I had just returned home from a night out at a friend’s house when I got a text message: “Dude, ur temple burned down.” I was shocked. I immediately replied, “What?!?” and pushed my brother out of the chair in front of the family computer. I quickly found the breaking story delivering the bad news. Sure enough, the temple was seriously damaged. A candle’s heat had been transferred through the aluminum foil on which it stood. Catching quickly, the flames engulfed the main sanctuary and most of the building.
Chisuk Emuna, although not the temple at which I celebrated my bar mitzvah, is an important piece of my Jewish community in Harrisburg, Pa. I’m not a frequent attendee of services by any stretch, but my brother attends Hebrew school every Saturday, Monday and Wednesday. He also spends almost every Saturday with our rabbi’s family; we drop him off at their house in the morning and he proceeds to walk to and from Chisuk Emuna with the family. He then spends the entire afternoon with the family, some of our closest friends. When I went to pick him up from their house for the first time following the fire, I could see the stress eating at Ron, known by the community as Rabbi Muroff.
I knew what needed to be done.
B’nai Tzedek is an organization whose primary goal is instilling a philanthropic drive in Jewish teenagers. We organize events for the community—mostly the teenagers, obviously—that help to raise awareness for various philanthropic efforts. Members all have their own designated funds that they are to donate to the charity of their choice. In addition, the group as a whole has a grant that’s given every year.
Our B’nai Tzedek youth foundation board members were in the process of determining the recipients of our grant money. There are many attributes that we look for in a group when we’re determining which organization to help. The main factors include: impact on our local community, impact on the Jewish community as a whole, how far every dollar will go toward the cause and, finally, what the cause actually is and how we feel about it. We had narrowed it down to a few different choices, none of which jumped off the paper to me, at least.
When I walked into the Muroff’s house for the seder on the first night of Passover that week, my decision had already been made. I would be suggesting Chisuk Emuna as the recipient of our grant. I quickly emailed our program director to tell her about the situation—although they hadn’t submitted a grant application, Chisuk Emuna should be the beneficiary of our donation. The temple was the perfect candidate. Beyond fitting every aspect that we were looking for in an organization, they had the “X” factor—an emotional connection to us all as a group.
Harrisburg has a small Jewish community, but we’re remarkably close-knit. When Chisuk Emuna burnt down, the JCC was immediately there, offering support and the use of its facilities for as long as the shul needed. Likewise, B’nai Tzedek members, although made up of members of various synagogues, were immediately supportive of the idea, and we elected to give our $2,000 donation to the temple’s reconstruction fund.
On May 27, we will be presenting the shul with a check for $2,000 at our annual banquet. I eagerly await the look on Rabbi Muroff’s face when he walks to the podium to receive the check. I know that ultimately $2,000 won’t pay for the reconstruction of a very large area, but it’s still a strong statement. Showing support and giving to those in need is the essence of philanthropy. The thankfulness I look forward to seeing in the faces of the synagogue’s members is certainly a benefit, but at its root, philanthropy is about learning to help those in need of money, whether an individual or an organization. This experience of helping a cause so close to all of our hearts will lead the youth foundation’s board members to maintain philanthropic efforts throughout our lives.
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