Dear Friends,

Last month, the New York Times profiled the poorest town in the United States: Satmar Hasidic enclave Kiryas Joel. For many, it was surprising to read about so many poor American Jews; for others, it underscored a result of the Satmar decision to maintain an insular lifestyle. Reactions to this article notwithstanding, it is worth reflecting during Jewish American Heritage Month that, for all the economic success of American Jews, many Jews live in (or near) poverty.

The extent of poverty among immigrant Jews in generations past is well established, as can be seen in the 1907 report from the National Conference of Jewish Charities, Persistency of Dependence as Indicated by Relief Statistics, or in the 1914 Plea for the Children of the Unfortunate. The rising tide of American Jewish economic status did not lift all boats. Writing in Sh'ma in spring of 1972, Harry Gersh writes that "the number of Jewish poor range from 500,000 to 800,000." Writing in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service that same season, Ann G. Wolf of the American Jewish Committee argues that a lack of adequate information makes it difficult to understand or serve the needs of The Invisible Jewish Poor.

Later that year, Saul Kaplan challenged Wolf's methods and conclusions, and in 1973, Jack S. Cohen laid out the challenges inherent in defining poverty (Jewish Poverty: Measurement Problems). Noting that most Jewish poor are elderly, Benjamin R. Sprafkin identifies several other identifiable sub-groups, including families whose breadwinners are mentally or physically disabled, widows, divorcees, and other single-parent families (The Jewish Poor; Who Are They? Are We Helping Them Enough?). Chaim I. Waxman warns in 1979 that schools of Jewish communal service were distressingly disengaged from the needs of the Jewish poor.

The most prominent source of information on poor Jews in the New York City area is the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty.  In 1984, the Met Council released a report on The Low Income Population of  New York City, finding that out of New York's Jewish population of 1.1 million, nearly 77,000 Jewish individuals (comprising 38,000 households) had family incomes below the poverty line. Significantly, they found that only 30% of these poor Jewish individuals (50% of Jewish poor households) were elderly. In 1993, the Council reported on Jewish Poverty in the New York Suburbs, and in 1999 they commissioned Ukeles Associates to focus on one overwhelmingly Orthodox neighborhood in Assessing the Needs for Social Services in Boro Park.

In 2003, UJA-Federation of NY and Ukeles Associates studied Nazi Victims in the New York Area, finding that half of New York's Holocaust survivors live in households with incomes below 150% of poverty guidelines. In 2004, the Met Council and UJA-Federation of NY published a new Report on Jewish Poverty, finding that about 244,000 Jews in the New York area had income levels under 150% of Federal poverty guidelines. 27% of these were large Orthodox households, 23% were Russian-speakers under the age of 65 (44% altogether were Russian-speakers), 34% were over 65, and 16% were either disabled, unemployed, or had no college degree. (According to the Met Council, one subset of the latter group includes those about whom the Jewish community has typically been in denial: single parent households, substance abusers, and Israelis who are in the US without proper documentation.) An additional 104,000 Jews in the area are near-poor, the report concluded, with incomes only modestly above that level. These near-poor Jews are even less well-known and understood than their poor Jewish counterparts, argued William Rapfogel, Ilene S. Marcus, and Esther Larson in the Journal of Jewish Communal Service in 2007. "The near-poor are not poor enough to receive federal assistance," they point out, "but do not have the means to make ends meet." In 2009, the Met Council commissioned a Report on the Federal Poverty Thresholds and the Federal Poverty Guidelines, laying out many problems with current standards.

Jewish poverty is even more acute in Israel. Writing for Jewish Ideas Daily, Yehudah Mirsky recently explored the Class Divide between American and Israeli Jewry, writing: "The world's two largest Jewish communities differ in many ways. Class is one of them." Jenny Cohen-Khallas assessed Penury and Hunger in Israel in the pages of Sh'ma in May 2003, reminding readers that one sixth of Israel's population is impoverished. In the same issue of Sh'ma, Eliezer Jaffe examined Wealth, Poverty, and the Zionist Vision, asserting that poverty in Israel today "is caused foremost by the economic depression worldwide and the ongoing war with the Palestinians". (In 1975, the same author appraised Israeli poverty from the perspective of Sephardi-Ashkenazi Divisions.) Writing in 2009, "at the height of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression," Yael Shalgi outlined A Conceptual Map of Poverty in Israel, asserting, "Israel has a higher rate of poverty than most developed countries."

I invite you to browse BJPA resources relating to poverty, socioeconomic status, and many more important topics at bjpa.org.

With best wishes,

Steven 

Prof. Steven M. Cohen

Director, Berman Jewish Policy Archive @ NYU Wagner