Rosh HaShanah is the Jewish New Year. As the Jewish world looks to the year ahead, it is an appropriate time to reflect on its challenges and opportunities.
Israel is full of holy sites of cultural and religious significance to Christians, Jews, and Muslims. But it also suffers from severe income inequality – among the worst in the Western World – and has a higher percentage of individuals living below the poverty line than in most other high-income countries. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship), led by President and CEO Yael Eckstein, promotes understanding and builds support for Israel while providing critical hands-on aid to those in need.
According to The Fellowship’s website, almost 2 million people in Israel live in poverty, with more than 1 million of those being children. The level of poverty being experienced in Israel is much higher than the average level of poverty in developed nations, and can be hard to imagine. The long-term implications of poverty are far-reaching and severe. The Fellowship works closely with those in need on a daily basis to provide basic supplies and support.
The Fellowship’s legacy of giving extends to food, clothing, shelter, heating, medicine, and visits for those who are unable to leave the confines of their homes. Because of their 40-year history and impressive network of reliable donors, The Fellowship is able to provide outreach services to elderly and Holocaust survivors, impoverished families, children and youth in Israel and the former Soviet Union, and minorities in Israel.
Aid Provided by The Fellowship
There are dozens of ways that The Fellowship provides support to Israel’s most in-need residents. From monthly food assistance to the creation and support of shelters for battered women, there is no form of aid that is overlooked by The Fellowship and their faithful supporters.
For those requiring nutritional support, prepared meals, food cards, and food packages for the elderly are delivered on a monthly basis. Hot meals are served to thousands of people at The Fellowship’s more than 40 soup kitchens, and food cards are given to needy families at Passover and Rosh Hashanah.
Israel’s numerous elderly and infirm residents are provided with medication, home visits, and emergency funds for basic needs. Emergency call buttons are given to Holocaust survivors that immediately connect them with a support hotline providing medical services. The Fellowship has purchased vehicles for use by local municipalities to pick up elderly residents and take them to community centers and medical appointments. Heating vouchers are distributed to the elderly during the cold winter months.
For families requiring aid, The Fellowship provides a wide variety of both monetary and emotional support mechanisms. They have funded shelters for battered women, as well as enrichment activities and services for young people and elderly residents. Appliances, clothing, and food are purchased and delivered to those who need them, and many children receive clothing and school supplies through The Fellowship. Children’s homes receive regular funding from The Fellowship.
The Success of Israel’s Children Depends on This Support
The Fellowship, under the leadership of Yael Eckstein, is doing important work, but the need in Israel is significant and cannot be overstated. Research that has been completed on salary inequality and poverty data in Israel gives a better picture of just how important this work is, and how many families can benefit from aid.
Tracking the poverty levels and levels of income inequality in Israel over the last two decades, there have been slight decreases in both, but not enough to change Israel’s standing amongst other developed nations. The long-term effects of poverty can be seen most clearly among families with young children, whose future success is distinctly impacted by spending their youngest years in a household that is struggling to get by.
According to the Taub Center, “family income during the first thousand days of a child’s life has a critical influence on future academic achievements.” The actual results of their study were graphed using performance on the Meitzav exams, which are administered in Grade 5. The results were astounding: children whose families lived below the poverty line for their first 1000 days of life consistently scored in the bottom quintile. Children whose family income was in the highest bracket scored in the top quintile for every subject: mathematics, language arts (Hebrew), science, and English (as a second language).
In many high-income countries, the poverty rate average is around 12%; in Israel, it is closer to 17%. When it comes to children, the rate increases even more, with 22% of children younger than 17 living below the poverty line. In Israel, poverty is much more common than in other developed countries.
In 2021, 21% of Israeli families were living below the poverty line. When it came time to break down this data by ethnicity, it became clear that Haredi Jews and Arabs that live in Israel are overrepresented among those living in poverty. Both groups are minorities, but a higher percentage of their communities live below the poverty line. Haredi Jews make up 7.5% of the population, but 12.1% of them live in poverty; Arabs make up 17.8% of the population, but 33.2% of them live in poverty. By comparison, non-Haredi Jews make up 74.7% of the population, and 54.7% of them live below the poverty line.
When the same data is dialed in on families with children under the age of 4, the graphs change significantly. About 25% of households with children under 4 live below the poverty line, but almost 80% of them belong to the Haredi and Arab communities – yet these communities only account for 35% of households with children in that age range.
58% of Haredi households and 55% of Arab households with children under the age of 4 live in poverty. By comparison, only 9% of children in non-Haredi Jewish households live in poverty. Used in conjunction with the information about how poverty-stricken children perform on testing years later, it becomes clear just how important it is to reduce the incidence of poverty in these minority populations.
How Government Expenditures are Allocated
Total government expenditure was about NIS 500 billion in 2021, with 59%, or NIS 297 billion, allocated for social expenditure, which includes health, education, social welfare, and social security. The pandemic significantly increased these expenditures, but 2021 showed an effort to reduce resources dedicated to social issues. Social security decreased by NIS 10 billion and social welfare decreased by NIS 2 billion, although health expenditures increased by NIS 2 billion.
Unemployment has been decreasing steadily from pandemic-era levels, dropping from NIS 23.5 billion in 2020 to NIS 3.2 billion in 2022. This makes unemployment expenditures less than pre-pandemic levels.
Long-term care insurance for the elderly is one area that has seen an increase in scale and scope due to policy changes, namely the 2018 Long-Term Care Insurance Act. The number of eligible recipients increased, as did the budget allocation for their services. As a result, long-term care made up 10% of total National Insurance Institute of Israel (NII) expenditure in 2021.
Income support for the elderly and Holocaust survivors has also been increased in recent years, leading to higher benefit payments and increasing the level of earnings that impacts eligibility for support. Income support benefit payments were increased by 14.7% in 2022, raising the total expenditure from NIS 2.9 billion to NIS 4.4 billion.
Other Factors Impacting Israeli Families in Need
Social workers continue to be in high demand in Israel, with many recent graduates leaving the profession, some within their first year of work. It is estimated that there are 1,500 vacant social work positions, due in part to the low salaries paid to social workers. This can make it much harder for families to gain access to the aid they so desperately need.
Additionally, more than 20% of Israeli adults provide long-term care for a family member, whether physical, cognitive, or mental in nature. This number is only a bit lower (18.6% and 19%) for the two lowest-income groups. As income increases, the care for cognitive and mental issues provided by a family member increases.
As the hours spent on caregiving increase on a weekly basis, the family members providing care see their outside employment affected. The 27% of caregivers spending more than 10 hours each week on caregiving report a variety of outcomes, including loss of work hours or work days, cutting back on paid employment, and loss of work.
Israel Has a Long Way to Go
There is so much room for improvement in Israel’s fight against poverty and income inequality. Although strides are being made in both understanding the far-reaching implications of poverty and in social programs providing assistance to those in need, Israel continues to struggle as a country. The aid provided by organizations like The Fellowship is lifesaving and instrumental to Israel’s families, elderly, and Holocaust survivors. In the case of young children, this support has been proven to have a significant impact on their education and future success.
For those with a vested interest in Israel’s future, donations to The Fellowship provide critical support to the beloved nation’s most vulnerable citizens. Policy reforms are in progress, but slow coming; in the meantime, organizations like The Fellowship are picking up where social expenditures leave off. Looking ahead, income inequality and poverty continue to be great challenges for Israel, making the work of Yael Eckstein and The Fellowship as important as ever.
