Financial Difficulties and Fundraising
Furthermore, the House of Love and Prayer had no formal relationships with other Jewish institutions in the city. Temple Emanu-El allowed Shlomo to visit their community to sing songs, and some people from Emanu-El would actually wander down to the House to see what was happening there, purely out of curiosity. Coincidentally, the House of Love and Prayer was one block away from Temple Emanu-El. Anshey Sfard, an Orthodox synagogue on Clement Street near the House of Love and Prayer, was the only community welcoming of the House and its unique brand of Judaism.
Since they had no community support, the financial struggles of the House were very real. For example, they never knew how they would pay the rent each month. Not everyone who lived at the house had a job that would help pay rent or pay for food. Those that did were able to contribute to a rent fund. On the first day of every month Aryae Coopersmith or Elia Succot, the leaders of the House, would go to the bank to see how much money they had in the House account, hoping that by some miracle there would be enough money to cover the rent. And every month there would be just enough to pay rent on time. They never knew who put enough money in the account or how it got there.
Most of the funding for the House of Love and Prayer came from a biannual fundraising campaign that often netted as much as $10,000. The campaign consisted mostly of letters sent out widely to Jews in the Bay Area and beyond in the hopes that the solicitations would yield private donations. With the money, they purchased books for the House of Love and Prayer Yeshiva library, paid rent or the mortgage, and bought food. The success of these campaigns showed members of the House that although they had no support from mainstream Jewish institutions, there were individuals who supported their efforts.
