Spirituality
Cash For Learning
Campus groups offer students money for Torah study.
Ben Harris
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
S
everal years ago, Rabbi Shlomo
Levin hit on a new way to attract
students from the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee to classes at his
nearby Orthodox synagogue. Instead of
spending money on eye-catching advertis-
ing, Levin reasoned it would be simpler
just to give the money directly to the stu-
dents in exchange for attendance.
Though the sums involved were rela-
tively modest, the initiative was a success.
"My thinking was very, very practical:"
Levin told JTA. "Instead of spending all
that money on elaborate publicity, just
give the money to the people who come to
the program. They'll be happier."
Not everyone was happier. Some
board members at the rabbi's Lake Park
Synagogue were uncomfortable from the
start, Levin says; and after the local news-
paper reported on the project, the syna-
gogue shut it down.
But the idea of paying college students to
attend Jewish studies classes has not only
survived, it has expanded to more than 70
campuses across the country and attracted
support from major Jewish philanthropists.
And though the programs are justified
in terms similar to Birthright Israel, the
massive philanthropic undertaking that
provides young Jews with all-expenses-
paid trips to Israel, they provide not only
a free service, but also cash rewards to
students who complete them.
"This was an idea to get students involved
in learning Judaism, learning about their
heritage, and as an incentive, in order to give
them the amazing knowledge and to give
them right mind-set; it's to lock them in','
said Fully Eisenberger, an Orthodox rabbi
at the University of Michigan who runs the
Maimonides Fellowship program on the Ann
Arbor campus.
The program, which was launched in
2001 by Jewish Awareness America and
is supported by the New York City-based
Wolfson Family Foundation, offers partici-
pants $400 or a free trip to Israel.
In exchange, Eisenberger said, students
"have to commit to 10 classes and come
to weekend getaways;' including a trip to
Toronto — all expenses paid.
Historical Roots
Providing financial support to students
who engage in Torah study dates back
more than a century. In Europe, kollels
provided an annual salary to married men
who studied full time, a practice that has
continued among the Orthodox in the
United States and elsewhere.
Organizers of the college student fellow-
ships describe their programs in similar
terms — as "stipends" to enable Torah
study free from the pressures of earning
supplementary income. But payments are
being used increasingly to attract unaffili-
ated Jews who may not otherwise attend a
Jewish class.
"I had a friend who was doing it,"
recalled Elise Peizner, who participated
in the Sinai Scholars Society, a program
run by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement,
as a sophomore at Boston University. "But
to be quite honest, I heard there was a
$500 check that went along with it. So it
sounded intriguing — the check."
Founded in 2005, Sinai Scholars will be
offering students at more than 40 univer-
sities $500 to attend classes in the upcom-
ing semester. The program is supported
by the Rohr Family Foundation and Elie
Horn, a developer of luxury real estate
from Brazil.
One of the leading non-Chasidic
Orthodox outreach programs, Aish
Hatorah, also has adopted the pay-the-
participants approach. In an article last
week, the Associated Press reported that
AishCafe, a Web site run by Aish Hatorah,
offers students $250 cash or $300 toward
an Israel trip for completing its program
and passing two tests.
Initial Screening
Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz, who started
the first Maimonides Fellowship, at the
University of Michigan, said he screens
participants in his program to weed out
financially motivated students.
"The financial offer was only an addi-
tional incentive the Oak Park rabbi told
JTA. "Someone that comes only for the
financial benefit is not really the quality
student we're looking for."
Still, Jacobovitz acknowledged that the
payments have boosted participation in
his programs. Indeed, that was precisely
why he founded the fellowship after notic-
ing that a federation stipend program
Barrie Shwartz, right, a graduate of the Maimonides Leadership Fellowship pro-
gram, studies Torah with learning partner Miriam Shift during a Jewish Awareness
America trip to Israel in May.
was drawing students to a combination of
Jewish studies and leadership classes.
Andrew Landau, a sales representa-
tive for Goog,le who completed the
Maimonides Fellowship during his sopho-
more year at Michigan, said he was look-
ing to advance his Jewish education and
meet new friends. The money, he said, was
not a prime motivator.
"It's sort of like a coupon," Landau said.
"Why does a pizza place offer a buy one,
get one free? It's to get them in the door,
and then if they like it they're going to
stay:"
Both Landau and Peizner, neither of
whom are Orthodox, say they are glad they
took part in the program, though they
add that they haven't made any lifestyle
changes as a result.
Eisenberger, the rabbi running the
initiative at the University of Michigan,
said that alumni of his fellowship pro-
gram have become more observant, and
he believes he has even prevented some
intermarriages. He also claims that about
a third of students donate the money back
to the program.
"This thing works;' Eisenberger said.
Scholarship Similarities
Defenders of the programs note that the
payouts are not that different from col-
lege scholarships, which also provide cash
incentives unrelated to financial need.
They also note that providing free food
is a time-honored method for attracting
hungry college students.
"God forbid you give them cash; that's
very, very bad:' Levin said sarcastically.
"But if you give them this gigantic food
thing, like some of the organizations bring
in a Chinese food chef and have a whole
Chinese thing, that's not seen as unseemly
or a bribe. I really don't understand totally
the difference?'
Neither does Randy Cohen, who writes
the Ethicist column for the New York
Times Magazine. Cohen told JTA he saw
little difference between offering food and
offering cash.
"Ethics, like most law, makes no dis-
tinction between incentives in the form
of cash or cash equivalent," Cohen said.
"Some corporations, for example, forbid
employees from accepting gifts from sup-
pliers above a certain cash value. Some
campaign law does likewise. When it
comes to food, I'd be particularly wary of
any diamond-encrusted chicken legs."
But Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an
Orthodox author and host of the television
program Shalom in the Home, says that
while providing refreshments is an accept-
ed social norm, money crosses a line.
"It trivializes Judaism and it portrays
secular Jews as people to be bought off'
said Boteach, who once ran a popular
campus outreach program at Oxford
University. "It's insincere. It sends all the
wrong signals, that we don't think the
material alone would be compelling, that
we need to buy you off."
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August 28 • 2008
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