It’s fund raising season at Vancouver Hillel. Against my initial instincts, I signed up for one night of calling during the telethon. I figured that I take from Hillel (food, internet bandwith, naps on their couch), so it was the least I could do. But let me be clear, asking people for donations is one of my least favorite activities. Last summer I worked as a canvasser. You know those people who come to your front door right when you are about to sit down to dinner? That was me. It was a semi-traumatic experience. I got yelled at more than once. But it had nothing to do with Hillel, or any other Jewish cause for that matter.
Thankfully, I found the intra-Jewish community calling to be much more pleasant. Our script recommended that we immediately identify ourselves as students calling from Hillel. I repeated, “Shalom, this Max and I am calling from the Hillel House” about 25 times over the course of two hours. Lo and behold, the trick worked! People were extra nice, and more often than not, they engaged in friendly conversation. I even managed to wrest a few donations from some generous supporters.
But even if they did not contribute to the campaign, the whole process of making small talk with various friends of Hillel made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It’s nice to know that in a mega-city like Vancouver, there are tons of people who genuinely care about Hillel and the Jewish community at large.
