Can synagogues raise money without ruining Yom Kippur?

You know the scene. Darkness falls. A hush settles over the gathered crowd. The rabbi intones: “The hour is nigh! Yom Kippur is upon us! Atone, turn your hearts toward righteousness, for today our fates are sealed. Who will live and who will die, who by fire, who by water, who by wild beasts?”

A pregnant pause. Your future hangs in the balance. Is there any way to tip the scales?

“Now, I’d like to tell you all about our capital campaign. There are pledge cards in the seat pockets in front of you…”

The High Holidays, when synagogues are at their fullest, offer a natural opportunity for annual fundraising appeals. It’s also the time of year when many Jews engage in cheshbon hanefesh, literally “soul-accounting,” meditating on what they’ve invested over the past year—in time, energy and resources—and how they want that to change in the year to come.

On this week’s episode of Not in Heaven, our rabbinic podcasters talk philanthropy. Is tzedakah purely monetary? What makes an effective High Holiday appeal? And while it might be more efficient to fundraise one $20,000 donation than 20 $1,000 donations, what does that mean for cultivating a culture of widespread giving?

As it says in Pirke Avot: “Without flour, there is no Torah. Without Torah, there is no flour.”

So, how do we raise the dough?

Credits

• Hosts: Avi Finegold, Yedida Eisenstat, Matthew Leibl
• Production team: Zachary Judah Kauffman (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Alicia Richler (editorial director)
• Music: Socalled

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