temple officer
In the latter 1990's while I was a member of Temple Sinai of Sharon, MA, I was asked to be on the Board of Directors. By my 2nd year I was offered the position of Financial Secretary. This is a fancy title for "dues collector"! It is the job of the Financial Secretary to ask members to catch up with payments of delinquent dues, and with a committee's approval, offer partial or total relief of dues to a financially distressed member.
As you can imagine, this is a position of great sensitivity. On one hand the secretary is representing the temple with all its rules and regulations (the business end of religion), and on the other are the precepts of Judaism itself. You can see how one can easily collide with the other. We are supposed to have compassion for the needy. The trick is discerning the needy from the greedy, and who are we to play God?
The decentralized local temple system of Judaism means that each congregation pretty much stands on its own financially and has to support the building, the clergy, the professionals and the programming through membership dues and other fundraising. It is a fact of life. There are central denominational organizations to affiliate with such as the UJA.org or USCJ.org, and there may be some funds available for certain programs, but you get the picture; the dues and fundraising support the congregation almost exclusively.
This "pay to pray" system can cause a lot of friction to those who really don't want to support the temple but want to come and pray as a Jew. Temples will not turn away anyone who does not pay, but it is generally thought that if one becomes "a regular" that at minimum donations are in order. The place does not happen by accident. Being a member means getting the services available from the clergy (life cycle events) and participating in temple life to whatever degree one wishes.
Being the Financial Secretary was one of the most challenging roles to play because when push comes to shove, if a member is not paid up, his kid is not going to receive a Bar-Mitzvah, etc. I had one case like this where a member who seemed financially distressed was up against the wall for time, the Bar-Mitzvah was in a couple of weeks, and he had to get paid up, and he did. Forcing the issue is the unpleasant part of the job and being the financial gate keeper is not a job for anyone; the position requires a firm but compassionate stance. This cannot be learned. Either you have it or not else you and the temple come off looking totally bad.
This job lasted a year, and I was glad when I was done, but I did learn a lot.
As you can imagine, this is a position of great sensitivity. On one hand the secretary is representing the temple with all its rules and regulations (the business end of religion), and on the other are the precepts of Judaism itself. You can see how one can easily collide with the other. We are supposed to have compassion for the needy. The trick is discerning the needy from the greedy, and who are we to play God?
The decentralized local temple system of Judaism means that each congregation pretty much stands on its own financially and has to support the building, the clergy, the professionals and the programming through membership dues and other fundraising. It is a fact of life. There are central denominational organizations to affiliate with such as the UJA.org or USCJ.org, and there may be some funds available for certain programs, but you get the picture; the dues and fundraising support the congregation almost exclusively.
This "pay to pray" system can cause a lot of friction to those who really don't want to support the temple but want to come and pray as a Jew. Temples will not turn away anyone who does not pay, but it is generally thought that if one becomes "a regular" that at minimum donations are in order. The place does not happen by accident. Being a member means getting the services available from the clergy (life cycle events) and participating in temple life to whatever degree one wishes.
Being the Financial Secretary was one of the most challenging roles to play because when push comes to shove, if a member is not paid up, his kid is not going to receive a Bar-Mitzvah, etc. I had one case like this where a member who seemed financially distressed was up against the wall for time, the Bar-Mitzvah was in a couple of weeks, and he had to get paid up, and he did. Forcing the issue is the unpleasant part of the job and being the financial gate keeper is not a job for anyone; the position requires a firm but compassionate stance. This cannot be learned. Either you have it or not else you and the temple come off looking totally bad.
This job lasted a year, and I was glad when I was done, but I did learn a lot.