Poverty is one cause for which Jews must put aside differences

The numbers came first. On Aug. 25, the U.S. Census Bureau reported the number of Americans in poverty last year rose by 1.3 million to 35.9 million, or one in eight people. One week later, the people behind the numbers appeared on our television screens. Surrounded by water, on rooftops, the word "help" scrawled in large block letters. Packed into a sports stadium without adequate provisions. Dying in the street.

All communities in Katrina's path suffered. But they did not suffer equally. Low-income communities in the Gulf were neglected before, during and immediately following the hurricane. Those who had little before Katrina now have nothing.

There are few issues around which Jews find true consensus. The Jewish imperative to eliminate poverty is one of the select. Yet Jewish anti-poverty organizations and activists frequently function on parallel, rather than convergent tracks. I believe these tracks remain separate because of divisions in our community, including long-standing disagreement over why Jews should fight poverty.

Jews in the United States who are motivated to combat poverty as Jews do so for at least one of three reasons: to continue the Jewish legacy of social justice activism, to heed the call of prophetic Judaism, or to fulfill their halachic obligations as observant Jews.

The "why" matters.

Despite their common concern for the poor, alliances among Jewish advocates and providers are uncommon. Organizations are often homogeneous. Secular activists are uncomfortable with the piety and conservatism of the Orthodox. Prophetic Jews place Jewish text at the center of their work, only to have their efforts dismissed by more observant Jews as token recitations of the least important texts. Areas of disagreement around other issues, most prominently in debates between modernity and tradition, create further barriers to collaboration.

Jewish anti-poverty activists and service providers should take pride in their accomplishments. The labor and civil rights movements helped raise wages, and diminish exploitation and discrimination that caused poverty. New Deal and Great Society programs, supported by Jews and Jewish organizations, greatly reduced poverty among seniors and provided basic support for the least well-off. Private Jewish donors have given hundreds of millions of dollars to provide food, clothes, housing and jobs to impoverished Americans, Jew and non-Jews alike. Many low-income Orthodox Jews, Jewish immigrants and seniors are sustained by neighbors, strangers and organizations that take seriously their halachic obligations toward the poor.

For years Jews motivated by divergent elements of Jewish tradition have rowed in different boats going in the same direction. Our successes have hidden our divisions.

We do not have the luxury of maintaining wholly separate and distinct spheres of Jewish anti-poverty work. Last week's census bureau report showed not only a national increase in poverty, but increases in the number of uninsured Americans, a shift from employer-provided to the public health system, a stagnant median income, and rising income inequality. Social programs that keep the heads of poor Americans above water are being cut or eliminated, shifting the burden of care to financially strapped nonprofit service providers. Economic mobility, once the centerpiece of the American Dream, is more elusive than a generation ago. Health care is increasingly unaffordable and has become the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

Jews want to eliminate poverty in America must become allies willing and able to work together around this issue of common concern. Such a partnership would increase our effectiveness. But perhaps of equal importance, working together can help bridge some of the divides among Jews that have prevented effective partnerships in the past. By pulling together we can come together: Americans with Americans, Jews with Jews. Practice forges bonds.

Thus as the new executive director of the Jewish Fund for Justice, which for 20 years has addressed root causes of poverty in the United States, I am pursuing linked goals: to participate in conversations about the common ground of our halachic, prophetic and historic commitments and to unite with Jews of diverse backgrounds to reverse four consecutive years of bad news for low-income Americans. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, it's time to see unity as imperative.




Simon Greer is the executive director and CEO of the Jewish Fund for Justice.