As young Jewish children, we are introduced at a young age to the concept of tzedakah. Many, like myself, learned of this obligation in Sunday School, where a rectangular tin sat on the teacher’s desk into which I tried to deposit coins every week. Tzedakah, the Hebrew word for the acts we call “charity” in English, is able to be fulfilled by giving aid, assistance and money to the poor and needy or to other worthy causes. This idea is a fundamental part of Jewish life. I grew up knowing that there was more to life than just living it for myself. As a Jew, I had an obligation, a duty, to help those in need. According to Jewish law, we are required to give one-tenth of our income to these institutions; however, this was not of concern to us as children. We probably brought in no more than a few dollars a week, if that, but it excited us nonetheless. I remember the tzedakah “tins”, decorated in blue and white with a map of Israel, and I can still hear the clink the coins made when dropped in, and the excitement from feeling like you were a part of something that could make a difference, that would go on to create something great.

Flash forward to the present day. After an almost four year stint on my college’s student programming board, I decided to look for a job in the area of event planning. I only had one requirement – that the job be in New York City; the rest I left up to various job websites and chance. A week before I graduated, I was offered a job as an associate of Special Events at the American Museum of Natural History, the museum I had grown up visiting to satisfy my love for dinosaurs and gem stones. However, I was not hired to help plan events like Bar Mitzvahs and weddings; instead, I was hired on the development end, where most of our events were fundraisers for the Museum. My first big event was in October with the Museum’s Family Party, our family fundraiser, followed by our Museum Gala in mid-November. Often these events attract a well-known, well-funded, and well-dressed crowd: I have handed a gift bag to Nicole Miller and her son, and given Michael Eisner his place card. I have engaged in conversation with a member of Pakistani Royalty (so she said) who then took my business card promising to make me the next guest on her private jet, and I have seen Neil Young and Jon Stewart perform under the Museum’s famous blue whale.

At these events I always have moments where I am truly amazed at where my professional life has taken me, and then even more amazed at what these events produce, in return, for the Museum. Our invitations to these events and letters to committee members state that funds raised go towards the Museum’s educational and scientific programs, as well as to enable New York City School Children to visit the Museum for free. I have received checks for $10,000 for the Family Party, and I watched at our Gala’s auction as guests eagerly raised their paddles to offer $25,000 to sponsor the aforementioned school children. I love what I do, and I love that it is still possible to be touched and amazed by a single person’s generosity.

When asked in my interview why I liked doing events, I said that I loved the look of the students on campus when they saw the work the programming board had done. This is what drove me, what excited me: the idea that we made good things happen on campus. I still love the look on people’s faces at events, but my work over the last six months has also awakened the excitement I used to get from putting coins into the tzedakah box in Sunday School. Again I am part of something that makes a difference, helping to raise funds that go on to create something great.

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