; a strong military; and, a moral public culture."[2]

1 Funding
2 Controversy concerning Jack Abramoff
3 Operations
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Funding

Annual funding is provided by the Carthage| and the Scaife Family Foundations.

[edit] Controversy concerning Jack Abramoff

Toward Tradition came to public attention in 2005 when it was drawn into the Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal because of information that surfaced during US Senate hearings into Abramoff's dealings. According to Lapin, Jack Abramoff was a director for Toward Tradition from the early 1990s until 2004, and served a few terms as Chairman of the Board. In January 2006, Toward Tradition posted a statement of facts [3] regarding the Jack Abramoff matter. Towards Tradition gave Abramoff a set of awards after Abramoff requested fake awards from Lapin so that he could use them to get into the Cosmos Club ^[1] h</ref>. Towards Tradition and its affiliates maintain that Lapin only gave the awards to Abramoff as a joke.^[1]

[edit] Operations

In March 2006, it was reported that Toward Tradition had closed its leased Mercer Island offices, laid off most of the staff, and was being run from Lapin's home. However Lapin denies these claims.^[1]

[edit] References

^ ^a ^b ^c David Postman. "[ttp://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/davidpostman/archives/2006/10/12/ Senate Abramoff report names Mercer Island group]", Seattle Times Blog, Seattle Times, October 12, 2006. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.