Haredi lottery comes to town
After rabbis issue halachic ruling permitting lottery, a monthly enterprise gets underway: tickets cost 100 shekels and the proceeds go to charity
A lottery for the haredi public? In this new project, known as "Goralot," participants whose numbers match are not the only ones who win; the profits from ticket sales will go for charity purposes to the "Tiferet Rechesim" fund, which provides aid for families in need and young haredi dropouts.
The legal permission for the haredi lottery was granted by the head rabbis of the fund, Rabbi Rafael Wint and local Chief Rabbi Yaakov Zonenfeld, who support the new initiative.
The first lottery drawing is planned for Rosh Chodesh Adar (February 5th), and more drawings will take place each month with tickets costing 100 shekels (about $26). The staff of Goralot suggests that participants can buy tickets with their money set aside for charity (ma'aser). "This way, they can donate to charity as well as personally gain and keep donating from the same money they earn," explained Elisha Cohen, one of the project founders.
It works like this: every drawing will include ten thousand tickets in which one in every 10 wins a cash prize. The first prize winner will receive 100 thousand shekels ($25,500); 10 runners-up will win 4,000 shekels ($1,020), 20 will win 200 shekels ($50), and 769 people will win back the price of the ticket, 100 shekels.
The haredi initiators of the project tell Ynet that the growing need for charity funds caused them to ponder how to support the public and funnel money into this organization, when there are so many others out there.
The project's founders are calling Goralot "the next big thing in the haredi community." To sell cards, ticket agents will operate in haredi population centers and, according to reports, have already sold more than 3,500 tickets. Next week, Goralot will begin advertising in haredi media and street billboards.
