As a person very involved in the Milwaukee Jewish community, I want to raise a sensitive issue for a community conversation.
Whether we like to admit it or not, there are individuals and families in our Jewish population that continue to suffer financially due to job loss, inability to pay medical bills, and who at the end of the month are often without food in their apartments. They often have to choose between food and taking their required medicines.
For virtually all of these people, the circumstances they have found themselves in over the past few years were no fault of their own.
While some say that the economy is improving, many of these unfortunate people are still living on the edge with little hope of rebounding soon; and often because of their age or disability, they will continue to need assistance from our community in a variety of ways.
Our Milwaukee Jewish community has generously provided more than $200,000 in emergency assistance over the past year to help defray overdue medical bills, put food on the table, and avoid evictions, for almost 200 Jewish individuals in our community who have lived under very difficult financial circumstances. However, we need to provide a more permanent solution.
As the important process of allocations begins for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, I recommend that the extraordinary needs of the Jewish poor in our neighborhoods should get additional attention and support. It is very important that more money be allocated to those services and programs that assist the needy population.
While my concern for Israel is second to none, needs in our local community require that we reduce the allocation of funds to overseas and, instead, allocate them to the needs here in Milwaukee.
If we do not take care of our own in our own backyard, we are walking away from a fundamental Jewish value.
Robert L. Habush
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