As Operation Metro Surge ramped up in Minnesota, the leadership of Shir Tikvah Congregation realized there would be a need for mutual aid efforts in the state.
In a little more than a month, Shir Tikvah’s Yesod Fund topped $1 million in donations, the synagogue announced in an e-mail on Feb. 27.
“We didn’t know yet what the scale of need would be and we couldn’t have imagined the devastation, the economic crisis that would be wrought by this,” said Rabbi Arielle Lekach-Rosenberg, who said the new goal is to do their best to raise another $1 million. “We did understand that there would be needs around being able to provide for the basic needs of our neighbors. And so we started investigating how to do that kind of mutual aid work right at the beginning of the surge.”
Donations have come in from more than 2,500 individual donors from 47 of 50 states – only missing Hawaii, Delaware and West Virginia – and donation amounts have ranged from $5 to $50,000. In the six rounds of distributions so far, more than 500 families have benefited.
The fund was started, Lekach-Rosenberg said, as a way to invite people nationally to support people in Minneapolis who have been unable to work or leave their homes for fear of being swept up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Customs and Border Protection agents.
Aid has been given out on Sunday mornings on a first-come, first-served basis, with the application window opening at 10 a.m. Starting on March 1, recipients are chosen via a lottery system.
The speed at which the funds have been dispersed has ramped up significantly over the first five weeks. In week one, it took 16 hours for the $50,000 to be applied for and distributed. In week 5, the applications were open for 3 minutes, and $270,000 were distributed.
The amount distributed each Sunday is determined by the amount raised in that week. Through five weeks, $650,000 were distributed, and another $175,000 will be processed in the March 1 round. The most recent update from the synagogue said that 96 percent of the requests are for rent assistance, and families in 25 Minnesota communities have received funds.
On a Sunday three weeks ago, Lekach-Rosenberg was sitting with religious school families and they all got the news together that $85,000 were distributed in seven minutes.
“Between talking to that amazing table of parents, to [Shir Tikvah executive director] Jess [Markuson] and our beloved community partner, the Rev. Hierald Osorio at San Pablo Church, we decided to raise a million dollars,” she said. To put the $1 million into perspective, the rabbi said, Shir Tikvah’s operating budget is “a little upwards of a million dollars.”
Markuson and Director of Operations Raena Barrios are the two staff members who oversee the donations coming in, and the distribution of the funds. Barrios said they worked with non-profit attorneys to understand the best practices around vetting the applicants.
“We do verification on all our applicants, [which is] landlord confirmation and also having just the human connections of, how did you find us?” Barrios said. “There’s one-on-one contact, verifying every applicant before we distribute any funds,”
Barrios said they often get a roster of students from teachers who are vouching for students and their families, as well as school social workers, English Language teachers, and homeroom teachers.
“We’re moving funds through those kinds of funnels as well,” she said. “It’s an incredibly heavy, time-consuming roller coaster of how it feels to see the need in a spreadsheet on our computer. It’s really an honor to get to do the work and to do it quickly, and so we prioritize our responsiveness in opening forms every week, and our responsiveness to our donors, acknowledging and telling them where their money is going around the Twin Cities.”
Lekach-Rosenberg knows that, regardless of how successful the Yesod Fund is, the rent crisis won’t be solved overnight.
“The devastation of the invasion is immense, and people are still in hiding because there’s still surveillance, there’s still harassment,” she said. “Part of our job is to be able to continue to push and invite people to contribute. That’s been incredibly powerful.”
