Priorities

I know my post the other day about Charity Begins at Home did not go over well. Last night I went to a dinner for an organization with very few administrative costs (read:salaries),whose sole purpose is to help people in dire financial need with food, housing costs, heat, electricity and job placement. They don't care the color of your yarmulke or where you send your kids to school, they just want to help you.

In these bad economic times (a phrase almost as tired as "at the end of the day,"), they are of course hurting. Need is up (I believe they said close to 15%), and donations are down about 20%.

I think it is incumbent upon all of us, if we are cutting are giving, not to do it as an across the board percentage cut, because some organizations just cannot afford you to cut them. Maybe some should be cut 10% and others 20%, but I'm sure everyone can think of one or two that they can think of, that they should not cut at all, not even one penny.

And I repeat again, the need to first allocate to the institutions in your own neighborhoods.