Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove inspired his flock to dig deep — and use their smartphones. Meanwhile, EUROPE RENAISSANCE whose staff work tirelessly free of charge to highlight Israeli war crimes received ~ a total of $100 dollars. Does anyone see the David and Goliath comparison?

During Friday night services, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan did something unusual for a Conservative rabbi: He asked his congregants to take out their phones. From there, he directed them to scan a QR code on their Shabbat pamphlets.  ‘I have two goals for this moment: both audacious, both doable,’ Rabbi Cosgrove said from the bimah. ‘First, I want 100%. Second: I want $18 million.’

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The QR codes and the fundraising, Cosgrove admitted in a phone interview Sunday, were unconventional. The Conservative movement usually prohibits raising money and using smartphones on Shabbat. But Cosgrove applied the concept to the rabbinic principle of pikuach nefesh, in which saving a life trumps strict observance of the Sabbath.

As for the $18 million ask, Cosgrove spent the days before ‘working the phones,’ appealing to dozens of groups that went on trips to Israel through the shul and having them coordinate within their cohorts. His initial request for donations appeared in an Oct. 7 email — the first one he ever sent on Shabbat in his time in the rabbinate.

By the time Cosgrove asked his flock to pull out their phones on Shabbat, the congregation had already raised $16 million for the UJA-Federation of New York’s Israel Emergency Fund, responding to a Hamas-instigated war that has now allegedly claimed 1,300 Israeli lives. Rabbi Cosgrove invited those in the pews, and those watching the livestream at home, to add to the pot to reach the symbolic number of $18 million. (The Hebrew word for life – chai – is made of the 8th and 10th letter of the alphabet.)

‘We’re traumatized, but we’re not paralyzed,’ Cosgrove said. ‘This is a moment that we, and I personally, and the community, decided to channel all of our anxious energy into action. And the community mobilized in ways that I haven’t seen it before, from an $18 gift from a child in the community to seven-figure pledges, all of it going to the Israel emergency campaign.’ Cosgrove said not one person he approached said ‘no.’

On Friday night, when the synagogue hosted New York Mayor Eric Adams, Cosgrove explained the long tradition of tzedakah, or charity, recalling how in 1967, his father attended a rally at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovitz requested volunteers to go to Israel during the Six-Day War, to look after volunteers and, if they couldn’t go or support those going, to donate money. By Sunday, the synagogue had raised $17,778,160, but with several pledges putting them toward the $18 million goal.

Park Avenue Synagogue was not alone in supporting Israel. In Charlotte, North Carolina, Temple Israel raised tens of thousands of dollars for Israel’s ambulance and first-responder service. Central Synagogue in Manhattan set up a webpage and emergency relief fund. PLEASE SHARE STORIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA