11) Lazy Attitude To Fundraising
Shlichus According To The Rebbe #11: We present the eleventh installment of directives of the Rebbe to Shluchim, focusing on directives that the Shluchim seem to be unaware of ● Today: The Rebbe’s letter to Rabbi Shmuel Chefer, director of Beis Rivkah Seminary in Israel, decrying the sorry state of Chabad fundraising ● Read More
Rabbi Shmuel Chefer, the director of Beis Rivkah High School and Seminary in Kfar Chabad, Israel, merited to receive many directives from the Rebbe, covering every aspect of his personal and communal life. The following is the Rebbe’s letter to him, explaining what how to succeed in fundraising overseas.
“My opinion is well known, and it is based on what is clearly seen to everyone, the results of visiting New York (specifically, and USA in general), for the purpose of fundraising:
Tens and hundreds of people come here for that purpose [fundraising]. All those who came here with the intention of working hard and fully dedicating themselves (and only as additional help, they ask local people for leads) – they succeed (obviously, not everyone is equal, and this depends on connections, prior advertising, etc),
But those who come with the intention of having others work for them, and they [the fundraisers] will supervise the work of others – they don’t succeed, for that is the opposite of the “Air of USA.”
To my utter dismay, all those who came here to fundraise for Chabad institutions in Israel – followed the second attitude (for good or weird reasons, but the result is the same), and therefore the results of their trip were as predicted [The only exception to the rule was Rabbi [Azriel Zelig] Slonim, and he therefore succeeded. No one prepared the ground for him by the representatives of Merkos [i.e. Shluchim], and he did not have any advertising not before his arrival and not after he arrived, as opposed to what is common with Beis Rivkah here].
The same applies to all Jewish movements (and it’s not because they [the donors] have different attitudes towards Anash), and to all those who come (whether it is a minister, or a simple Jew) – it is just that some of them say it, while others hide it.
I was worried that you would follow suit like the rest of Anash that come here from Israel (as mentioned above), and therefore I sent you a telegram not to come here for fundraising (for the Torah is against wasting Jewish money – the travel expense) – for obviously there is no point to come all the way to New York just to ask for a loan from Merkos.
May it be the will of G-d, that since you have anyways come here, you should follow the first attitude (without having anger on local residents and Anash), and stay loyal to that attitude, and do it with happiness – and then you will surely succeed.
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