Poverty in the New York area’s Jewish community is growing
fast with more than 560,000 people — or 20 percent — classified as poor, a
survey conducted by the UJA-Federation New York revealed.
Jewish poverty has doubled in the past 12 years and 200,000
more people are labeled as being near-poor.
The survey covers the five boroughs of New York City: the
Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island, as well as the nearby
counties of Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester. The survey also found that there
are twice as many people living in poor Jewish households in 2013 as there were
in 1991.
Conditions are noticeably dire for senior citizens and
children. Although overall numbers have slightly gone down for seniors, 45% of
children living in Jewish households live in poor or near-poor conditions. The
largest group of poor Jewish households remain those of Russian-speaking
seniors.
The survey also reveals ethnic discrepancies. Households
with residents from the former Soviet Union or Hasidic backgrounds are more
likely to live in poverty.
William E. Rapfogel, chief executive officer of the
Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, said during a conference call on
Thursday morning that within many Jewish communities there is still a stigma
attached to receiving government benefits. “It’s still a taboo subject,” he
said. But there are also elderly residents who do not have the physical
resources to even apply for benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition
Assistance Program, also known as food stamps.
Dr. John Ruskay, execitive vice president and chief
executive officer of UJA-Fed NY, said they plan to expand the capacity of
volunteers and work with AmeriCorps to create new programs and also create a
volunteer corp of older adults. However, the federation is still assessing much
of the data to find longterm solutions to tackle poverty in the Jewish
community.
One location where poverty in Jewish households is
relatively low is Staten Island. UJA-Fed NY representatives said that many
Russian speaking residents of Brooklyn see the outer borough as a destination
once they are able to accumulate some kind of wealth.
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