My family used to keep a Jewish National Fund tzedakah box on our kitchen counter. You know the one I’m talking about, that little blue box speckled with images of greenery and Israeli flags. In my home, the JNF tzedakah box served as a constant reminder of the Jewish rebuilding of our ancestral homeland.
The advertising of the JNF really works. As a kid, I believed that with each quarter I dropped into the box on Shabbat, I was individually contributing to the heritage of chalutzim (pioneers). Turning swamps into forests. Adding oranges to the desert. Helping to build Israel all the way from my kitchen table.
As my first memory of tzedakah, the JNF box continues to permeate my conception of how I should be giving money. While my parents were the ones who chose JNF as the recipients of our weekly tzedakah moment, my instinct is now to focus on Jewish-related causes when I choose to donate. Giving means more to me if my money is channeled into organizations working to preserve Jewish heritage and keep Jewish culture flourishing.
Most important, the JNF box taught me that actual change is possible through tzedakah. Its campaign is effective because the tree project boasts tangible results. You can visit plots of JNF trees and know that your weekly quarter after quarter after quarter finally added up to a tree, another tree, a whole forest. This legacy of quantifiable contributions stuck with me; even now, I’d rather give a buck to a specific cause rather than a hundred dollars to an organization in general.
Now that I have entered the Jewish professional sphere, I am amazed to see the inner workings of how institutional Jewish communal life operates. The magical mystery of the JNF tzedakah box has disappeared: A lot of conference calls, marketing meetings, surveys, dinners, paperwork, emails and coffee are required before any social action is possible. I am in awe of all the work accomplished behind the scenes in offices worldwide in order to produce the tangible results I so deeply rely on for motivation to continue giving.
I recently worked at Masa Israel Journey, an organization that awards Jewish students and young professionals grant money to participate in programs in Israel of five months to a year. These grants are possible through an association with the Jewish Agency, which receives funding from generous tzedakah and philanthropy contributions from Jews around the world.
These Masa Israel programs are, in my opinion, the JNF trees of today. While planting might have served to warm Jewish hearts in America toward Israel for the past 60 years, the future of Israel now relies on successful Israel trips to keep American Jews committed to the Zionist legacy and ensure that Israel stays a vital and vibrant part of American Jewish identity.
Zoe Jick is the New York regional director for the World Zionist Organization and a graduate of Wesleyan University, where she studied religion. This blog is reprinted with permission from an October 2011 Sh’ma journal discussion about tzedakah and philanthropy (www.shma.com, www.shmadigital.com).