ORANGE COUNTY — A California Superior Court judge has ordered Kars4Kids to stop airing its advertisements on state airwaves beginning June 8, ruling that the charity's ads deceptively concealed its true purpose. Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian issued the order on May 8.

"The evidence demonstrates that these omissions are inherently deceptive," Apkarian wrote in her opinion. "An injunction ensures that competition for charitable dollars is based on truth, not catchy, content-free, deceptive songs."

The judge ruled that the ads misled donors by implying that funds supported needy children broadly, when most money raised was directed to another nonprofit that funneled money to Orthodox Jewish programs in New York, New Jersey and the Middle East. According to the complaint, the link to the charity's website is displayed for less than one second during the ad.

The ruling stems from a 54-page class action complaint filed in November 2025 by two men from San Francisco who claimed they donated their Audi and Mitsubishi cars to Kars4Kids without a full understanding of the organization's goals. A separate lawsuit filed by an Orange County man claimed he donated a car believing the proceeds would help underprivileged children across the country.

The class action complaint reads, "While promoting strict tenets of Judaism to an exclusive group in a limited geographic area may be a worthy endeavor for donors intending to do so, defendants designed their ads to conceal this true purpose." On its website, Kars4Kids posted, "It's well known that we are a Jewish organization."

Attorney Anthony Graham described the burden of proof in the case. "We have to show that they knowingly and intentionally misled the public and it's not an easy thing to do, but we did it," he said. The charity is also facing a federal class-action lawsuit, with Graham estimating potential exposure: "You have to be looking at least ($400 million) to $500 million."

Kars4Kids was founded in 1995 by Oorah, a Jewish organization that practices ritual outreach known as Kiruv, and provides programs for Orthodox Jewish youth. The organization is based in Lakewood, N.J., and claims it has helped hundreds of Californians. Its jingle first played on New York radio stations in the late 1990s and later inspired parodies on television series including "Saturday Night Live" and "The Good Place." Only about 9% of Jews in the United States identify as Orthodox, according to Pew Research.

Wendy Kirwan, director of communications for Kars4Kids, defended the organization in a written statement. "We believe this case was nothing more than a lawyer-driven attempt to siphon off charitable funds for their own gain. We expect to win on appeal because the law and the facts are clearly on our side," she said.