JSO raises money with Hillel-a-thon

Volunteers collected donations to support the Jewish community.

By Maggie Nestor

Published Oct. 30, 2009

Members of the Jewish Student Organization kept busy this week making phone calls to the Jewish community as part of their annual Hillel-a-thon fundraiser.

Hillel-a-thon was held from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Members of JSO were encouraged to make phone calls to members of the community in an attempt to raise money for JSO events and activities.

Callers were paid $5 an hour and fed while they worked.

"We at the Hillel count on JSO raising their own funds for their own programs, it's a budgeting issue," JSO Executive Director Kerry Hollander said.

The Hillel-a-thon is a significant part of JSO's ability to function and raises almost all the money used for programming throughout the year.

"The Hillel-a-thon is what we do to raise money for the entire year," said JSO Treasurer Belinda Kocen, a former member of The Maneater staff. "It pays for the dinner we serve after every Friday service and other social events, such as Social Justice Seder in the spring and our Holocaust remembrance week. Our goal this year is $7,000, which is about what we made last year."

Volunteers have a script for calling people and a list of whom to call.

"We call people who in the past have had interest in helping JSO," Kocen said. "We tell them what's going on with JSO, give them an update on our activities and ask them if they would like to help out with a donation."

JSO member Sherman Fabes made phone calls all week using the script and asking for donations.

"It's amusing, you get some weird people on the phone, but you do it for the cause," Fabes said. "If it's something you believe in, you just do it. I've been involved with JSO since the beginning of school. It's just something I felt that I had to do."

There were newcomers to the fundraiser making calls for the first time.

"It's a fun and great experience," Goldie Radinsky said. "It's my first time doing a Hillel-a-thon and I want to help JSO anyway I can. I got involved because I love the Jewish community aspect of it."

The Hillel Center also looks to its youth in JSO to help provide for the community on a larger scale.

"It's a future issue," Hollander said. "Students who are part of gathering resources for Jewish student activities, we hope, will be more disposed to raising funds for the Jewish community when they are older."

Through Hillel-a-thon, JSO hopes to better their bigger mission.

"This makes the Jewish community much stronger," Kocen said. "JSO provides a home for Jewish students here and a place for them to go to be with other Jewish students. It's just definitely about giving them a home and a place to go."