The cost of being Jewish

A temple member recently pointed me to Lisa Miller's latest Newsweek column, "The Cost of Being Jewish."  My first response was: "She must have just received her annual dues bill and temple membership renewal forms (it is that time on the Jewish calendar)." After reading the column, I empathized with Miller's plight (and anyone's who belongs to a synagogue) and pulled together some of the the sources she cited in her article. Bottom line is that money and dues are necessary for synagogue operations (disclosure note: I think you already know that my salary comes from synagogue dues and contributions) but they create an obstacle for many people and we need to change the system.

That being said, my second response was to connect Miller's column with a story that had grabbed my attention in The Wall Street Journal from July 15th.  The Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation has pledged $10 million to support impoverished Holocaust survivors.

As a young entrepreneur, Harry Weinberg vowed to care for Holocaust survivors who fled to North America. Now the foundation that bears his name is giving $10 million to the New York-based Claims Conference to help aging Holocaust survivors meet basic needs for shelter, food and medical care. "In the U.S., one in four survivor's lives alone and are five times more likely to live at or below the poverty level than other senior citizens," says Donn Weinberg, board chairman of the Harry and Jeannette Weinberg Foundation and Harry Weinberg's nephew.

The foundation estimates that there are more than 500,000 Holocaust survivors world-wide, with 144,000 living in North America. More than a third of survivors living in America live in Brooklyn, the foundation says.

It wasn't the largesse of the foundation that grabbed me - though I honor them for the mitzvah and wish I could match it.  It was the figures cited by Donn Weinberg (in bold above).  Did you have any idea that Holocaust survivors are living so close to and below the poverty level?  Had you not really thought about it ever?  For all my concern about how to fix the dues system of American Jewish life, I think Harry Weinberg and his foundation understand the real cost of being Jewish and put their money where their mouth is.