Dear Readers, These columns began on my area of America Online, called:  Judaism Today:  Where Do I Fit?   People anonymously sent me E-Mail, and I began to choose one for a public response in my Jewish E-Mail of the Week column. The column has become quite popular and is now syndicated internationally in many Jewish papers and websites.  I hope you find they help you as you think about the Ethics, Spirituality and Peoplehood components of the Jewish way of Life.  I welcome your comments... see the end of the column. Gil PS  Teachers and others, feel free to copy my columns and forward them or use them as you see fit.  Please see the friendly copyright notice at the end.

RICH JEWS -- POOR JEWS

All Jews are rich....everyone knows that right? At least everyone knows that stereotype. This week, I am responding to a woman who knows first hand how untrue this stereotype is. She had much to say and unfortunately in the interest of space I need to edited down her letter. I hope you will respond as noted at the end of my reply....

Dear Gil:

A close friend of mine was a single mother living on the embarrassingly inadequate wage she earned working as the secretary of a local temple. If she came up short at the end of the month (a regular occurrence), instead of seeing that the problem was her minuscule income, people acted as if she were a spendthrift.

One day, I came to pick up my daughter from Hebrew school and saw my friend's son. The sole of his shoe flapping off his foot. The snow was knee-deep. He came in with a frostbitten foot. I was outraged that such a situation was allowed to continue under the noses of some very well-heeled individuals. It was impossible not to notice that this boy had no shoes in the winter, as he regularly came to meet his mother after school, but before her workday was over.

When I raised the issue with a few people in higher positions, they were remarkably unsympathetic towards her, insinuating that she just didn't know how to manage money. Although a single struggling mother myself, I made a hole in my budget to buy the child a pair of shoes. I am still angry, these fifteen years later, that the only one who did anything for her was I, one of the persons in that congregation least able to afford it.

I don't think "leaders" of various communities mean to be cruel, insulting, or flippant in their attitudes towards those with less. I think they just don't understand what poverty is. They think poverty could be overcome if (1) the poor made different "lifestyle choices," or (2) they were lectured into improving their characters. Divorced or widowed mothers, the mentally challenged, and the isolated elderly simply are not going to have the access to jobs or other income that younger, weller, married, and family-supported people are.

In my experience, when Jews come face to face with suffering, they react rather badly, denying it's there, blaming the victim, or worse, demonizing the sufferer. Perhaps a searching (i.e., not knee-jerk -- or guilt-jerk) discussion of this issue can finally be opened.

A

Dear A:

"All Jews are rich" -- another Jewish stereotype down the drain thanks to your E-mail that will likely provoke some discussion. As you will see at the end of my response, I hope it will provoke more than that. Clearly your E-mail is a product of painful experiences and I would not try to deny what you have seen and felt.

Your experiences are especially sad in view of Jewish law that speaks literally volumes about caring for the poor, the widow, orphan and stranger. This entire column could be citations on the subject from the Torah, the Prophets, the Talmud and other texts.

I don't think it is fair to say across the board that all Jews and Jewish organizations are callous or unhelpful to the poor. Traditionally and today Jews have gone beyond talk and study of the law about the disadvantaged.

One of the first things I did in researching a response to your E-mail was to contact some Jewish organizations involved with the Jewish poor. In no time at all, I was able to find professionals in three different organizations. This fact alone says something about Jewish responses to poverty.

These organizations do inspiring and noble work and exist all over the country in many forms (like Jewish Family Services, Vocational Services and countless Jewish social action committees, etc.) That's the good news.

The bad news is that I think you are probably right in saying that many Jews do not understand what poverty is. For example, what is considered poor? In the US, poor is about $24,000 for a family of 4. That money does not go far if you figure that basic housing could burn up half of this amount in many cities.

Using this standard, the number of Jews who are poor is staggering! In metropolitan New York City alone, about 180,000 Jews are estimated to be living at or below this level! You can add another 275,000 Jews who live in the category called the "near poor"-- that is an additional $6000 of income.

Those at the "near poor" level are not entitled to welfare or other public benefits. They may be unable to pay for child care, healthcare or other necessities. In addition, any crisis can push these people into a category of "poor" and then they have to wait to qualify for benefits.

Our economy may be booming, but so is poverty. In just the last 7 months, 5 (kosher) food pantries have been opened in NYC to feed hungry Jews.

Unfortunately, no reliable and up to date figures exists to tell us how many Jews nationally are living at or near poverty, though a national Jewish population study is in the works. Still, I believe anybody reading these words who says, "well that is New York -- but not my city" is likely making a mistake.

I don't think I am too far out on a limb by guessing that poor Jews live all over the country. In addition, I think it is easy to understand the difficulty and humiliation a person would feel in coming forward to ask for help....especially given the false impression many hold about "all Jews being rich."

My hope in publicizing your letter is twofold. First, to help those who are needy to realize that they are far from being the only poor Jewish person. Secondly, to sensitize those of us lucky enough not to live in poverty, that many fellow Jews are not so lucky. In addition, we must reach out to help.

What does this mean? May I suggest to my readers that after you finish reading this, you pick up the phone and call your local Federation, Jewish Family Service or synagogue. Find out what programming exists to assist the poor (Jewish and non-Jewish) and offer to give of your money and time. If no programming exists, offer to help put together a social action program or committee. How about as in inspiration from this writer's E-mail, organizing a hats, mittens and boots collection that a local synagogue can distribute this winter?

Thanks for giving me the chance to respond to you letter. I hope others will too!

Gil

A FRIENDLY COPYRIGHT NOTICE © Copyright Gil Mann These columns can be found at www.beingjewish.org.  Not only do I give you permissions to copy these Jewish Email columns...I HOPE YOU WILL and that you share them with others!  All I ask is that you never charge anyone for them and that you also include this little copyright notice.  Thank You!

Thanks,
Gil