ABSTRACT

The popular image of the Jewish community is that it consists primarily of members of the middle and upper middle classes. But this image is far from true. Poor Jews: An American Awakening shatters, once and for all, the stereotype of Jewish affluence.

Citing national data and descriptions of the life-styles of the Jewish poor, the authors reveal unique social characteristics of the Jewish poor—including the surprising statistic that over two-thirds of the members of this group are past the age of sixty, thus experiencing the compounded disadvantage of being poor, elderly, and deserted by the young, mobile Jewish community.

Reasons for the "invisibility" of Jewish poverty are examined, as well as how the Jewish community has responded to poverty within its own ethnic group and Jewish attitudes toward the welfare state and charity. The lack of Jewish participation in antipoverty programs is cited, along with measures which will bring them fully into this and other federal and state programs.

chapter |5 pages

Introduction

part 1|63 pages

Poverty Among Jews

chapter 1|17 pages

The Culture of Poverty

chapter 2|13 pages

The Invisible Jewish Poor

chapter 3|20 pages

Jews Without Money, Revisited

chapter 4|11 pages

The Hasidic Poor in New York City

part 2|61 pages

The Jewish Response to the Jewish Poor

part 3|32 pages

The Jewish Poor and the War Against Poverty

chapter 10|6 pages

Memorandum of Inspection Division

Office of Economic Opportunity

chapter 11|11 pages

Re: Jewish Poverty

part 4|37 pages

On Ending Jewish Poverty

chapter 14|2 pages

Postscript: Elder’s Lib

New York Times