israel Green charity

Mobilizing for Poverty

Posted by admin under Getting By In Israel, Perspective, Poverty in Israel, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Tzedakah, What can THEY do

Mobilize!

I am sitting in a cafe near the entrance to the Jerusalem Foreign Media Center. I just overheard one of the reporters say that he has never seen such a massive buildup around the Gaza Strip as what he saw yesterday. The initial news last week reported that the army had asked for authorization to call up 30,000 reservists. “Back then” they said we would likely get 10,000, the same number called up during Operation Cast Lead four years ago. This morning’s numbers are now at 75,000!

I am not a member of any government body. Nor do I write here to question what the government, and certainly not the IDF is doing (though we are certainly allowed to and expected to question the government). I just have a small yet important observation.

If we can mobilize so many, and spend so much (I do not question either the spending nor the numbers) in so short a time. certainly we can find the wherewithal to mobilize against poverty.

Karmey Hesed’s Newest Video

Posted by admin under Child Poverty, Children, Crime, Disposable Income, Divorce, Getting By In Israel, Green Charity, Perspective, Poverty in Israel, Self Improvement, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Terrorism and Poverty, Torah, Tzedakah, Uncategorized, Unemployment, What can "I" do, What can THEY do, World Poverty

Disposable Income

Posted by admin under Child Poverty, Disposable Income, Getting By In Israel, Poverty in Israel, Social Justice, Unemployment, What can THEY do

Disposable Income

A friend of mine used a great metaphor the other day. We were speaking about the differences between life in Israel vs that of living in North America. He used a very thought provoking comparison. He said that here in Israel when there is no food at home it means, that’s the way it is. Not much to do but to wait until the beginning of the next month, and payday. Whereas in the US one would say, hmmm, no food at home, lets go out to eat!

No, not everyone in Israel has the “Israeli Experience” of not having food at home. In fact, the vast majority do have, and sometimes even plenty of it.

There  are however many many homes where that is very much not the case. As we have discussed before, a disposable income is something that even for the majority of Israeli families is a foriegn concept, pardon the pun.

The question of course still remains, ok, we know that, but what can we do about it?

If Only it Were This Easy – Getting Out of Poverty

Posted by admin under Child Poverty, Children, Disposable Income, Getting By In Israel, Perspective, Poverty in Israel, Self Improvement, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Tzedakah, What can "I" do, What can THEY do

Break the Cycle

The Brookings Institution came out out with a study a while back that suggests that its “easy” to get out of, or at least, avoid, poverty. Their suggestions might make sense in the USA, or other developed coutries where the concept of a “Disposable Income” exists. However, in a place like Israel, that is just not the case. Here is their article:

We’re a nation of bootstraps. Pull hard enough and you can pull yourself from rags to riches.

Or so we like to think. New research suggests we’re not as strapping as we might think when it comes to economic mobility.

New research from the Brookings Institution shows that economic mobility – the chance a child born into a poor family has to escape poverty – isn’t as robust as we might think.

If you’re born into a middle-class family, there’s a 76 percent chance you’ll end up middle class or even wealthier. Born into a poor family? Only a 35 percent chance. More here.

Alleviating Poverty – A must listen…

Posted by admin under Perspective, Self Improvement, Social Justice, What can "I" do, What can THEY do, World Poverty

Wedding Pressure

Posted by admin under Disposable Income, Perspective, Self Improvement, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Torah, Tzedakah, What can "I" do, What can THEY do

Wedding Expenses

I had the pleasure of attending a very beautiful wedding this evening. The guests were dressed in the finest. Both the bride’s ad the groom’s families were at their fines The smorgasbord was great, and the dinner even better.

THE ONLY THING that bothered me was that the father of the b=groom is someone who literally has to work 3 hours per meal served there to pay for the wedding. And that’s just for the c What about the clothes, the band, the photographer? To be honest, I do not know if this was one of those “the-bride’s-side-pays-for-the-wedding weddings, or if was a 50/50 deal. Whatever the case, I think there is something truly wrong when one side of the wedding is expected to foot such a large amount of money because the other wants a “fancy” affair.

In this particular case I personally know the family and know that he father of the groom worked untold extra hours to pay for his part. I TRULY BELIEVE that there has to be a new movement started on which weddings and other simcha expenses are kept to a realistic and more modest expenditure.. There are some chasidic groups who have started this and this is the way!

When Child Allowance Doesn’t Come In

Posted by admin under Child Poverty, Children, Disposable Income, Getting By In Israel, Poverty in Israel, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Unemployment, What can THEY do

Baby Bonus

A good friend of mine, who happens to be in a lot of debt… also has a debt to Bituach Leumi (National Insurance. The debt “cropped up” as a result of his trying to come clean with all the tax authorities. Even though he hadn’t been “making a living” in the years that the debt was incurred, he was still assessed for several thousands of shekels owing.

As part of his “survival strategy”, he basically ignored this ticking time bomb so that he could pay for the basic necessities, milk, diapers, bread, and the like. The problem is of course, that as with (almost) all debt, it eventually catches up. and that it did.

In due course the child allowance payments stopped coming in. At 1800 shekels a month, for someone not-getting-by on his 10,000 pre-tax salary, that’s a lot of cash. Especially when there are 7 children, a wife, and himself to feed.

In case you were wondering, this is NOT an article complaining about the Israeli government and  its policies.
Its simply an article that tries to demonstrate the close to impossible situation many Israelis live in.

Well, there are people who really do have more serious problems, health, Shalom Bayit et-al. As they say, it’s only money…

Rosenblum on The Socio-Capitalist State

Posted by admin under Disposable Income, Getting By In Israel, Perspective, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Torah, Tzedakah, Unemployment, What can THEY do, World Poverty

Jonathan Rosenblum

Everywhere one turns the European social welfare model, or as it is sometimes called in the United States, the blue-state model, is breaking down. The president of the European Council said already more than a year ago, “We can’t finance our social model anymore.” And in the United States, the so-called Red States have consistently outperformed over the past decade the Blue States, which follow the European model of high taxes, high spending, and strong public employee unions. Hundreds of thousands of workers have fled high-tax California for Texas, which has no state income tax. Over the past decade, states with no state income tax grew 18% versus 8% for the other states. The 22 states with right-to-work laws have grown 15% versus 6% for the other states. And those that do not require collective bargaining for public employees grew 15% versus 7% for those that do.

Recognition that the social welfare model is history fuelled the huge Republican gains in the 2010 elections. But in other ways, the news has been slow to seep in. Despite the fact that California has been reduced to issuing paper chits for obligations it cannot meet, and the state’s rapid population loss, Californians still elected 1970s retread Jerry Brown, the one-time Governor Moonbeam, over a highly successful Republican businesswoman with an inexhaustible campaign chest in 2010. Illinois, with hundreds of millions in unfunded pension plan liabilities, nevertheless narrowly elected a Democratic governor, who promptly pushed for in increase in the state income tax, even as Republican governors of surrounding states openly solicited Illinois businesses to flee to them. And as the collapse of the European social welfare model in Europe was becoming more and more evident, the United States enacted a massive regulatory scheme, touching every aspect of national healthcare (about one-sixth of the overall economy) that will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the national debt in the coming decades.

The question, then, becomes what is the enduring attraction of the European model, and why is it so hard to reverse? Walter Russell Mead begins to answer the question with a description of the.progressive social model: “A bureaucratic and professional elite would mediate social conflict between rich and poor, improving the lives of the poor while engineering the best possible administrative solutions to pressing social problems.” The ideal was “revolutionary and even a noble one,” he notes, and it particularly appealed to one class of people – the best and the brightest who would form that professional elite. More insight here.

Expelled: The Zimmermans, Gush Katif

Posted by admin under Getting By In Israel, Perspective, Poverty in Israel, Self Improvement, Social Justice, Terrorism and Poverty, What can THEY do

Years after the expulsion from Gush Katif. The story of one family. Social workers needing social workers

The Housing Demonstrations

Posted by admin under Disposable Income, Getting By In Israel, Poverty in Israel, Social Justice, Solutions to Poverty, Unemployment, What can THEY do

Israel Housing Protests - Tel Aviv July 30,2011

Could this be it? Are these demonstrations going to finally wake up the “economists” we have put into power in this country? Yes, I am tempted to complain about all the wrong doing that has happened for so many years here but, though that might make me feel better… I much prefer to find joy in the possibilities.

I, as I am sure we all, truly hope that these wake up calls being made to our government will finally get the ball rolling to get things on the right track. On the track towards allowing all Israelis the possibility of making a living wage. Notice the word “possibility” and not “opportunity”. Its not about “the American dream”. Its about the minimum wage being enough to buy, if not at least rent, and home and having enough left over to finish the month without going into further debt.

Let us all hope that thus is the path we are now on. Amen!