There’s a common misconception that New York’s Jewish community has largely been spared the scourge of poverty. In reality, 565,000 of the 1.8 million people in Jewish households in the greater New York area live at or near poverty — one third of our community.
The faces of Jewish poverty in New York are diverse: single parents, elderly Jews from the former Soviet Union, ultra-Orthodox families. And, perhaps surprisingly, even your neighbor next door. Numerous middle-class families are just one life-altering event — job loss, divorce, or health crisis — from being dragged into a spiral of debt and hardship.
Looking more broadly across New York City, there are a total of 1.7 million people living in poverty. The magnitude of this issue both in the Jewish community and beyond makes it far too big for any one organization to tackle on its own. Yet, there is insufficient coordination and shared learning among providers in the field, government, and the private sector. We can and must do better.
Helping move toward that goal, this week UJA held a full-day conference on poverty, bringing together many leading professionals (including a number from the UJA network), policy makers, government officials, philanthropists, and thought leaders.
The conference kicked off with Matthew Desmond, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, who opened our eyes to the enormity of the housing crisis. Last year alone, there were 2.3 million eviction filings in America. To put a human face on this staggering statistic, he shared the tragic story of a single mother and her two sons, evicted and forced to move from home to home, some barely habitable, and the massive toll it exacted on the family. Matthew reminded us that “poverty reduces people born for better things.”
Other speakers and panelists, including the chair of Robin Hood and other cutting-edge innovators in the field, shared insights about food insecurity, workforce development, and how new technology can be used effectively to address homelessness and hunger.
Since 1917, UJA-Federation has been committed to fighting poverty — in fact, we were created precisely for that purpose. So in marking our centennial, we were particularly motivated to look for today’s best solutions, and have now launched two initiatives that we believe can truly change lives.
First, we’re piloting a digital choice kosher food pantry at four locations across the community, and plan to bring this technology to all food pantries in our network. Clients use touch screens (with the help of social workers, if necessary) to order food. They are spared long and embarrassing waits on lines. Equally important, instead of getting pre-packaged foods that don’t take into account health issues or cultural preferences, clients can choose the foods that make the most sense for their families, diminishing waste and inefficiency — and maximizing dignity for all users.
Next, adopting the model of St. John’s Bread & Life, an organization that’s achieved extraordinary results in Bedford-Stuyvesant, we’re building two groundbreaking community resource hubs in the densest areas of Jewish poverty — central Brooklyn and central Queens. Working respectively with Met Council and the Central Queens Y/Samuel Field Y, these hubs will offer a broad range of critical services under one roof — digital choice food pantries, job training, financial and legal counseling, benefits screening and enrollment, and more — a holistic approach that has proven highly effective in moving many more people from crisis to stability.
The reality is we’re never going to eradicate poverty. But we can impact lives in a profound way, giving people their dignity and a path to self-sufficiency.
At our poverty conference, two speakers referenced the oft-quoted Talmudic saying prominently displayed on the walls of UJA — “One who saves a life saves the entire world.”
So let’s continue saving the world together, one person at a time.
Shabbat shalom