Charity Begins At Home?

On a thread a few posts down, an anonymous commenter left the following comment:

It seems a real shame to me that here in the 5 towns we support charities from all over the world, as is evidenced by the almost weekly visits from persosn outside the community soliciting for 1 org or an other, but yet homegrown charity has taken a back seat. Charity begins at home with the nickel and dimes of the school children, which in the case of local jewish schools is usually sent outside the community. Lest see how much we could raise in Boro Park at a fundraiser for a 5 towns jewish school, not to much.

I think the comment is very interesting, though I don't agree with all of it. I agree with the fact that a community should help their own needy before taking their resources outside the community. I especially agree that if a community's institutions are struggling to stay financially afloat, said community has no business supporting institutions in other communities before their own are provided for. But how those ideas play into the situation here in the Five Towns is an intriguing question.

There is no question that a tremendous amount of the community's resources are being tapped by institutions and charitable organizations that are not located within the Five Towns. There is also no question that other communities are suffering from levels of need that are orders of magnitude worse than we see here in this community.

A few years back, I remember a community leader wrote an article for a local paper decrying the fact that the community supports so many outside charities when there are causes in their own backyards that are left wanting. He actually proposed a community-wide moratorium on fundraising for institutions that are not local ones. If I recall correctly, this article came on the heels of a visit to the Five Towns by a prominent Chassidic Rabbi from an upstate community. The Rabbi spent the weekend in the homes of various community members, raising funds for his own community. Rumor went that when all was said and done, and the Chassidim and their leader were cozily ensconced once again in their upstate community, they had raised a cool million from the Five Towns Olam. At around the same time, a local Yeshiva was heavily fundraising for a new building. As that rumor went, the Rosh Yeshiva was told my some wealthy community members that they were simply overextended at that time and couldn't give as much as the Rosh Yeshiva was asking for.

Obviously, it makes a good deal of sense to put local charities and institutions first, before shelling out to faraway communities. But when dealing with a wealthy community such as this one, where the financial resources are vast, the situation is far far more complex. Can we rightly say that we must save our resources for new shul buildings - complete with vaulted ceilings and elaborate catering facilities, when there are shuls in other communities who need help to literally put a roof over their members' heads? Is it ethical to withhold funds from another community's Tomchei Shabbos, when their numbers of destitute are far more staggering than our own? Can we really say that we need to keep all our assets in-house when our Yeshivas have beautiful campuses and buildings (at least the ones that have buildings - but I digress), and many yeshivas in outside communities are in ramshackle buildings that are bursting at the seams with students?

Is it really morally just for a community with an extremely large number of "haves" to send the message out to those needy souls who come from communities with even larger numbers of "have-nots" that they Need Not Apply?

I mean, yes, I can't argue with the anonymous commenter quoted above that no one expects to see a fundraiser running in Brooklyn for a Five Towns charity. And I agree with the commenter as well that the Tzedakah collected from our children in Yeshiva usually goes to causes outside the community. That said - how in the world, with this community's mean standard of living, can we expect to see anything else?