Registry · STRS
Does Strauss Group Ltd. support Israel?
Yes — Strauss Group Ltd. has documented support for Israel on record, including $8,400,000 in donations. Every claim below links to its source.
Filed under: Food & beverage brands · Coffee chains & brands · Companies that support Israel
Background
Strauss Group is an Israeli multinational and the support it has given Israeli soldiers is documented in its own former corporate wording rather than in rumour: for decades the company said on its website that it had adopted the Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit and a Givati unit with food, care packages and welfare funding, and chairwoman Ofra Strauss publicly defended that policy in 2010 when it triggered a US campus boycott of the group's Sabra hummus. The wording later disappeared from the site, and in November 2024 Strauss sold its half of Sabra to PepsiCo, ending that joint venture; Strauss Frito-Lay, its snacks joint venture with PepsiCo, continues. Since October 2023 the group has reported large in-kind and cash contributions to soldiers, evacuees and hospitals. Two frequent confusions are worth separating out: Sabra sold in the United States is a PepsiCo-owned business, and the salmonella contamination that shut Strauss's Elite chocolate plant in Nof HaGalil in 2022 was a food-safety failure with no connection to the group's Israel-related giving.
Forbes — Hummus Hullabaloo CTech (Calcalist) — Strauss sells Sabra stake to PepsiCo ICE (Hebrew) — Strauss wartime activity
Timeline of documented support
Documented support
| Type | Date | Amount | Recipient | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations in Israel | 1939 | — | State of Israel (taxes, employment, flagship consumer brands) Strauss Group is one of Israel's largest food and beverage manufacturers, founded in 1939 when Richard and Hilde Strauss bought a dairy in Nahariya. It is headquartered in Petah Tikva, listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (STRS) with the Strauss family holding roughly 57% of the shares, and employs about 15,000 people in more than 20 countries. Its Israeli portfolio includes dairy, the Elite coffee and chocolate brands (Elite merged into the group in 2004, creating Strauss-Elite, renamed Strauss Group in 2007), Strauss Water's Tami 4 bars, Mediterranean dips and salty snacks. | |
| In-kind support | 2010-12 | — | IDF Golani Brigade reconnaissance unit; Givati Brigade 'Shualei Shimshon' unit Strauss Group's own website stated for years that the company had 'adopted' the IDF Golani Brigade's reconnaissance unit — supplying food products for training and missions plus personal care packages for each soldier — and that funds committed by Strauss Israel's sales division went to welfare, cultural and educational activities for soldiers, including pocket money for soldiers from poor families, sports and recreation equipment and books and games for the soldiers' club; a similar arrangement covered the Givati Brigade's 'Shualei Shimshon' unit. When the practice drew a US campus boycott campaign against the group's Sabra hummus in late 2010, chairwoman Ofra Strauss defended it to Forbes: 'For us, Israeli soldiers are not army; Israeli soldiers are our kids.' The wording was later removed from the corporate website. Attributed to Strauss Group corporate (Strauss Israel sales division), not to employees or to the family personally. | |
| In-kind support | 2023-10 | — | IDF regular and reserve soldiers, emergency and rescue forces, evacuated families (including tens of thousands in Eilat), hospital patients and staff From the outbreak of the October 2023 war, Strauss Group donated thousands of food products to IDF regular and reserve soldiers, emergency and rescue forces, military bases, hospitals and evacuated families, including supplies for tens of thousands of evacuees housed in Eilat. It repeatedly distributed Tami 4 water bars and bottled water, supplied gluten-free products in cooperation with the Israeli Celiac Association and vegan products with the Vegan Friendly organisation, and ran field activities at roughly 50 gathering points from the north to the south — circus workshops, juggling shows, children's performances for evacuees and artist performances for soldiers — with company employees volunteering to hand out encouragement packages. Strauss's Elite coffee outlets also served free coffee to uniformed personnel at railway stations. Attributed to Strauss Group corporate, with its employees volunteering in the distribution. | |
| Donation | 2024 | $8,400,000 | War-affected populations in Israel (aggregate reported corporate giving) In a May 2025 review of charitable giving by Tel Aviv-125 index companies, Calcalist reported that Strauss Group donated ILS 16 million in 2024, on top of ILS 15 million in 2023 — roughly ILS 31 million (about $8.4 million at ~3.7 ILS/USD) across the two war years, directed at populations affected by the war. Figure is the company's aggregate reported cash giving as compiled by Calcalist; the dollar value is a conversion, not a reported figure. | |
| Partnership | 1999 | — | PepsiCo (Strauss Frito-Lay joint venture, Israel) Strauss Frito-Lay is an Israeli salty-snacks company established in 1999 as a joint venture between PepsiCo and Strauss Group (then Elite Industries), which has partnered with PepsiCo's Frito-Lay arm since 1990; it manufactures and markets Doritos, Cheetos and Ruffles in Israel. A second joint venture, the Sabra dips business, ran for nearly two decades until 24 November 2024, when Strauss sold its 50% Sabra stake to PepsiCo for $244 million and PepsiCo in turn granted Strauss an option to buy a majority of Strauss Frito-Lay (valued at about $396 million). Attribution note: these are joint ventures between an American multinational and an Israeli group — neither party's actions should be attributed to the other. | |
| Donations total | $8,400,000 | |||
Frequently asked questions
Did Strauss Group Ltd. donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?
Yes. Documented donations total $8,400,000, including $8,400,000 to War-affected populations in Israel (aggregate reported corporate giving). Each donation is listed on this page with its date and source.
How much has Strauss Group Ltd. given?
Documented donations total $8,400,000. The largest single recorded item is $8,400,000 to War-affected populations in Israel (aggregate reported corporate giving) (2024).
Where does this information come from?
Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 7 distinct sources are cited for Strauss Group Ltd.. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.
Sources & citations
Record last updated: 2026-07-30
- Wikipedia — Strauss Group en.wikipedia.org
- Forbes — Hummus Hullabaloo forbes.com
- Palestine Solidarity Campaign — Strauss Group profile (quotes the removed website text) palestinecampaign.org
- ICE (Hebrew) — Strauss wartime activity ice.co.il
- Walla Finance (Hebrew) finance.walla.co.il
- Calcalist (Hebrew) — TA-125 corporate donations calcalist.co.il
- CTech (Calcalist) — Strauss sells Sabra stake to PepsiCo calcalistech.com