Recently, I stopped off at a shul fundraiser. They are trying to finish the outside of the building. That's reasonable. So they hired a fundraiser guy and he did fundraiser guy moves that weren't so reasonable in my view.
The color theme of the campaign was royal blue and gold. So royal blue posters that bordered on purple were everywhere on the street and then the outside of the building was lit up in purple. Got to attract people, right?
I entered the building to find the hallways lined with the royal blue paper. All the haimish shalom zachar and new sefarim announcements and the like on little slips of paper had been removed. Then I entered the beis midrash. On one wall was an enormous light display that flashed pledges and the names of their pledges. It was at least 25 feet tall and 50 feet wide. It was immense. It covered the entire wall. On the other wall were enormous gold drapes that hung ceiling to floor. The purpose of the latter was to look classy, like the Waldorf, which was a strange contrast to the shul which is very plain and aging.
I found the changeover of the beis knesses disturbing. It reminded me of the Limelight disco in Manhattan, where a gothic church had been converted into a disco. Felt sacrilegious. But it's for Torah, right? But just imagine the outrage if I had worn a blue shirt!
The effect of the changeover is to changeover your mind. You feel confused. You are in this room that has looked one way for a 1,000 minyanim that you have attended and now it looks this other way. You become susceptible to mandate they are feeding you.
We were served small plates of food by waiters. This is quite a contrast to bar mitzvahs at this place as they usually consist of Yerushalmi kugel and rugelach on Styrofoam plates and clear plastic on the old Formica tables.
I came just to support the effort. I was invited to sit down. I felt honored. Then I realized that I was invited to sit by one of the guys who were pushing everyone to fill out pledge cards that didn't have an area where you could write in an amount you could afford. Rather, you were going to pledge a minimum of 14,000 NIS, or promise to raise it.
I felt so poor as I usually do at these things. Sure I'd love to give them the 3 million NIS that they seek. I'd like to give 100,000 or 14,000. But I went to yeshiva where I wasn't allowed any job training, then after I left yeshiva, I spent the yearly salary that I destroyed myself working towards on yeshiva tuition for children. Then, upon the pressure of aliyah salesmen, I came to Israel where I work in sweat shops making minimum wage. So I just don't have the big bucks they seek from me.
And they surely did seek. Every speaker laid on the guilt for the gelt for the Gemara. All in this nearly purple room that seemed almost demonic to me. Purple isn't far from red. Money, money, money. Come on baalei batim, give us your money. You have so much of it. You are all so rich. That's what they think.
It was a whole evening of Gemara, gelt, and guilt.
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