By COLlive reporter
Heshy Biegeleisen, Founder and CEO of Gourmia kitchen appliances company in Brooklyn, New York, has traveled extensively around the United States and in Asia before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
“I met a lot of Chabad Shluchim from small to large cities,” says the Boro Park resident. “Yiddishkeit today is all about the Shluchim. What they do for their communities and for travelers like myself is amazing. Actually, amazing would be an understatement.”
When Biegeleisen heard about the new and unique fundraising platform DollarDaily.org which uses the collective power of joint giving to help Shluchim, he immediately joined.
DollarDaily.org has people donating a single dollar a day and uses the accumulated amount to support another Chabad center on a daily basis. So when 7,500 people give $1 a day, a total of $7,500 is available to assist a Shliach and Shlucha who are facing personal financial hardship or have an urgent need in their community.
Biegeleisen says he thought DollarDaily “was an amazing idea” and was one of the first to sign up. “My only question is whether there will be enough for all of the Shluchim,” he joked.
Simon Traurig, President of Traucorp Hotels in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, didn’t need much convincing either when he first saw the initiative reported.
“DollarDaily giving to Shluchim really spoke to me,” says the Lubavitcher. “Bli ayin hara, we have a huge worldwide community, and with $1 per day, 7,500 people can daily gift a Shliach with the gift of life that they can breathe easier that month. It can have bills paid down and the chance to press reset on a bunch of bills. That’s huge and I’m in.”
Traurig says he hopes the list of donors will grow to several times $7500 per day. “Many people will feel the love and many donors will reap huge brochos in their lives,” he says. “Surely Moshiach is not far off from arriving with this real-time, achievable and sustainable achdus.”
Interestingly, another of the early donors was a veteran Shliach Rabbi Aron Lieberman, Director of Synagogue of Inverrary Chabad in Lauderhill, Florida.
“DollarDaily is a beautiful project,” he said in a phone call, while in the midst of a Sukkos activity. “It allows you to help Shluchim in a meaningful way without feeling it in your pocketbook.”
The launch date to begin distributing funds to Shluchim is on Friday, 25 Tishrei 5782 – October 1, 2021. The process will enjoy full transparency as the list of Chabad centers receiving the funds will be posted publicly on https://dollardaily.org/calendar.php
There will be an effort to diversify the recipients of the funds by establishing categories as Shluchim in small towns, servicing the elderly, or teens, Shluchim dedicated to giving shiurim, new Shluchim, schools and day camps, and even according to geography.
The team behind the initiative are Rabbi Shlomo Friedman and Rabbi Yochanan Friedman of the Yad L’Shliach organization, Mica Soffer of COLlive.com and Yosef Shidler of CJ Studios Photography in Lakewood, New Jersey.
The cost is $385 per year (which is $1.05 a day) or $32.25 monthly ($1.06 a day). One dollar will be given directly to the Shluchim on your behalf. The remaining funds will be used toward credit card processing and other operational fees which will come to around $20 extra per year. Any and all surplus of money, if it should exist, will be given directly to Shluchim.
“As a fellow Shlucha, this really spoke to me,” says Shlucha Rochel Katz who works at the Aleph Institute to support both prisoners and military personnel. “I know how there can be times that can feel challenging, and receiving a gift like this will mean a lot to many Shluchim.”
“At $36 a month, the amount of people that this will ultimately help is something that will be much appreciated by those receiving it,” says Katz who donated as well. “This is also a mitzvah that you will be doing daily, as every day another Shliach will be receiving the money.”
With the new year off to a great start, DollarDaily.org will be serving a triple purpose – encouraging people to give tzedaka, supporting the Rebbe’s Shlichus around the world and uniting Jews from all walks of life on a daily basis. All that, for just $1 a day.
VIDEO: Entrepreneur Berel Solomon on the power of tzedakah
To join a “Dollar a Day for Shluchim”, visit DollarDaily.org
we keep seeing all these investments why not we invest a dollar a day in our school dont you think they need it more our own we struggle to keep teachers we struggle to have enough place for kids wouldnt that dollar a day help those yeshivas school help out next generattion
…why does one have to negate the other? So start a platform for schools, no one is stopping you.
Please set up the same concept for schools. I’ll give gladly as well. The concept is excellent. The result will be miraculous.
Why should one good thing be at the expense of another? This is populistic rhetoric implying that if one good thing gains the other loses.
You can support struggling Shluchim AND support local CH schools
Unless you’re suggesting that shlichus and Shluchim aren’t worthwhile causes – in case of which you may have “missed the point”…