Collectors

Collectors, are these frum people who are going from house to house, apartment to apartment, door to door, from early morning to late night collecting money for some cause. Sometimes it is for a sick child, or someone getting married. At other times it's for a widow with children or a yeshivah. There are many causes and even more collectors.

Lately, I am reading more and more about these poor collectors and how hard they work and how little they are able to accomplish. This one guy, at the end of a day, put all of the money out of his pockets and ended up with two piles of coins. No paper bills at all. Even if these two piles were made up of quarters only, I see his collection was between $10 and $20. That's for walking around the entire day.

Traditionally these collectors have probably existed as long as Judaism. Jews lived in dire poverty with very little opportunity to find jobs and make money. Going from door to door and collecting was the best way to accomplish the goal.

But that was then...

In today's US, especially in NY, most businesses employ Mexicans to do manual labor. These people are paid somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 per hour. So, if a Mexican works 8 hours, he makes $80 per day. I am sure that many of the local businesses would prefer hiring an orthodox Jew with a cause rather than a Mexican. I am not talking about racism here, just plain old comfort. People prefer working with others of similar background.

So, why are these collectors wasting their time going from door to door begging for a few pennies, if becoming a dishwasher or a stock-boy for a week would be more profitable and accomplish one's goal so much quicker?