ARR 527-528

CCAR RESPONSA

American Reform Responsa

166. Games of Chance in Connection with Fundraising

(Vol. XLVI, 1936, p. 126)

QUESTION: Several organizations of our Temple are planning to raise a special fund for the erection of a school house adjoining our present building. One of the principal means they hope to use is a bazaar. That will involve certain gambling devices such as wheels of chance and other similar contrivances. They would like to know whether such measures are ethically permissible.

ANSWER: Legally, there is no objection. We can look at the matter from the following aspect: the Jewish law, while disqualifying a gambler from giving evidence in lawsuits, stipulates that this applies only to professionals whose sole occupation is gambling (see Choshen Mishpat, 34.16). Moreover, although one lending money on interest is debarred from being a witness (ibid., 34.10), if he does so with monies belonging to orphans whose guardian he is, he is not disqualified “because he thinks he is doing a mitzvah in order to increase the funds of the orphans” (ibid., 34.11).

There is further the case, bearing more directly on the subject of the question, of a respected Jew of Modena (Italy) who was in straitened circumstances and was about to sell a very valuable Sefer Torah. The rabbi of Modena, R. Ishmael Sacerdote (died 1811), a famous Talmudist and author of Responsa Zera Emet (3 volumes), even issued a letter of recommendation for this scheme, urging its furtherance as a “mitzvah” (see Zera EmetIII, no. 144).

However, “ethically” there are grounds for scruples, especially if the attractive features of the bazaar are advertised and brought to the notice of the non-Jewish clergy. The New York Times(June 14, 1935), for example, devoted a column to the report of a special committee of the United Lutheran Synod of New York, which strongly condemned games of chance at bazaars for raising money for the support of Lutheran churches. Such Jewish affairs, especially if much publicized, may lower the respect for Judaism in the eyes of non-Jews. Hence, discretion is advisable even from this angle alone.

Jacob Mann and Committee

If needed, please consult Abbreviations used in CCAR Responsa.