New Religious Movements
Kabbalah Centre
Esoteric Movements
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Origin 1969
An international organization teaching a popularized form of Jewish mystical Kabbalah, tracing its institutional lineage to the National Research Institute of Kabbalah founded in Jerusalem in 1922 by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. Rabbi Philip Berg, born Feivel Gruberger, took over its leadership in 1969 and, with his wife Karen Berg, rebuilt it over the following decades as The Kabbalah Centre, headquartered in Los Angeles with branches worldwide. The Centre departed from the traditional restriction of Kabbalah study to observant Jewish men over forty who had already mastered Torah and Talmud, opening courses, books and consumer products, including red string bracelets sold as protection against the "evil eye" and bottled "Kabbalah Water," to the general public regardless of religious background, drawing a following that has included prominent celebrities. That openness has drawn sustained criticism from Orthodox and mainstream Jewish authorities, who argue the Centre commercializes and misrepresents a tradition meant to be approached only after long preparation, alongside separate scrutiny of its finances and tax-exempt status. This entry describes its founding, structure and reception; it does not reproduce or instruct in Kabbalistic practice.
Facts
Disputed
Contested or Appropriated Modern UseOrthodox and mainstream Jewish religious authorities have repeatedly criticized the Centre for opening traditionally restricted Kabbalistic study to the general public and for selling branded consumer products in its name, while the Centre and its adherents describe this openness as making a valuable spiritual tradition accessible beyond its historical gatekeeping. 1 Reflects an active disagreement over whether popularizing a closed tradition is a legitimate broadening or a misrepresentation; both positions are held by identifiable communities and neither has been resolved by any outside authority. Institutional Wealth or FinancesA former chief financial officer who left the organization in 2009 described the Kabbalah Centre as holding roughly 60 million US dollars in annual revenue, a 200 million US dollar real estate portfolio and a 60 million US dollar investment fund; separately, a US Internal Revenue Service inquiry examined the organization's roughly 260 million US dollars in total assets for possible personal use by the Berg family that controls it. 2 Figures come from a departed insider's own account and press reporting on an active IRS inquiry, not from an audited public filing; no confirmed current figure was found. Status
Status TodayIn active religious use 1 Trajectory
Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountIn a 2002 application for federal tax-exempt status, the Kabbalah Centre reported its own active membership nationwide in the United States as 5,000. 3 Membership Over TimeSourced to the subject's own accountIn its own promotional literature, cited in a June 2005 investigative account, the Kabbalah Centre claimed 3.4 million students worldwide, a figure the reporting said had little support alongside the Centre's own 2002 tax filing. 3 Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Membership Figure As OfSourced to the subject's own account Basis of the Membership FigureSourced to the subject's own account Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginJerusalem (1922 institutional origin); Los Angeles, California, United States (reorganized as The Kabbalah Centre from 1969) 1 FounderInstitutional lineage from Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag (1922, Jerusalem); rebuilt as The Kabbalah Centre from 1969 by Rabbi Philip Berg (born Feivel Gruberger) and Karen Berg. 1 Finances
Basis of the Wealth FigureJournalistic or Scholarly Estimate 2 Financial Disclosure RegimeThe Kabbalah Centre's core US non profit entities file IRS Form 990 returns, but the organization's finances came under a US Internal Revenue Service criminal inquiry examining whether nonprofit funds were used for the personal benefit of the Berg family that controls it, alongside separate allegations of donor fraud and unpaid labor. 2 Wealth Figure As Of Year Cross-Tradition Connections
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