National Post blog

Jonathan Kay seems to go so far as to suggest that since most Jews are rich why would they care about poverty.

The CJC responded strongly:

CJC response

And the National Post, talk about letting their pro-Tory bias make them look stupid!

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Originally posted by Jaku:
Jonathan Kay seems to go so far as to suggest that since most Jews are rich why would they care about poverty.

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"Suggest"!? Jebus, he comes right out and says it!

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Canada's Jewish community is among the nation's wealthiest demographics. So why, exactly, is Canada's umbrella group for Jewish organizations telling Jews that the number-one voting issue they face on October 14 is the creation of a "national poverty strategy"

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Wow. You can bet if someone on the left said something like that, the National Post and every other news outlet in the country would have a hairy shitfit. (And rightfully so.)

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Originally posted by unionist:
Jonathan Kay is an anti-semite. It is not surprising that he would attack Jews when they do something positive.

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BC continues to have the highest levels of poverty,
number of working poor and percentage of children
living below the poverty line of any province in
Canada. These levels are reflected in the Jewish com-
munity as well, due to the lack of affordable housing,
adequate working wages and the level of welfare ben-
efits - which do not reflect the real cost of living in our
province.

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DRESSED in plain black clothes, with neatly cropped hair and an unsure smile, Hannah Rosen appears nervous. It’s very rare that people in the Jewish community talk openly about their poverty, but she’s determined to do exactly that.

For too long, she says, the Jewish poor have lived “behind closed doors”, and she wants the community to acknowledge their existence.

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Steven Nasatir, JUF / Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago president, says one of every five Jews among Chicago's 270,000 Jews is poor or almost poor according to the federal government's definition. He says there are no figures for the general poverty rate among Jews in the United States, but according to the federations' umbrella organization, the UJC, 15 to 20 percent of American Jews are poor.

In fact, the Jewish poverty rate in the United States is higher than that in Israel. In Israel 24 percent of the population is considered poor, but about half is not Jewish.

New York also has a high rate of Jewish poverty. "Usually the words 'Jewish poverty" are seen as a contradiction in terms," says William Rapfogel, CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty. "It's not. More than a quarter of the members of the world's richest Jewish community live close to the poverty line.

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[ 20 September 2008: Message edited by: just one of the concerned ]

Not all is among the ultra-Orthodox by any means. Elderly people working hard in decades before the great access to higher education among Jewish people, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, some immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere, and simply people who have fallen through the proverbial cracks...

As well as a kosher food bank, le Mercaz has what I believe is the only kosher soup kitchen in Canada; certainly in Québec.

It is not only racist, but very poor journalism to assert that because a given "community" (here defined through formal religious affiliation) might have a higher than average income, that there are no poor people among that community. No poor people in Alberta?

Or that people should only be concerned about "their own". That is an anti-semitic cliché, of course...

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Originally posted by Star Spangled Canadian:
There's the stereotype that jews all live in Forest Hill and all work as doctors or lawyers or accountants

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Originally posted by lagatta:
Not all is among the ultra-Orthodox by any means. Elderly people working hard in decades before the great access to higher education among Jewish people, immigrants from the former Soviet Union, some immigrants from the Middle East and elsewhere, and simply people who have fallen through the proverbial cracks...

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I'd say in Toronto a lot of the FSU immigrants, most of whom have very extensive educations, are underemployed and they're probably have the highest rate of poverty within the Jewish community.

Anyway good for Farber for writing this response to this idiotic comment by Jonathan Kay, who is feeding the old "rich Jews" stereotype who only care about their own pocketbook and Israel. I'd say Peter Kent would have come much closer in St. Paul's if that were the case.

While one can find many reasons to criticize Farber, he has always been very good on the issue of poverty.

[ 22 September 2008: Message edited by: St. Paul's Progressive ]

[ 22 September 2008: Message edited by: St. Paul's Progressive ]

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Originally posted by Ambrose:
Elsewhere, I seem to recall how you viewed the Asper-controlled NP as a Jewish rag (Re: Canwest vs. Briemberg). Interesting.

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Originally posted by Ambrose:
Unionist: So you believe that Mr. Kay is an anti-semite now. Elsewhere, I seem to recall how you viewed the Asper-controlled NP as a Jewish rag (Re: Canwest vs. Briemberg). Interesting.

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Weren't you involved in kidnapping the Lindbergh baby? No, sorry, you helped Eichmann get his exit visa to South America?

Ambrose, don't accuse a babbler of something unless you can find a thread in which they are expressing the sentiment you're accusing them of. Proof of Kay's support for Israel doesn't do that.

unionist, if you can't say something nice.....

I have obviously mistaken you for some other, and for this, I apologize. You clearly do not view the National Post as a pro-semite rag. This much is evident by the fact that (as you point out) they employ in their ranks an anti-semite. Thanks for setting the record straight.

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Originally posted by unionist:
Jonathan Kay is an anti-semite. It is not surprising that he would attack Jews when they do something positive.

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[ 29 September 2008: Message edited by: St. Paul's Progressive ]