Presence

How about this simple equation:
My friends bought a house "on paper" in a brand new project at a special "first five buyer's" price of $280,000. The units are now being offered to the general public at $320,000.
$280,000 X 4.5 (the rate he bought it) = 1.26 million nis.
$320,000 x 3.97 (today's rate) = 1.27 million nis.
Not only is it no longer a bargain, but if his money is in savings in the USA, then he has to come up with ~$35,000 more for his house. Pretty crazy, no?
Good thing Hashem knows what He's doing, 'cuz we sure don't.

That is pretty crazy, I don't have a good head for these kind of things.

And, if you read the post I linked to, the author explains how this is all due to the fact that the NIS is not a freely traded currency, or something like that. There are ways we could fix this. Plus the whole gemara in Moed Kattan...

Houses in Israel are vey often bought and sold in dollars. a fluctuation in the shekel should not impact the pricing in dollars. It does hurt the tourists and people living in israel earning a living through their american business. tghe strong israeli economy and market appear to creating this trend. it is at 3.97 today.

Opinions: read the post I linked to; housing prices are addressed, and prove to also be a problem.

Greg, what particularly did you find interesting about that quote. Was it the "Scant few charities had sufficient foresight" part?

I did afterwards. Interesting blog.

Just in general that this had an affect on fundraising...not something I would have thought about.

By the way, if I understand how this works correctly, it also means that a trip to the US is now about 15% less profitable for a meshulach. Which means that either less folks from Israel are going to come, or they are going to ask for more (probably the latter). And it could have an affect on the drivers.

and a trip to Israel (excluding flight) is 15% more expensive....(yes, sometimes even the hotels) I reserved a hotel in israel and it was in shekels. it still was much cheaper (30% less)then the rate quoted in dollars

"There are ways we could fix this."

There might be, but such solutions tend to be along the lines of "fixing" fevers by using the centigrade scale: "Good news! You thought you had a 102, turns out it's only 39!"

As you were.

This explains why there was a meshulach in my shul today and not in Baltimore, hachnosos kallah is suddenly a better deal in Israel that at Shomrei

This means that when I collect shaliach mitzvah money at shomrei you guys better ante up an extra dollar or two.

My rent (may my landlord re-adjust it) is also tied to the dollar at a much higher rate. So, my landlord is making a killing off of us now. Supposedly at the end of the rental year we're supposed to do some kind of "true up", we'll see what that means.

This explains why there was a meshulach in my shul today and not in Baltimore, hachnosos kallah is suddenly a better deal in Israel that at Shomrei

This means that when I collect shaliach mitzvah money at shomrei you guys better ante up an extra dollar or two.

My rent (may my landlord re-adjust it) is also tied to the dollar at a much higher rate. So, my landlord is making a killing off of us now. Supposedly at the end of the rental year we're supposed to do some kind of "true up", we'll see what that means.