Over £150,000 distributed to 22 Local Jewish Schools by Chomesh L’Chinuch
15th January 2018
The “Chomesh L’Chinuch” initiative distributed over £156,000 to 22 local Jewish schools representing 5,831 pupils at an event on Sunday 14th January 2018 at Hendon Adass. It was attended by Rabbi SY Bixenspanner of Hendon Adass Yisroel Congregation and Rabbi YM Greenberg of Golders Green Beth Hamedrash. Also present were over 35 governors and senior management of the local Jewish schools.
This event brings the total distributed by the Chomesh L’Chinuch campaign to over £260,000 since its inception at GGBH in 2015.
Chomesh L’Chinuch is a shul-based project providing a communal solution to a communal problem. Shul members are encouraged to prioritise and allocate one-fifth (a ‘Chomesh’) of their Tzedokah distributions to the local schools attended by the children of their Shul. This is based on the Halachic guidance that the community must support its essential infrastructure including local schools and the importance of correctly prioritising one’s Tzedokah donations. Members are not expected to increase their already generous Tzedokah distributions, rather it is simply to allocate an appropriate percentage (20% – a ‘Chomesh’) to local chinuch.
Rabbi Shloime Yitzchok Bixenspanner opened the third Chomesh L’Chinuch distribution event and spoke passionately about the crucial role of Chinuch within our kehilloh and the importance of prioritising our local mosdos, especially the schools. He thanked the members of Hendon Adass and GGBH who have joined the Chomesh L’Chinuch program for their generosity and sense of communal responsibility. He encouraged more members to sign up and more Shuls to join. This will ensure the communal Chinuch deficits are fully addressed. He added, “Our NW London community is clearly able to address its schools’ substantial shortfall provided it allocates and prioritises the already generous amount of annual Tzedokah it donates”.
Mr Emanuel Meyer, joint founder of Chomesh L’Chinuch, explained the background of the initiative and praised the unstinting dedication of the school Chairs and Governors. He provided detailed statistics regarding the financial challenges faced by the local Jewish schools highlighting the substantial shortfalls amongst our local primary and secondary schools with a total annual shortfall of over £7m per year.
He reiterated that funds are desperately needed by all schools and urged every school governor to engage with their local Shul Rov, Gabboim and askonim to encourage their Shul to join the Chomesh L’Chinuch initiative in order to help it reach the initial goal of £1,000,000 per annum..
Mr Eli Katz, joint founder of Chomesh L’Chinuch, organised the distribution of the grant cheques to each school. Rabbi Greenberg and Rabbi Bixenspanner, in their respective capacities of representing their own chosheve Kehillahs and their very generous members, were given the kovod of presenting the cheques to the School representatives. This was the largest amount distributed since the inception of Chomesh L’Chinuch and represents funds raised by members of Golders Green Beth Hamedrash over the last year together with funds raised from members of Hendon Adass who joined the initiative last Elul / September.
The Chomesh L’Chinuch event attracted substantial praise from local schools Governors.