Other Anti-Poverty Measures

Thumbs Up! Birthday Angels Help Israeli Kids Celebrate Birthdays

One out of every six children in Israel can’t celebrate their birthday because of financial hardship. In 2006, volunteers working with the nonprofit Birthday Angels Birthday Party Project, along with donations (a great way to honor someone, and you get an acknowledgement from the celebrant), helped create birthday parties for 2000 needy kids, Be an angel, and help increase that number this year.

Thumbs Up! The Forgotten People Fund (FPF) for Ethiopian Olim

The Ziv Tzedakah Fund, founded by Danny Siegel, is a non-profit organization dedicated to funding little known Tzedakah projects, including the Forgotten People Fund. FPF volunteers help Ethiopian immigrant families in Israel who live below the poverty line to realize their full potential and to receive direct services such as counseling and tutoring, food vouchers, and household items. Don’t forget the forgotten people!

JCPA Urges Response to House Budget Vote

In “Confronting Poverty,” the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) urges voters to tell their members of Congress that the budget resolution would be extremely harmful both to Jewish social service agencies that are dependent on public funding as well as to other vulnerable populations. Vote “no,” says JCPA.

Toward a Halakhic Definition of Poverty

By RABBI JILL JACOBS

This article offers a brief overview of the development of the US poverty threshold, and discusses the ways that rabbinic sources and their associated commentaries might define a poverty threshold. This definition will, in turn, offer a lens into Jewish conceptions of poverty and into the ways in which halakhic sources conceive of our obligations toward the poor.

Economic Justice

By DANIEL SOKATCH

The budget of a Jewish communal organization should be an ethical document. Jewish nonprofits face budget constraints, but must make sure that the people who staff and clean the offices receive decent pay and healthcare.

Agenda for Genesis

By MIKE RAPPEPORT

Land and property ownership is a zero sum game; education is a positive sum game. In transitions from agriculture and industrialism to a knowledge-based economy, opportunities arise to balance economic incentives and economic equity.

Economic Justice and Jewish Values

From RELIGIOUS ACTION CENTER

Hebrew scripture details for us one of the world's earliest social welfare systems. We are taught to leave the corners of our fields and the gleanings of our harvest to the poor (Leviticus 19:9), and to open our hands and lend to people whatever it is they need (Deuteronomy 7-11). We learn that helping fellow human beings in need, tzedakah, is not simply a matter of charity, but of responsibility, righteousness, and justice. The Bible does not merely command us to give to the poor, but to advocate on their behalf. We are told in Proverbs 31:9, to "speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the needy."

Jewish history also provides us with an example for helping the needy. During Talmudic times, much of tzedakah was done though tax-financed, community-run programs that provided form the poor, the hungry, the ill, and the children - a close parallel to the entitlement security we fought, and continue to fight, to preserve in our society today.

Family Medical Leave Act

From JCPA

Confronting Poverty, an initiative of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, provides important legislative information on the Family Medical Leave Act.

Poverty And Welfare Reform

From JCPA

The JCPA supports policies and programs that help move individuals and families out of poverty, that provide work opportunities at wages that allow for self-sufficiency, adequate financial and social service supports.

Why Jews Should Invest Communally in Low-Income Non-Jewish Communities

By ABIGAIL WEINBERG

Community development financial institutions are essentially modern day Hebrew free loan societies. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., were he Rabbi King, would have taught that Jews' identity and survival is inextricably bound to the destiny of all.

Turning Anti-Globalization Away From Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

By IRA RIFKIN

The canard of wealthy Jews controlling the world lives on in the anti-globalization movement. Jews, a globalized people, must both stand up for themselves and stand for something beyond themselves.

RESULTS

Are you interested in helping to make a difference in the fight to end world poverty and hunger? RESULTS is a non-profit grassroots citizens advocacy organization with the goal of creating the political will to end hunger and worst aspects of poverty. Rather than providing direct relief to people in need, RESULTS lobbies and educates government officials about needed solutions and encourages individual citizens to become a part of the process. As Rabbi Tarfon in Pirke Avot tells us, we are not required to complete the task, but neither are we free to neglect it. Maybe it’s time to get involved! Check out RESULTS at www.RESULTS.org.