The last few days I have been a full-time sjnorrer. A sjnorrer sounds exciting, but it’s just a beggar. In modern times, we no longer have sjnorrer, because begging is not proper, but in the Jewish world we are referred to as fundraisers. And because more than two hundred children have registered for the Chabad Summer Day Camp and the parental contribution is minimal, I can put my begging talents to good use: two weeks of vacation for Jewish children who would otherwise stay at home and not allow their parents any rest or vacation. The treasurer of Chabad Holland has impressed upon me that we have a budget for the two weeks with a deficit of many zeros before the decimal point. Parents can/may make a voluntary contribution, but at the end of the day, and in fact much earlier, I will be behind the Summer Day Camp screens filling the financial gaps, because I am the sjnorrer. The question is not whether plugging the holes is realistic, because the time I spend answering that question could be spent fundraising or dawenen (asking God for support). No, it must be done, it will be done, and it will work out. Hopefully, after the two weeks of vacation, I will be able to show you the group photo with more than two hundred Jewish children who have enjoyed themselves physically and at the same time have been spiritually recharged. A summer day camp like this is especially important for children who attend non-Jewish schools during the year, where they are often teased because of Israel, and who can now simply wear their kippah or Star of David. Hopefully, in addition to beaming children and an exhausted staff, you will also see a satisfied treasurer in the group photo, beaming because the budget was balanced in the end and he is relieved of his sleepless nights. Am Yisrael Chai.
I had decided not to bore you with anti-Semitism in this diary and to deliberately omit an interesting blue envelope from the Almelo Tax Office. That blue envelope did not contain a tax assessment, but it did contain an attack on morality. The tax authorities in Almelo have announced that they are canceling the planned team outing to visit the Most Beautiful Synagogue in the Netherlands in Enschede on September 16. They are right, I thought cynically, because they want to, as they write, prevent possible wrong associations, avoid a second Jom Ha-Voetbal fuss, and as the Tax and Customs Administration, they feel obliged to distance themselves from religion, to which I would like to add that secularization is the biggest religion today, but without God, and that not believing, like a real religion, can sometimes be very compulsive. It is a pity that I do not fall under the jurisdiction of the Almelo Tax Office, because, to continue the line of reasoning, I could imagine that the Tax Office, in order to avoid wrong associations, would also stop sending me tax bills. Although Jews have been taxed extra throughout the centuries, I will assume for the sake of convenience that the Almelo Tax Office is most likely unaware of this.
They are also unaware that the Synagogue of Enschede is part of the Largest Museum in the Netherlands, as is, for example, the Yunus Emre Mosque in their town of Almelo. Regardless of this, almost all of the volunteers who give the guided tours are non-Jews, although they do, of course, have a connection with the Jewish synagogue where they spend their free time for various reasons, and that remains reprehensible. The Most Beautiful Synagogue in the Netherlands, as it is called, was founded when the State of Israel and Hamas did not yet exist. Due to poverty, not financial but because the Jewish community in Enschede was horribly decimated in the 1940s, services can only be held sporadically and the current Most Beautiful Synagogue in the Netherlands can hardly be called religious, but it is clearly architectural and cultural. Moreover, the horrific murder of the Jews of Almelo and Enschede at that time had no connection whatsoever with the State of Israel, which was only proclaimed by the United Nations in 1948 (now almost unimaginable!). Given that the Netherlands also agreed to the establishment of the State of Israel, this indirectly meant that the Almelo Tax Office also agreed, although of course the current Tax Office cannot be blamed for this…
My intention not to mention anti-Semitism at all this time has failed, I apologize! The blue envelope that I had opened in good spirits, hoping and expecting a tax refund, turned out to be an immoral trap.
