costs of Jewish responsibility

[Alex Jacobowitz <alexbjacobowitz...>]

B"H Munich

For your collective information, other countries
deal with the financing of Jewish communities in
different ways.

As usual, the Germans have a system for the whole
thing - each citizen is taxed one per cent of their
income, which goes to the upkeep of their
synagogue/religious organization. This may
sound like an horrendous mixture of "church" and
state, but that also means that
there are never tickets, though seats are "reserved".
If the shul, etc., still has problems making ends
meet, they will campaign for extra funds for specific
purposes. However, I can´t imagine anyone, for any
reason, being turned away from prayer in the German
republic for not having paid.

In Israel, many Jewish commununal costs are taken over
by the government, particularly rabbi´s income,
which is meagre when compared to many other lands.
The synagogue costs are administered by the
municipality - again, quite a problem in America
because of the doctrine of separation - but the
costs are also much lower than in America.

For instance, a shul in Israel is much more likely
to have ventilation from fans than air-conditioning -
even a chasidic stronghold like Mea Shearim - to
keep costs down. Fluorescent lights instead of
incandescent. One cloth towel for all instead of
paper towels. Seldom a cantor, or choir, (I
know of no Israeli organs) or all the "goodies" that
keep the costs high and the "doormen" active.

And yes, the cost of raising a child with a Jewish
education in America or Europe is exceedingly high.
In my relatively small-town day school, $9000 per
child per year was demanded. If you multiply
that times my seven (ken yirbu!) children, you´ll
see stars, as I did. So moving to Israel
allowed me to raise my children more Jewishly at
a fraction of the cost.

And as I prepare to lead the Rosh Hashana services
in Augsburg, Germany for the sake of the 2000-strong
newly-immigrated Russian Jewish community, who
can´t afford anything at all, I wish to remind
some of you that it´s not about the beauty of the
shul, which is after all only a reminder of the Holy
Temple (10% of yearly income demanded as donation)
nor the quality of the carpeting. It´s about prayer.
And the Bibical Yitchak would pray in an open field.
So if you want to save money, find a forest, or a
field where you can pray with absolute intensity,
as did some Chassidic masters. Or you can proudly
pay a lot - even $300 per person - to pray
AND to play some role in the Jewish community.

Jews, please remember that in prayer, like everything
else in life, you get what you pay for. 

Shana tova u´metuka!

Alex Jacobowitz


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