NEW YORK COMEDIAN Joel Chasnoff entertained the crowd.

DEBORAH MOON/Jewish Review

Maimonides auction/raffle a hit

By DEBORAH MOON

article created on: 2009-04-01T00:00:00

Maimonides Jewish Day School Auction honorees Dr. Anthony and Priscilla Kostiner opened the Mitzvah Moment with a pledge of $3,600, double chai, and invited others to join them at that or other levels.

Two more pledges of $3,600 and an anonymous matching gift of $10,000 for gifts raised at the $1,800 level and below brought the total to more than $30,000 just during that brief bidding frenzy as community members supported scholarships for the day school.

The response to the Kostiners’ plea for support for the school, likely came as no surprise to Jewish Federation of Greater Portland Executive Vice President Charles Schiffman, who earlier in the evening called the couple “incredible role models” and noted that “true leaders inspire others to follow them.”

Schiffman also praised MJDS, which last year became a constituent agency of the federation, as “an excellent example of both” Jewish learning and Jewish doing, which he called essential for the continuation of Jewish life.

The $21,618 raised during the mitzvah moment and the rest of the auction enables the school to live up to its mission of warmly accepting each and every child, said MJDS Education Director Sharon Pollin.

“Because of your presence here tonight, there are no financial barriers,” she said.

“Maimonides is a place of joyful learning,” added Pollin. “Teachers know each student as an individual learner. Ethical action is stressed throughout the day. Our students come from a variety of Jewish backgrounds and Jewish experience and each is celebrated for who he or she is.”

In recognition of the fragile economic climate, this year the school replaced the traditional silent auction with a series of raffles. Rather than bidding on items, people could put their number on a raffle ticket and deposit it in a box next to the item they desired. Raffle tickets ranged from $5 to $20, depending on the prize.

The innovative strategy raised more than $7,000 of the auction total. As one example of the potential of the idea, 25 people bought $20 raffle tickets for a chance to win a Wii, which had a value of $299, raising far more than would have been bid on the item at a traditional silent auction. Vacations at Skamania Lodge and Shalishan also brought in well over the value of the item.

MJDS Director Devora Wilhelm said that raffling items off instead of holding a silent auction was very successful. The raffle brought in more than silent auctions in all but two years of the auction’s 14 year history, she said.

New York comedian Joel Chasnoff not only entertained the crowd of 160 with his Jewish humor, he also served as auctioneer for the 12 items in the live auction.

Chasnoff said he attended Jewish day school in Chicago, so he was well aware of the importance of supporting a day school. While Chasnoff said he now treasures the ability to be able to go into any synagogue in the world and know the prayers thanks to his day school and Jewish camp experiences, he said at the time sports were the highlight for him.

Playing on the varsity basketball team, he said he felt he was playing for all Jews, which was intensified by the fact that the Jewish team had to play in the Catholic league since there weren’t enough Jewish teams for a league of their own.

“It was a holy war—Old Testament versus New Testament; Hashem versus the Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” he quipped. “That’s three on one.”

The auction was held at Congregation Neveh Shalom March 22.

“All Jews are friends and brothers together, so we are pleased to host things,” said Rabbi Daniel Isaak. He also offered tours of the expanded and remodeled synagogue, “If you haven’t been to our beautiful synagogue since we were fortunate to have been able to do our remodel before the economy turned down.”