It is estimated that one out of every five Israelis may be suffering from malnutrition, a Bituach Leumi (National Insurance Institute) report states.
According to the report, there are many Israelis who suffer from “nutrition insecurity”, a new terminology used, perhaps intended to sterilize the severity of the realities of poverty and hunger. Many families are no longer able to purchase food basics, and many senior citizens are compelled to decide between filling medical prescriptions and buying food. Others are eating less expensive items, carbohydrates in place of protein and healthier foods.
Minister of Welfare & Social Affairs (Labor) Yitzchak Herzog is calling on the government to increase by 10 fold the level of funding for NGO assisting the poor, especially the young and elderly, both segments of society unable to support themselves.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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3 Responses
This is very sad. Perhaps it will remind people that Chazal were very clear on the importance of learning and plying a trade with which one can support oneself and one’s family.
gamzultova – It is apparent that you do not live in Israel or you’d never make such a statement.
When they are stating 1 out of 5 are suffering poverty they are not refering to the Chareidi circles (in which many are either sitting in Kollel or have low paying jobs), rather they are refering to the national population which consists of more tha 5 million. That means that there are around 1 million people suffering poverty here.
The religious population only consists of around 10% of the population. Do the math and you will understand that there are hundreds of thousands of purely secular Jews with purely secular educations that are suffering as well. It is not a religious issue (negating the klapei Maala reasons) it is a national issue. It can be debated what exactly is the cause of such poverty, but one thing is for sure it aint due to the kollels.
Softwords, I wasn’t saying that poverty is ONLY a Chareidi problem, but multiple sources put the percentage of chareidi families living below the poverty line in Israel at 50%. So it would seem that this is an issue that disproportionately falls on those families in the kollels and the families that are supporting them.