The Staggering Reality of Jewish Charity in America

[Idaho Kid]

The Staggering Reality of Jewish Charity in America
http://www.john-friend.net/2014/03/the-staggering-reality-of-jewish.html

The Jewish Daily Forward, one of the oldest and most respected media outlets in the Jewish community in America, recently published Part I of a series of articles examining and analyzing the extremely powerful, influential and well-funded network of Jewish charities operating in the United States today. The information revealed is simply staggering, even for those of us knowledgeable and aware of organized Jewish power dominating American politics, media, finance and culture. The Forward reports:

Th

e American Jewish community's network of charity organizations is a font of Jewish power, a source of communal pride and a huge mystery.

We know that the network exists. We know that its federations, social service groups and advocacy organizations influence America's domestic and foreign policy, care for the old, educate the young and send more than a billion dollars a year to Israel.

Yet until now we've had no idea what the network looks like. [...]

The Forward's investigation has uncovered a tax-exempt Jewish communal apparatus that operates on the scale of a Fortune 500 company and focuses the largest share of its donor dollars on Israel.

This analysis doesn't include synagogues and other groups that avoid revealing their financial information by claiming a religious exemption. But even without this substantial sector, the Jewish community's federations, schools, health care and social service organizations, Israel aid groups, cultural and communal organizations, and advocacy groups report net assets of $26 billion.

That's more than the Las Vegas Sands Corp., which owns casinos all over the world. It's about the same as the CBS Corp. which owns 29 TV stations, 126 radio stations, the CBS Television Network and Simon & Schuster. The Jewish communal network of tax-exempt groups employs as many people as the Ford Motor Co.

And its $12 billion to $14 billion in annual revenue is more than the federal government's 2014 appropriation to the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages a fifth of all the land in the United States, runs the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the national parks, and administers Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands. [...]

Truly amazing, simply astonishing information being revealed. I knew the Jews had a lot of money wrapped up in their charities, lobbying groups and other organizations, but $26 billion? I don't even know what to say - I'm dumbfounded reading this report. And it's only Part I.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, at least for anyone who studies organized Jewish political, financial and cultural power in America today, much of the revenue generated by the various Jewish charities analyzed comes from either the federal government of the United States or state and local governments. The article continues:

In the coming weeks, the Forward will publish a series of articles reporting the results of its investigation. The Forward can now describe a Jewish apparatus that, despite extensive rhetoric about the importance of Jewish education, still dedicates the largest share of its donor dollars to Israel-related causes. It's an apparatus that benefits massively from the U.S. federal government and many state and local governments, in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants, billions in tax-deductible donations and billions more in program fees paid for with government funds. And it's an apparatus that requires vast resources to support itself, spending $2.3 billion a year on management and fundraising — and $93 million on galas alone. [...]

The Jews have managed to create a $26 billion industry strictly dedicated to advancing their own unique political, cultural, financial and ethnic interests, including a foreign (criminal, terrorist) government, largely at the expense of the American tax-payer. How is this acceptable?

[Ognir]

Impoverished Jews in NY to get kosher food for Passover
By MAYA SHWAYDER, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
27/03/2014    
50,000 Jewish families are to have access to nearly 1 million kilograms of kosher-for-Passover food, to be allotted to 90 distribution points and centers of Jewish life around New York.

NEW YORK – There are an estimated half-a-million Jews living in poverty or near-poverty in New York City.

Beginning on April 1, 50,000 Jewish families are to have access to nearly 1 million kilograms of kosher-for-Passover food, to be allotted to 90 distribution points and centers of Jewish life around New York.

Families are to be provided with $400,000 in food cards to provide for other holiday needs.

The effort is part of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty's year-round Kosher Food Network program that provides access to food pantries, soup kitchens, emergency food vouchers, prepared meals,and food cards that can be used at local grocery stores.

The Met Council distributes food 35 times every month for families and people in need.

A representative for the Met Council told The Jerusalem Post that need increases significantly around Passover and the High Holy Days every year.

This year the council added extra distributions around Purim as well.

In a press statement, it said "we understand the unique challenges of affording kosher food and the importance of food for rituals," adding that trying to provide a meal that is both nutritious and traditionally kosher is 30 percent more expensive than a non-kosher meal.

"For most of us, Passover is a time for festive family Seders," said David Frankel, CEO and executive director of the Met Council in a statement.

"But for too many of New York's Jewish needy, the festival of our freedom is, ironically, just the opposite – yet another painful reminder of the oppression of poverty," he said. "The 2.1 million pounds of food we distribute will allow our clients to observe Passover with a traditional and nutritious meal that otherwise would have been price prohibitive."

These Passover food packages are part of Met Council's year round Kosher Food Network, supplementing food to low-income households throughout New York, which the Met Council says allows their clients to meet other daily needs, such as rent, clothing and medications.

The distribution for Passover begins April 1 and runs through April 10.

http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-Features/Impoverished-Jews-in-NY-to-get-kosher-food-for-Passover-346639