Block Gift for Simcha

amother

Jetblack

Wed, Oct 28 2015, 10:50 am

There is always somebody on our block that collects money from everyone on the block invited to the simcha and buys something for the kiddish and they make a list who chips in. When I recently made a kiddush I did not receive anything from the block. Am I supposed to continue to give when people call me for the other simchas on the block?

smilingmom

Wed, Oct 28 2015, 12:07 pm

Is there one person in charge of collecting?
Is there a protocol of how much is given for each type of simcha?

On our block, one person is in charge of collecting, I think we started with $40 per family and she disperses the gifts as the simchas come up. I am not sure how much is given for each life event. I do not think anything is given for newborns, (except meals, by another committe). When the funds run low, they ask us to replenish.
Everyone gets a text of all Simhcas.

Raisin

Thu, Oct 29 2015, 5:54 am

Tough one. Obviously it just fell by the wayside. Maybe your simcha was at a busy time, or you don't have as many close friends to arrange something like this. Who knows? I'm sure you are not the first person to be missed out, no doubt others had that experience. Since there is no one person who does it each time, who can you blame exactly?

Unfortunately, you will just look petty if you say you are not giving money because you got skipped.

I had a similar experience once...I was working in a school and me and another teacher were getting married and leaving at the end of the school year. They collected money from everyone and presented the other teacher with a nice leaving gift. Nothing for me. After they presented it they realised what they had done, and were very embarrassed. The two teachers who arranged the gift explained that since I had invited them to my wedding (the other teacher hadn't) they had bought me a wedding gift so decided that was enough. Obviously they had not thought it through...