Prepared for the Berinoh committee · July 2026

Gemach Hamerkazi:
how families fund each other's weddings

Families pay in a small amount each month for years. In return they receive a large interest-free loan when a wedding comes, and they pay that loan back so the next family can be helped. This page lets you change every rule of the scheme and watch what happens over the next fifty years.

Where the money for loans comes from

0%

 

New family moneyRepayments recycled

One family's journey

The same £4,800 does two jobs: half is the family's own savings, half is what keeps the fund alive for everyone else.

Where the scheme stands at the end of the period

The picture that matters

In the early years almost every loan is paid for by families still saving. As repayments build, the fund increasingly pays for itself.

What if nobody new ever joined again?

This is the question a committee should always ask of a scheme like this. Set a run-off year in the controls above and these figures answer it.

Year by year

One row for each year of the run.

What this model assumes

  • Families pay in from the month they enrol and stop once they have reached the full paid-in target or have received their loan.
  • When a family reaches the front of the list, any shortfall against the full target is paid at that moment, and that money is available to help fund the same month's lending.
  • Loans are paid out whole. If the fund cannot afford a complete loan, that family waits until the following month.
  • Repayments begin the month after a loan is paid out. Because the family's own savings cover the closing instalments, cash repayments stop early and the fund keeps the community contribution.
  • Cash that is not lent stays in the fund and is available the following month. Nothing sits idle.
  • Families are served strictly in the order they enrolled.
  • Loans that stop being repaid are modelled as a steady annual rate applied to loans still in repayment, with any recovery arriving after the stated delay.
  • Running costs are taken out of money received before any lending decision is made.
  • The reserve is measured against the savings the fund would owe waiting families, and is never lent.
  • Results scale with size. Doubling enrolment doubles the money and leaves waiting times and percentages unchanged.
  • Every figure here follows from the rules you set on this page. Whether those rules and rates are realistic is the committee's judgement, not the model's.