Where to Direct your Charity
Who NOT to give to - and who to give to instead
It’s Purim season - the time when there is a special mitzva to help the poor, matanot l’evyonim. Three wonderful American non-charedi yeshivot in my town send their students to assist with collecting on behalf of Lemaan Achai, a fabulous organization which helps poor people escape poverty. But charedi yeshivos instead send their students to collect for the yeshivos. I’m not sure what collecting for yeshivos has to do with matanot l’evyonim, but I guess they take advantage of it being a season of giving.
A few weeks ago, I composed a statement about why, especially after October 7th, charitable giving should be focused on institutions which support IDF service and which educate people to be economically productive. Yeshivos which believe that anyone can learn Torah as a replacement for materially and physically helping the nation should be supported only in kind, by learning Torah in their merit. I translated my statement into Hebrew and both versions are available here for you to distribute, print and post on your door.
You can also download the Hebrew as a PDF at this link. The English PDF link is here:
Anytime you decline a request to donate to a non-nation supporting yeshivah, please consider donating either to rehabilitating the poor, or to a nation-supporting yeshivah instead. One such yeshivah is the one where my son learns, Yeshivat HaHesder Maalot Yaakov. It was founded fifty years ago following the terrorist attack on a school in the city, during which 22 school children were murdered. The yeshiva was established to inspire hope and to be a source of strength for the residents of Maalot and other cities in the Upper Galilee.
For many years Maalot’s Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Yehoshua Weitzman, has spearheaded multiple large scale community projects in the Galilee, inspiring students and alumni to partake in his campaigns. Currently, Yeshivat Maalot is conducting 222 Torah classes in secular communities across Northern Israel, and has been successful in inspiring the secular community to reconnect to Torah and a religious Jewish identity.
In addition, Yeshivat Maalot has programs assisting the Bnei Menashe community. The Bnei Menashe are Jews from India who have been estranged for 2700 years, have recently returned to Israel and are facing many challenges. The yeshiva’s project helps them to integrate into Israeli society by teaching them life skills, facilitating their entrance into the army (through the Hesder program), giving them Torah instruction and enabling them to study a profession that will help incorporate them into Israeli society.
You can learn more about Yeshivat Maalot’s work and donate on their website. (If the donate link doesn’t work, use this one instead.)
Hey! The link for the מצב חירום in Hebrew isn’t working. But thanks for your insights ;)
I recently received messages for a charity campaign from my seminary. I was amazed to see they want to get 1 million. I wonder why they didn’t bother teaching us valuable jobs if they rely on us to sustain them - and our potentially learning husbands.
I fixed the link for the Hebrew PDF - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/8qjw8nce4vo6dvowzx1vk/.pdf?rlkey=ua5gu629e05x08tjyh1j03von&dl=0