UJA

My experience with the UJA:

The summer after freshman year, I stayed in the city for 5 extra weeks or so and decided to try to make a few extra bucks. UJA representatives had been flyering around campus the last few weeks of school about being a fundraiser (i.e. telemarketer) for the federation. First came a group interview. Then about a week later, you were invited to an (unpaid) training session. Then came your "final" interview where some other college student pretended to be a 40-something Long Island Jew and you tried to get her to donate a triple chai. Then they tell you that it wasn't perfect yet, but 'cause you have potential, they're gonna give you a REAL final interview where you can try to convince the Long Island lady again. I'm not sure how much longer the process goes on (Final Final Final Interviews?) 'cause by that point, it was time for me to go home to Florida.

So what did I take away from this fiasco? The UJA means business when it comes to raising money. The script plotted out every possible response. Furthermore, the whole interview farce allowed them to end up with a team of well-trained telemarketers before every having to dole out a dime. Goldberg's article didn't surprise me; that organization knows how to raise a dollar or two.

The other lesson I took away from the training session was how much good work the UJA does (although now that I know more about it, I guess a lot of the things they talked about were really done by organizations that fall under its umbrella). The thing that has always stuck with me was when the representative told us about airlifting Ethiopian Jews out of the country. At the time Goldberg wrote his article, the funds raised by the UJA had fallen. It would be interesting to see if Goldberg's theory holds up and the amount of money raised had risen since the start of the 2nd Antifada.