On the fifth night of Hanukah, 18 journalists from all over
the world attended a Menorah lighting ceremony at the home of Yaakov and Rivky Yeruslavsky,
founders and directors of Lomda/Strauss Campus, a premier vocational and
academic training institute serving Jerusalem’s Haredi community. The
journalists, who are in a work stint in Jerusalem, were interested in getting a
close-up view of the Haredi community and had a most positive, heartwarming
experience. Israelgrants was given the task of following up and coordinating
follow-up interviews with the Yerulavksys about their work in Lomda/Strauss
Campus
And so Wednesday morning, the last day of Hanukah, found me
seated in Lomda/Strauss Campus’s conference room, alongside Yaakov and Rivky
Yeruslavsky, Professor Tolo Friedlander from The Hadassah Academic College,
David Alandete of the Spanish El Pais News Agency and Smadar Bakovic –
coordinator of Media Central, an organization that arranges encounters for foreign
journalists within Israel.
It was a riveting hour and a half, as I listened to the
exchanges between David and the Yeruslavskys. It was obvious that David, an
accomplished journalist for El Pais, the leading news agency in Spain, was
deeply impressed and any preconceived negative notions on Haredim he may have
gotten from tainted media reports were debunked. He found it remarkable that it
was particularly Rivky who launched this endeavor two decades ago. With all the
media propaganda about Haredi women being stifled and unappreciated, here was a
woman who personified creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership while still
maintaining her ultra-Orthodox lifestyle and values. David was especially
amazed at the ripple-effect transformation Yaakov and Rivky are effecting in
the Haredi community, by empowering Haredim with vocational skills that enable
them to achieve economic independence.
During the interview, Professor Friedlander repeatedly
affirmed the effective collaboration between Lomda/Strauss Campus and Hadassah
College. “We have found Lomda/Strauss Campus to be the perfect partner with
which to offer academic studies to the Haredi community. I see vast potential
for the number of Haredi students growing exponentially in the coming years.”
The interview began at 11:30. At 1:00, David was clearly
interested in more. “We can talk for hours,” he commented. But the next
journalist, Katri from Finland’s TV7 had already shown up and was eager to
start her time with the Haredi couple who is making a major impact on their own
community, on Israeli society at large, and even making headlines in the
international arena!
Observations of a Non-profit Resource Development
Consultant
As a staff member of Israelgrants, who assists Lomda/Strauss
Campus in its resource development efforts, I couldn’t help but marvel at the
valuable worldwide publicity Lomda/Strauss Campus was getting, for free! An
opportunity for non-Jewish journalists to experience Hanukah celebrations in an
ultra-Orthodox home set the stage for drawing media attention to the phenomenon
of Haredim integrating in the Israeli workforce. Lomda/Strauss Campus was
certainly fortunate to have such a window of opportunity and the publicity they
received was well deserved.
We advised Lomda/Strauss Campus to include Hadassah
College’s president and officials in this encounter, rather than keeping the
spotlight all to themselves. Thus, Lomda/Strauss Campus strategically
strengthened its relationship with the widely recognized academic institution.
This bolstering of ties will have a positive effect on fundraising efforts that
may be jointly initiated by Hadassah and Lomda/Strauss Campus.
The interviews themselves were so successful that our
invitation to the other international journalists were so well received that we
have scheduled an international press day and invited all of them next month to
hear us present our case to over 20 media outlets around the world!
Organizations pour tens of thousands of dollars into PR,
thinking it will reap quick dividends in the form of funding. Reality often
proves otherwise. Huge investment in PR does not automatically equal huge
grants from prospects. Nevertheless, effective PR serves an integral role in
resource development. When an organization earns a reputation for itself and garners
international media attention, its chances for earning the respect – and
consequently the dollars – of prospective funders are significantly upped. The
secret is: how to get maximum PR at minimum cost. The recent encounter at
Lomda/Strauss Campus was one example of how with a proper strategy an
organization can maximize a situation so to get a great deal of publicity at no
cost!
