Monday, March 13, 2006
GIVEN IN GOOD FAITH
They are part of the scenery every Sunday in Teaneck's Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods -- Israeli, Russian and Brooklyn Jews going house to house asking for money.
In an uneven stream, poor widows, parents of ill children, men out of work, and emissaries for Israeli schools and charities descend on streets around Teaneck's dozen or so Orthodox synagogues.
The trips are regularly fruitful.
In just weeks of unannounced stops to Orthodox neighborhoods in the New York metropolitan area, many collectors, as they are called, can receive several thousands of dollars -- often more than $10,000 -- from other Jews who try to follow their religion's instructions on charity.
This unusual model of giving, unfamiliar to those outside the neighborhoods -- even to many Conservative and Reform Jews -- is a fact of life in many Orthodox neighborhoods.
In Teaneck, the number of collectors has skyrocketed in the last year, largely because of Israeli government cutbacks in social services and payments to families with children, according to rabbis and community members.
The most reliable measure of the growth is the number of certificates issued to collectors by a local charity board. Called the Teaneck-Bergenfield tzedakah committee (tzedakah means charity in Hebrew), it distributed 300 certificates last year, up from 180 in 2004.
On two recent Sundays on Warwick Street, down the road from a Teaneck synagogue, hired drivers pulled up near houses where Orthodox residents have known records of generosity, or to other houses identified as Jewish by mezuzahs -- the enclosed parchments that Jews place on door frames.
An Orthodox man from Israel, Rabbi Menachem Rubin, made the rounds, collecting for a Jerusalem school and rehabilitation center he heads that caters to young girls who once lived in poverty in Russia.
"We run on a minimal budget," Rubin said. "When the (Israeli) government made budget cuts, it cost us about $360,000 a year."
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-2/114226593260630.xml&coll=1
They are part of the scenery every Sunday in Teaneck's Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods -- Israeli, Russian and Brooklyn Jews going house to house asking for money.
In an uneven stream, poor widows, parents of ill children, men out of work, and emissaries for Israeli schools and charities descend on streets around Teaneck's dozen or so Orthodox synagogues.
The trips are regularly fruitful.
In just weeks of unannounced stops to Orthodox neighborhoods in the New York metropolitan area, many collectors, as they are called, can receive several thousands of dollars -- often more than $10,000 -- from other Jews who try to follow their religion's instructions on charity.
This unusual model of giving, unfamiliar to those outside the neighborhoods -- even to many Conservative and Reform Jews -- is a fact of life in many Orthodox neighborhoods.
In Teaneck, the number of collectors has skyrocketed in the last year, largely because of Israeli government cutbacks in social services and payments to families with children, according to rabbis and community members.
The most reliable measure of the growth is the number of certificates issued to collectors by a local charity board. Called the Teaneck-Bergenfield tzedakah committee (tzedakah means charity in Hebrew), it distributed 300 certificates last year, up from 180 in 2004.
On two recent Sundays on Warwick Street, down the road from a Teaneck synagogue, hired drivers pulled up near houses where Orthodox residents have known records of generosity, or to other houses identified as Jewish by mezuzahs -- the enclosed parchments that Jews place on door frames.
An Orthodox man from Israel, Rabbi Menachem Rubin, made the rounds, collecting for a Jerusalem school and rehabilitation center he heads that caters to young girls who once lived in poverty in Russia.
"We run on a minimal budget," Rubin said. "When the (Israeli) government made budget cuts, it cost us about $360,000 a year."
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-2/114226593260630.xml&coll=1
Comments:
right on!!!! this is the jewish trait Rachmanim, Bayshanim, Gomlei Chasadim. Hashem knew exactly which nation to choose.
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: March 13, 2006 1:52 PM
: March 13, 2006 1:52 PM
