Re: The cost of Jewish communal responsibility

[BlackMonk <BlackMonk...>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sam Weiss" <SamWeiss (at) bellatlantic(dot)net>
To: "World music from a Jewish slant" <jewish-music (at) shamash(dot)org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 10:05 PM
Subject: The cost of Jewish communal responsibility



> >Is it wrong for us to believe that the organized Jewish community should
> >be opening its arms to people wishing to join, rather than first handing
> >people an itemized bill as a precondition to entry?
>
> It is the rare synagogue that does not make accommodations for financial
> hardship situations when those wishing to join present their case
> appropriately.

"Present their case appropriately" meaning jump through hoops and humiliate
themselves.

Being poor is demeaning enough. Having to ask for charity to attend Yom
Kippur services makes things a lot worse.

I supect several mitzvot are being violated by having such a requirement.

 But it is also the rare synagogue administration
> irresponsible enough to make believe that an institution's budget can be
> balance on good will alone.  If one honestly feels that he cannot afford
> something which he wants and values, there should be no shame attached to
> asking for financial leniency in an honest and forthright way,

Easy to say when you're not the one doing the asking.

instead of
> wishing -- as in a fairy tale -- that things could be free, that synagogue
> utilities and salaries and facility maintenance and capital improvements
> and communal charity needs etc. etc. would be magically paid for
> by.....  By whom?  By the local Catholic diocese?
>
> >I have never heard of a Christian church turning away worshippers, even
on
> >Christmas or Easter
>
> Because responsible community-minded Christians -- even those who only
> attend services on Christmas -- know the value of supporting THEIR church,
> THEIR pastor, THEIR soup kitchen =all year round, and all of their
> life=.  This is a fact of life which many otherwise culturally savvy Jews
> have trouble understanding.

And the only solution is a sort of spiritual blackmail?


Let's see. What are those mitzvot being violated. Stumbling block before the
blind, since this can drive away anyone uncertain about whether or not they
should practice Judaism, embarassing others,  the phrase "shanda for the
goyim" also comes to mind.

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