Letters to the Editor
Who Made Off With Our Tzedakah? Time to blame the victims.
Thank you for putting this whole debacle into a concise realistic assessment of what went wrong. There should be no blame on anyone except Madoff and the people who believed in something too good to be true. Fine job of analyzing this mess.It was refreshing that you abstained from the victim mentality on the whole. I'm sorry for these massive losses but where does the blame begin and end?
-- Walt Collins, Los Angeles
Enslaved by Poverty
One of the themes of the Passover holiday is the journey from need and confinement to abundance and freedom. We call for all who are hungry to come and eat, and for all who are in need to come celebrate.
In the midst of our journey to freedom, we recognize and remind ourselves of the ways in which we continue to be enslaved. For example how am I enslaved by the persistence of poverty, and how are we as a community enslaved by poverty, as a society, a country? In 2007, there were 36.2 million food insecure households, 12 million children suffer from hunger. In Pennsylvania there are 30,000 homeless children and youth -- ranking 6th nationwide in the number of children and youth identified as homeless. Over 900,000 adults under age 65 have no health insurance in Pennsylvania.
In its Jewish Community Budget Letter, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs underscores the need for investment in quality, affordable and accessible health care, new funding for Child Nutrition Programs and initial funding for the National Housing Trust Fund. The Jewish Labor Committee (JLC) was one of over 100 national and local Jewish organizations to sign on to this Budget Letter. In addition, the JLC strongly believes the best path out of poverty is a good paying job and for that reason we support the Employee Free Choice Act.
While we remain enslaved by modern day plagues, you and I can travel the road to freedom and let our leaders know we have a communal responsibility to lift the bitter fate of poverty.
-- Rabbi Marjorie Berman
-- Rabbi Carl Choper
-- Rabbi Lauren Grabelle Herrmann
-- Rabbi Linda Holtzman
-- Jeff Hornstein, President, Philadelphia Jewish Labor Committee
The Philadelphia Jewish Voice welcomes the
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Acting Editor-in-chief Daniel Loeb
publisher @ pjvoice.com.
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