As a part of our Rabbi Roundtable series, we brought together leading rabbis from all corners of the Jewish world to offer their thoughts on the big questions. This week, we asked our rabbis, “Is there poverty in your Jewish community? What should we be doing about it?” Here are their responses: Adina Lewittes, Conservative,…
I was six when I first felt guilty for receiving a gift. I didn’t know what money was, but I was pretty sure we didn’t have it. Although I didn’t grow up feeling inadequate, I somehow knew we had less. Nevertheless, Hanukkah was a festive occasion in my house. My parents made an abundance of…
A recent email from food-rescue organization City Harvest about kosher-turkey distribution at Thanksgiving revealed a staggering figure: There are more than half a million food-insecure poor or near-poor Jews in New York City. Hard as it is to fathom, the number is correct: One in four Jewish households in the five boroughs is in poverty…
My wife and I are broke. Don’t worry, it’s always been that way. Ever since we decided to sell all our stuff and move to Israel, and then sell all our stuff there and move back, we’ve been broke. Not like, broke broke — please don’t misunderstand. We’re not hungry or homeless. We’re middle-class broke….
This essay is part of our ongoing series, Outside the Bubble: Class and Inequality in the Jewish Community. It explores the class divides in Jewish communities of all denominations, and the financial struggles belonging to these communities can incur. Please email your thoughts and essays to batya@forward.com. In the ultra-Orthodox community in which I grew…
This time of year you might spy me in the supermarket smiling in the direction of the guy stocking the produce bins. If you do, know that I’m imagining what he would think if he knew that a fruit not terribly unlike the 50-cent lemons he’s handling recently commanded up to a couple hundred dollars…
Fifteen years of physical and emotional abuse finally forced Zahava to take her three young children, two of whom are legally blind, and leave her husband. This change was not easy as it was not the accepted solution in families from Georgia in the Former Soviet Union. The broken marriage left her to seek therapy…
This essay is part of our ongoing series, Outside the Bubble: Class and Inequality in the Jewish Community. It explores the class divides in Jewish communities of all denominations, and the financial struggles belonging to these communities can incur. Please email your thoughts and essays to batya@forward.com. As I look ahead to the New Year,…
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