What are people obligated to do when others around them are enduring poverty? That was the topic of a symposium held at Lake Park Synagogue on June 25.
It was titled “Justice, Justice, Justice: What Does Judaism Say about Poverty? What Can We Do?” It was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation and Tikkun Ha-Ir of Milwaukee.
The event was also one of eight Wisconsin poverty forums co-sponsored by WISDOM, the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families and the Citizen Action Educational Fund. Presiding was Tom Heinen, executive director of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee.
Two local rabbis shared Jewish perspectives on the subject. The first, Rabbi Nisan Andrews, spiritual leader of Lake Park Synagogue, applied texts from the medieval rabbi, philosopher and Jewish law codifier Maimonides.
In the Mishnah Torah, Maimonides wrote that Judaism demands that Jews give charity. In fact, “We are obliged to be careful with regard to the mitzvah of charity to a greater extent than all [other] positive commandments, because charity is an identifying mark for a righteous person,” he wrote.
Andrews also discussed what Maimonides described as the eight levels of giving charity, of which the highest is to enable someone to make their own living by entering into business with a person or obtaining a job for a person.
Andrews emphasized that “Judaism is focused on human dignity,” and as one goes down the levels of giving, the less is the dignity of the person receiving the charity.
But another issue of dignity exists, namely that Judaism demands that people strive to avoid needing charity. In Jewish principles, said Andrews, “there is no such thing as a disrespectful way to make a living.”
Rabbi Tiferet Berenbaum, spiritual leader of Congregation Shir Hadash, spoke about the Sabbatical year mandated by the Torah every seven years.
“The whole idea of economic justice comes into play” in this concept, Berenbaum said, because it involves “debt relief, slave release and land return,” she said.
She also discussed how she tries to be “a tourist in Milwaukee” and encouraged others to do the same. “I’m sure things are really bad in Guatemala, but I know things are pretty bad just down the street,” she said.
She quoted Leviticus 25:35: “If your brother becomes poor and falters with you, then you should strengthen him.”
“In this city, we’ve let a lot of people fall,” Berenbaum said. “It’s going to be very hard to pick a lot of people up.”
She also said that in solving this problem, “We need to lead from the front. I can’t tell anyone in my congregation, ‘You should be doing this or that,’ if I’m not doing it myself.”
Ken Taylor, executive director of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, then gave a presentation on the problem of poverty in Wisconsin. It included such information as:
• The worst place to be a black American child is Wisconsin, Taylor said. In fact, 52.5 percent of black children in Wisconsin live in poverty as defined by U.S. government guidelines, compared to 10.9 percent of white children, 20 percent of Asian children, 35.3 percent of Hispanic children and 46.7 percent of American Indian children.
• Wisconsin has the highest black unemployment rate in the nation, he said — about 20 percent, compared to the national average of 11.4 percent.
• Wisconsin’s poverty is not confined to Milwaukee. Five northern Wisconsin counties — Menominee, Forest, Ashland, Sawyer and Burnett — resemble Milwaukee County in having between 16.5 and 31.6 percent of their populations living in poverty, he said.
After Taylor’s presentation, the audience of about 40 people divided into smaller groups to discuss such issues as who is responsible for alleviating poverty, what makes poverty a difficult or easy topic to discuss and what are the best steps to take.
Heinen said the organizers will gather information from all the symposiums; and in the autumn they will report on the “consistent themes and messages” they found in the state and “try to build a common agenda” for combatting poverty.
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