Thursday, September 18, 2008

Does This Remind Anyone Of Any Jewish Organizations?

(Click to enlarge)


Sometimes art imitates life.

The Wolf

9 comments:

Freelance Kiruv Maniac (Mr. Hyde) said...

Your insinuation that the rabbis in Israel praying on behalf of the donors to public charities are making a handsome personal profit from the contributions is disgusting.
Do you have any evidence for such an insinuation?

BrooklynWolf said...

FKM,

I did not mean to insinuate as such, but, nonetheless, I see how that could be read into it. My apologies for being unclear and I ask the forgiveness of anyone I offended. I in no way meant that the rabannim mentioned in the ads were personally getting rich off of the contributions.

My point was that there are tzedaka organizations that are offering prayers-for-money which, IMHO, turns it into a service and not a charitable donation. If an organization is a good charity and does good works for people who are in need, then they should raise contibutions basedmon their accomplishments... but not by "selling" yeshuos or prayers.

The Wolf

Freelance Kiruv Maniac (Mr. Hyde) said...

My point was that there are tzedaka organizations that are offering prayers-for-money which, IMHO, turns it into a service and not a charitable donation.

Let me challenge you on this:
If an non-profit organiztion like a free-loan society or soup-kitchen uses a raffle or a chinese auction to raise money for their org.
Does that mean they are now a lottery service and the money is not a charitible donation?

Freelance Kiruv Maniac (Mr. Hyde) said...

Apology accepted by the way.
Thank you for clarifying.

BrooklynWolf said...

FKM,

That's a fair question. I think, however, that a distinction has to be made between a chinese auction/raffle and what is being advertised currently. In a raffle situation, people know that they are giving charity and really expecting nothing in return. If they win, then great, but they aren't *expecting* anything in return. With this sort of "service" however, I don't think that holds true. They're "selling" this as a "it's real and it works and it will solve all your problems" solution. That's quite different than a raffle.

The Wolf

Freelance Kiruv Maniac (Mr. Hyde) said...

I see the distinction, but I don't see why both of them can't remain in the same category as charitible donations when that is clearly the explicit justification behind both types of offers.

Your feeling that vague promises of a yeshuah removes that status while the slim chances of winning thousands in prize money doesn't, seems arbitrary.

BrooklynWolf said...

vague promises of a yeshuah

I don't think the promises being made are vague at all. I think they are the primary selling point.

The Wolf

Freelance Kiruv Maniac (Mr. Hyde) said...

I think you are exaggerating.

(Re:the banner ad for scientiology under your Blog Header. Do you think it might be a halachic issue to encourage/enable a curious person to click on it from your blog?)

BrooklynWolf said...

I don't believe I am.

As for the ad, those come from Google, not me. I don't have too much control over it. If you do see the ad again, please let me know the URL for the ad (it's usually on the bottom left corner of the ad) and I'll block it.

The Wolf