This year's North American appeals yield particularly flat results.
By MATTHEW WAGNERbeggar poverty poor shnorrer 88(photo credit: )
The holiday season is a time for giving. Some of the most important pro-Israel philanthropic appeals take place in North America between Rosh Hashana and Succot. Some of the year's biggest pledges are made.
There is the Kol Nidrei Appeal and the Yizkor Appeal. Seasoned fundraisers know how to strum an emotional chord in people's hearts.
But not surprisingly, according to veteran fundraisers, this year's North American appeals yielded particularly flat results. Financial markets are in a tumult. Investors and businessmen are reeling. Even the warmest, most generous North American Jew is reevaluating his or her commitment to Israel's institutions.
"This year's lackluster holiday appeal is particularly worrisome because it is an indicator of the future and it comes after the devaluation of the dollar," said Meir Bunder, a veteran educator and fundraiser who recently immigrated to Israel from Florida.
"Donors have already made it clear that they will not compensate for the weak dollar. Now it seems unlikely that they will even match last year's donations in dollar terms."
The haredim have been the hardest hurt by the financial crisis. Haredi educational institutions refuse to adopt the curriculum requirements dictated by the Education Ministry. As a result, they receive only partial state funding. The missing funds needed to run these institutions are supplied by tuitions and donations.
Married haredi men pursue extended Torah educations well into their 30s and rely on stipends funded almost exclusively by North American philanthropists and a few dozen big donors from Britain, France and Belgium.
Rabbi Avraham Pinzel, administrative head of Chochmas Shlomo, one of the largest Talmud Torah elementary schools in Jerusalem, said that a number of factors have come together to make it nearly impossible to keep his institution afloat.
"With fuel prices skyrocketing, our transportation costs have risen by 50 percent," said Pinzel. "Food costs are also rising, which means it is more expensive to feed our students. Combine that with the fact that the vast majority of our donations are in dollars.
"In addition, many of the fathers of our students learn in Kollel.
They get paid in dollars. They simply cannot pay shekel denominated tuitions," he went on. "Now there is the financial crisis. I have not been to the States [for fundraising] since the crisis. But I've heard plenty of stories."
Nonetheless, he said, "we have always lived on miracles. We have God Almighty's promise that no matter what happens, Torah scholarship will continue."
In haredi circles, financial matters have become an obsession. For instance, rumors were circulated that a prominent hassidic leader in the US had his car repossessed over the holidays after he failed to pay leasing costs.
However, there has been little talk among haredi leaders about making changes in haredi society that would reduce its inordinate dependence on philanthropy.
"There have been tough times in the past, and we have never seen a significant change in the haredi way of life," said a senior administrator connected with the yeshiva world. "If anything, when the economy is good, there is more of a temptation to leave the yeshiva and get a job. But when there is a recession, all the opportunities dry up."
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