Fundraising Ideas for Shana Bet… funding in community exhausted 4 shana aleph

[snowbunny3318]

Hi!

I would like to go to pninim for shana bet. I don’t want to dwell on my current situation, however, since I exhausted all the funds in my home community for shana aleph, I don’t know where to start with my fundraising. I also do not want to go to the point of insanity I nearly reached my senior year when I was raising money for shana aleph because that means that I will not be able to live a normal life while raising money, and I want my friends to hang out with me as a person instead of a fundraiser (as supportive as they are, and when they found out that I wanted to do this, they said they are supportive, but still, as much magic as I have and shichus to people, I still want to be “normal” and I want to have fun without worrying all the time about this…).

I am currently in E”Y for shana aleph. Do you have any ideas of people I can go to in E”Y for assistance? Feel free to see the thread “Sherut Leumi… I don’t know what to do” for more info about my situation.

Thanks a ton!

snowbunny3318

[YITZCHOK2]

Which region are you part of? Some regions can point you in the right direction whom you should call.

[snowbunny3318]

I live in Jerusalem now. In the states, I am in the midwest region. The problem is that I won every single scholarship from my community… so I can’t just go and ask for more money from those organizations.

[miritchka]

snowbunny3318: It’s wonderful to learn and experience life in E”Y. I am sincerely happy that you had a great experience, and i dont know your situation, which is why I’m hoping you wont take what I’m about to say the wrong way.

My husband and I are helping to support a family who is in dire straits, a family who has no idea about the value of a dollar cuz they never had one long enough to know what it meant. Its not my place to judge them, and its not my place to tell them how to spend the money we give them. But i did put my foot down when it came to sending their daughter to E”Y for seminary. They have a large family of whom half is married. When the son wanted to go learn in E”Y, and for personal reasons needed to go there, we gladly chipped in to help pay for the flight and part of tuition. After all, there is an achrayis on a parent to send their son to wherever he feels he will learn better. When the daughter wanted to go for seminary, I refused to pay a penny toward this.

Here you have a family who depends on other people for literally the food on their table, to pay for their portion of their childrens weddings, to pay for a young couple to start off, to pay for tuition for the children still in school, etc… How can you ask for such an extravagance? My husband and I are not wealthy, we both work more than one job to pay our bills and sometimes if we’re lucky we can put into savings. I would love to go on a small vacation, but we cant afford to, even with our jobs. And here a family who does not work and depends on others, wants to send their daughter to E”Y?! My husband did not feel the same way that i did, but i told him i want no part in it. Maybe, in hindsight, i was wrong. But i still would not pay for any other daughters to go to E”Y for seminary. Its not a necessity and there are good local seminaries, and some that are a drive away.

Again, I dont know your personal situation, but if you did have to take from others for shana aleph, maybe you can find a job while you are there for shana bet and pay as go? Or maybe go home and find a job and then when you have enough money, go back and experience the wonders of our holy land? I hope I’m not hurting you in any way, but i feel that if you are old enough to go to E”Y on your own, you can understand what I mean.

Hatzlacha and i really hope everything goes smoothly for you.

[snowbunny3318]

By taking from others, I meant that I won scholarship contests with essays and stuff like that. If I could go back and ask for more essays to write to win the scholarship money, I would be more than happy to. Most of my scholarship money for shana aleph came from essays. I am still here doing work study and stuff like that. The difference is that I want to do a shana bet program that cannot be done for me after this upcoming year.

My personal situation does not allow me to go into debt, and I have a number of medical conditions (none that prevent me from being successful here, but still medical conditions nonetheless,) that cost a lot of money to get treatment for and I cannot just discontinue treatment just because I am in E”Y.

[snowbunny3318]

Also, as someone who grew up going to egalitarian minyanim before she became religious, I think it is sexist to expect a boy to not have to work when he is in yeshiva and a girl to work when she is in seminary.

[MorahRach]

Maybe you could speak directly to the seminary. Perhaps half the year you could learn and the other half be a madricha? I have a friend who did something similar to this, I can ask her for more details if you would like.

[snowbunny3318]

that sounds like a great idea! I would love to do something like that!

[TheGoq]

snowbunny can you explain to me what an egalitarian minyan is? I’m sorry I’m not familiar with that.

[snowbunny3318]

Meaning that there is no mechitza and that men and women participate equally; meaning reform/ conservative Judaism. I grew up as a conservative Jew.

[TheGoq]

Thank you for explaining.

[YITZCHOK2]

First of all to miritchka you cannot compare your story to snowbunny’s situation. Snowbunny obviously grew up in a much different environment than the girl in your story and the I would assume the need for her gowing to israel was to be able to live as a frum jew.

Snowbunny- I am not sure what you meant by a your remark about a boy not working in yeshiva and a girl having to work in seminary.

My son is in yeshivah in Israel and as it is the third year that I am paying these high tutions and flights back and forth, on his own decided that he does not want to ask me for spending money so he works ( not during seder) for the yeshiva so that i do not need send him money. If you will be going shana bet there is no reason why you cant work a little not during classes to pitch in for some of the costs. Numerous ncsyers both male and female work on pesach programs to help make money so they can continue in yeshivah.

That being said if you are well knwon for winning these awards you should contact bothe the head of the NCSY alumni and the Ben Zakkai society and they should be able to help you arrange some funds for a shana bet. Hatzlacha

[snowbunny3318]

Thanks! When I said that thing about a boy not working while in yeshiva and a girl having to work while in seminary (keep in mind that I work two hours a week when I am not in class for my work study to get extra scholarship money towards my tuition) I meant that boys usually get completely sponsored verses, my mom still has to pay quite a bit of the cost such as my medical bills, flight, and certain purchases I make, I have a credit card that my mom told me I need to use for something so that the credit card company knows that I exist because I didn’t want her to pay the bill for it. This year, aside from some debt incurred from switching programs, I am basically taken care of financially.

However, the issue is that next year, I won’t be so well taken care of financially, unless I do something about that now. I understand that I should do some sort of work study, however, I don’t want to spend several hours a week working because then I won’t be able to enjoy my year.

In terms of the Ben Zakkai society, I would have to be nominated for that, because although I did get scholarship money from ncsy, I only got money from my region- not from ben zakkai. Thank you for suggesting that I contact those places though!

[yisraelll]

You can contact Rabbi Rubin, the director of Zemer Talmud Torah Fund, 212-233-5955. The fund helps students attend Yeshiva or Seminary. Hatzlacha Raba.

[snowbunny3318]

Thanks you yisraelll! I really appreciate it!

[snowbunny3318]

Does anyone else have any other ideas of places that I can contact?

[snowbunny3318]

Also, Yitzchok, do you have any contact information for NCSY alumni and Ben Zakkai? Contact information for any funds people have in mind for me to contact would be much appreciated.

[YITZCHOK2]

The head of the NCSY alumni is Rabbi David Felsenthal. Call the ou office he works there. The Ben Zaakai society is run by Professor David Luchins ( the dean of Touro college). You should definitely contact your regional director as he has just been moved up to the National office and he should be able to lead you in the right direction. I would assume that both the alumni and the Ben Zakkai society will call him anyway to check you out before they give you any scholarships so you might as well check in with him first and tell him how much you are gaining from your year in Israel and how much more you feel you will gain with another year. GOOD LUCK!

[miritchka]

snowbunny3318: As i mentioned in my post, I do not know your situation and I did not mean to come across harsh. From your original post I got that you used up all your resources for collecting/raising money in your home community which is why i brought up the situation i posted. good luck with everything and i hope it all works out smoothly and easily!

[snowbunny3318]

Thank you!

[yeshivasem]

All schools will agree to some sort of scholarships or payment program. you can also help clean over Pesach break and make a lot of money. if you will be here during the summer months you can also sell advertising for the Yeshiva Seminary Guide and make alot of money.

[snowbunny3318]

Sounds awesome! I will most likely go to girlzone for a bit but after that I might be able to come back to Israel and work then…

[snowbunny3318]

Sounds awesome! I will most likely go to girlzone for a bit but after that I might be able to come back to Israel and work then…

[snowbunny3318]

Yeshiva seminary guide, should I contact you so that we can talk about this?

[wanderingchana]

“I don’t want to spend several hours a week working because then I won’t be able to enjoy my year.”

Just a word of advice: Even if you’re thinking that, don’t say it when you’re asking others who work for their money to give it to you.

Even better, rephrase it to “I am willing to work several hours a week for the privilege of spending another year in E”Y.” People will be more willing to help you when they see you’re willing to work for it also.

[snowbunny3318]

That is a good point however, I personally have workaholic tendencies, so it is a different story… I can’t spend so much time working that I don’t have a life. I don’t mind working during breaks

[snowbunny3318]

That has been made clear by other posts on this thread.

[interjection]

“That is a good point however, I personally have workaholic tendencies, so it is a different story”

That’s awesome! So it shouldn’t be hard for you to work!

“I can’t spend so much time working that I don’t have a life. I don’t mind working during breaks”

It’s not a bad thing to make your own money. I would never have taken charity and I felt horrible that my parents spent so much on my tuition that I spent my entire year working and when I went back for shana bet I paid my own tuition. I worked during almost all my breaks almost every day of the week while my friends partied. To save money I didn’t eat out even though my friends did every day and I didn’t take inner-city busses except when it rained so it took me longer to get places. Believe it or not, I had the time of my life and I made loads of friends. Also, once my friends saw that I spent all my time working, a bunch of them started getting there own jobs too (and some of them came from very wealthy families and definitely didn’t need the money).

It’s an entirely different experience if you’re working. The people I worked for were the nicest people and I still keep up with some of them. Mainly though, it was a hugely growthful experience because I was sacrificing to be there.

My intention is not to talk about myself. My point is that I definitely recommend you doing everything you can to earn your own money instead of having to take from others.

Also, I’m not sure if you want to go there but Neve has an excellent tuition policy. It’s an on your honor policy meaning that you pay as much as you can and if you every have the money you pay them the rest.

[popa_bar_abba]

Cleaning for pesach is a good idea, and you can pick up some cash doing that.

But, you will not be able to get a real “on-the-books” part time job during the year, on a student visa.

[snowbunny3318]

Once I have officially made Aliyah it will be different, in terms of working since I have some learning differences it is harder for me to keep up with full day limudei kodesh and at the same time work when I am not on break. My situation is more complicated than I k making it sound.

[snowbunny3318]

*Than I am making it sound.

** I am completely mainstream, its just that since I have some minor learning issues and a weaker limudei kodesh background, that makes it harder for me to focus on so many limudei kodesh classes and have a job for more than a few hours a week on school days at the same time. Plus, even though people do not consider me to be hyper, I have major adhd issues and the hyperactivity is the more discrete type, but still hyper nevertheless. Its a good thing that I just bought a watch that looks like it is analog that is slightly different so I don’t have to be frustrated trying to determine exactly what minute it is (because I don’t have the patience for most analog watches)…

[snowbunny3318]

Bump

[snowbunny3318]

Is there an e-mail address for the Zemer Talmud Torah Fund?

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