BROOKLYN, NY — With an eye on the growing financial crisis, Jewish centers operated by Chabad-Lubavitch are refusing to cut programming, all while doing everything possible to trim budgets and rely on an expanded team of local volunteers and donors. But even with the economy in a tailspin, new centers continue to sprout around the globe.
Jewish Leaders Refuse to Let Up in Face of Worsening Economy
BROOKLYN, NY — With an eye on the growing financial crisis, Jewish centers operated by Chabad-Lubavitch are refusing to cut programming, all while doing everything possible to trim budgets and rely on an expanded team of local volunteers and donors. But even with the economy in a tailspin, new centers continue to sprout around the globe.
“The first question my colleagues me is about my financial situation,” says Rabbi Menachem Hartman, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Vietnam, who is in New York with thousands of his colleagues for the annual International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries. “They want to know if there is any way they can assist me.”
Although Vietnam was not hit as hard as other countries at the beginning of the latest economic downturn, times are quickly getting tight, says Hartman. Since moving to Southeast Asia two years ago, he’s rarely asked for donations, but he feels that he may need to start.
Hartman emphasizes, however, that in no way will he cut programming.
“Donations that we receive from foreign visitors have dwindled over the past few months,” he says. “We cut our spending on a personal level, and in ways that the community will not notice.”
