 | Samuel Goodstein Grand |
And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number ... This they shall give, every one that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel ... as an offering to the Lord.
- Exodus 30: 11-13
God's directive to Moses - to take a census of the children of Israel and to collect from each a half-shekel - helped establish a strong sense of community among the Israelites. In ancient times, each Jew in the world was expected to give a half-shekel annually to support the Temple in Jerusalem; the money was important, but so was the sense of unity, of inclusion, that the half-shekel represented.
Today, after millenia of persecution, that same notion of community, of inclusion, remains vital to the survival of the Jewish people. Indeed, each generation of Jews is faced with the same challenge: to maintain a sense of community and identity. Without this identity, without the knowledge that Jews will stand by each other, how could the Jewish people survive?
My generation of Jews, like countless before it, is always searching for ways to maintain important traditions, to be strong both in spirit and in numbers, and to foster a sense of Jewish identity. In the diaspora, this is no small challenge.
A group of University students, along with Hillel Executive Director Michael Brooks, have developed a brilliant response to this challenge: The Half-Shekel Campaign. With the campaign logos - a blue and yellow circle with the words "Who Cares" or "Because Every One Counts" printed beside it - already the most common sight on campus, the month-old campaign is steadily working toward its goal: Receiving a contribution of at least $1 to the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) from each Jew - and many non-Jews - on campus.
To accomplish this means tackling the gargantuan task of identifying all 6,000 Jews in the University community and contacting each one. All contributions will be collected through face-to-face interaction; the drive will employ no phone banks and no solicitations in the mail.
But the student-run campaign is about much more than raising money; its objective is not only to raise funds, but to raise people. The plan is to achieve total participation (meaning every Jewish student, faculty and staff-member contributes) within a few years; 70 percent is the target for this year.
To be sure, if total participation is achieved, the campaign will raise a large sum for charity; but there is much more going on. This is about community, about inclusion and about campus Jews of all stripes grappling with the question of what it means to be Jewish.
Of course, the money raised will go to a very worthy cause. A cause that is, incidentally, focused on assisting Jews and non-Jews alike. The UJA - the recipient of the funds raised in the Half-Shekel Campaign - helps provide emergency counseling and shelter for abused women and children, sends doctors and medical supplies to refugees in Rwanda, supports homes for the elderly, helps resettle immigrants fleeing distressed countries, supports Jews, Moslems and Christians in the former Yugoslavia, among many other things.
In theory, at least, the Half-Shekel campaign could unite Jews around the world; as they were in ancient times. Ari Nisman, the campaign chair, told me as much: "If it works at Michigan, it could work at any other campus. Eventually, the Half-Shekel Campaign could touch Jews, and non-Jews, everywhere."
Whether or not this campaign becomes a national effort, it should have an important impact on the University's Jewish community. At the end of each academic year, the campaign will run an advertisement in this newspaper, thanking all contributors by name. The point: To make this campaign a part of the Jewish social fabric on campus and to tell the world that being Jewish means being charitable and looking out for others who are in need of help.
The brochure to this campaign sums it up better than I could hope to: "The Jewish community should serve as an example to all that we can take care of our own and still help others, that we can all be proud of and true to who and what we are without building walls to shut other people out ... When you give to the Half-Shekel campaign, you are identifying yourself as someone who has taken a stand with the Jewish people in their effort to repair the world."
Take a stand.
- Samuel Goodstein can be reached over e-mail at faygo@umich.edu