Let The Poor Go Hungry?

As the scandal surrounding the Metropolitan Council on Jewish , the new York City Jewish community's anti-poverty arm, continues, poor Jews suffer.

As FailedMessiah.com reported April 1, ten days ago:

…I spoke with a Met Council client who told me s/he had left several messages [over qa series of weeks] about the Passover food cards on Davis' voicemail. No one from the Met Council returned those calls or mailed any printed information to this client. Then, when Davis finally returned to the office, the client found out that, despite having received the Passover food cards in previous years, s/he would not be getting a card this year because the program was closed – there were no more food cards to give out.

Clients were apparently supposed to register for the cards, but the Met Council apparently relied on local Jewish community councils and other Jewish organizations to inform clients and potential clients to do so.

And, apparently, people – including this client – fell through the cracks.

The Met Council's crisis line did not have food or food cards to give to a client who called it, and s/he was told to do essentially what Sandy Davis' voice mail greeting originally instructed callers to do – contact their local Jewish Community Council or JCC to see if any Passover food distributions for the needy are scheduled to take place.…

A Met Council client among those trying to get Passover food cards then called the crisis line and was told to contact the Lower East Side's Jewish Community Council.

The client called that Jewish Community Council multiple times over almost two weeks, leaving messages but, the client says, never receiving a return phone call.

So the client, who is partially disabled, went to the community council office in person this morning to try to get a food card.

The community council allegedly had the client fill out an application and told him they would get back to him.

An hour later the client says the community council called saying that the Passover food card program is closed.

The food distribution done by the JCC and most other organizations do not include meat (and often do not include fish, either). Instead, they include matzoh, grape juice and sometimes root vegetables and some non-perishable canned goods or macaroons.

The food cards allow poor, needy Jews to buy meat and chicken for their seders and other holiday meals.

But distribution of those Passover food cards admittedly was stopped weeks ago, and the Met Council has refused to provide proof that it actually distributed the $400,000 in food cards it claims.

At the same time, large food distributions done by the Met Council have been done in hasidic communities in conjunction with hasidic organizations.

The distribution in Williamsburg was full of hasidim driving late model minivans picking up huge sacks of vegetables and cases of chicken.

The non-hasidic, non-haredi poor appear to have been short-changed by the scandal-plagued Met Council, whose board and much of its staff claims to have failed to notice its CEO, CFO and top consultant were stealing millions of dollars from it. (The official loss total now stands at $7 million over about 20 years of embezzlement, although my sources tell me the actual loss in that and other embezzlement scams is actually far, far higher.)

So lets recap.

• The New York City Jewish community's anti-poverty arm has been chastised by regulators and law enforcement for lax management and oversight that led to millions of dollars in losses.

• This same anti-poverty charity lacks transparency and appears to have tried to conceal the fact that the person in charge of its Passover food card program had not worked from November through the end of March. During that time, some calls about the food card program were not returned by the Met Council.

• When I publicized this information and the voice mail greeting on that Met Council employee's phone noting she was out of the office and that the Passover food card program was "closed," the Met Council – not that employee – changed the recording to say registration for the Passover food card the was now closed (I.e., not the program itself, just registration for it) and referred people to the Met Council's crisis line.

• The crisis line referred people to their local Jewish Community Councils for Passover food distribution.

• The Lower East Side's JCC allegedly did not return multiple calls from a client for more than 10 days, and that JCC now claims it has no money to help poor Jews with Passover food and allegedly only has matzoh, grape juice and the like for the needy.

• This appears to be the New York City Jewish community's crisis help for poor Jews – if they are not connected to a powerful haredi community that bloc votes.

Earlier this week, the Met Council fired five key staffers, including its head of social services, Amy Winarsky. None were fired for cause. All were permanently laid off because the Met Council claimed it could no longer afford to pay them.

Meanwhile, lines at the haredi-run Masbia food shelf/soup kitchen's Passover food distribution were incredibly long, I'm told, with many Russians and other non-haredim standing in long lines to try to get food. Masbia operates largely independently from the Met Council.

Related:

Met Council Halts Passover Food Card Program.

Update – Let The Poor Go Hungry? Updates On The Scandal-Plagued Metropolitan Council On Jewish Poverty's Passover Food Card Program.

Met Council Fires 5 Key Staffers.

The Metropolitan Council On Jewish Poverty Gives Away Tens Of Thousands Of Pounds Of Food – To Hasidim.

All Metropolitan Council On Jewish Poverty Posts.

Comments

[Sarek]

This entire thing is unbelievable. It looks like nobody in NYC gives a [dreck] about the poor. Meanwhile, the aforementioned Jewish Community Councils brag on their websites about all the stuff they allegedly do for the poor.

The Metropolitan Council's website also brags about all the Pesach food they gave away. It also is STILL taking donations for their so-called Pesach campaign! I wonder where those contributions will go?

[jancsibacsi]

I just dont get it the poor suppose to get food stamps what is it that they have to go hungary can someone explain that to me.

[Allan]

Judaism is essentially a rich man’s religion. Between the price of kosher food, synagogue memberships, simchas like Bar Mitzvahs and weddings, Hebrew school tuitions, visits to Israel, holidays you’re expected to take off from work, not to mention the sky high cost of housing if you want to live in the upscale Jewish neighborhoods of most cities, it’s amazing that even middle class Jews can afford to play the game in this economy – let alone those who are poor.

Even Passover – a holiday dedicated to remembering our status as poor slaves – is ironically a very expensive holiday to keep.

[jancsibacsi]

Allan--What did you think what are the food stamps for and sec.8,it is to pay for the tuition and luxury of the religious bozos.

[BMW]

Few other people involved in this Scandal besides Rapfogel/Cohen

Meryl Tisch-elected to board of Regents/Chairperson of Met Council-Before scandal was running for office of Mayor--- Meryl Tisch needed to use the position of NYC mayor to further her familys'fORTUNE BY GAINING control of construction of Keystone pipeline. Tisch's work in education caused abuse of children and parents by creating a form of standardized testing that severly emotionally traumatized & crippled children by the common core which asks 8 th graders to magically perform as 10 th graders! Meryl Tisch instituted this abuse without concern for Parents or children in order to gain a reputation as a champion of education and thereby gaining a foothold into the Mayor's office.
In order to secure her power, Tisch became a chairperson for Met council granting favors to Rapfogel, such as Tuition covered by the poverty organization for Rapfogel's children and other perks. This would, in turn, win favor of Sheldon Silver as Silver favored Met council.Silver had given Millions in Member items to the Met Council.

Bruce Ratner was favored as developer for Barclays Center and unfairly won many other land development bids by bolstering ties with this Met council of poverty being that last year's concert featuring Itzhak Perlman/Helfgot was used to give profits only to Rapfogel's Met Council which already raised 24.4 Million through Government sources
The Government sources for 24.4 million was part of campaign scheme that Rapfogel used to increase campaign contributions to favored city politicians.
The politicians, such as Christine Quinn (who quickly gave back the money($25,000.00 & stepped down from her position) in turn provided Government grants totaling 24.4 Million to the Met Council of Jewish Poverty. These politicians and developers all knew about the scheme and how it would be a detriment to the Elderly and Poor.
Other NYC politicians need to come forward and confess their involvement in this scheme as it ultimately is the Poor/Homeless/Elderly that Suffer

[Eli R]

How sad. In the past when all this stealing was going on there was money to go around for the Passover programs etc. Now that the stealing was stopped instead of having more money available to distribute there is less or none at all. pity they didn't steal double. There would be that much more money to distribute.

[Shmarya Rosenberg]

Oh, how so very clever of you, Eli R!

I'll bet you were a top student in your yeshiva – not.

Process:

The Met Council's government funding was halted for a month or so and then resumed under some restrictions after the scandal broke.

On top of that, donations have plummeted because, rightly, lots of people don't trut it to be honest.

Past that, there is a real question about whether all the food and money supposed handed out to poor people in previous years really was handed out.

What would have saved the Met Council would have been good oversight by its board.

Instead, the board was AWOL (or worse) and allowed Modern Orthodox Willi Rapfogel and haredi Rabbi David Cohen to steal the Met Council – and the Jewish poor – blind.

[BMW]

The board of Met Council Poverty originated......... Larry/Bob Tisch they began career in Lakewood NJ. They went from BMG to BMW Owning hotel, Laurel In the Pines, to owning Lowes theater and CBS network to tobacco companies, Texas Gas and a drilling/oil Business.
Meryl Tisch bid last year to run for Mayor of NYC was merely to advance her husband's business.
With Meryl Tisch as Mayor of NYC Jim Tisch's Business would then dominate the Pipeline that would control natural gas over other energy sources.
Jim and Meryl Tisch control of the Keystone Pipeline, which is an oil pipeline system was initiated by placing Meryl Tisch as a board member of Met council poverty. Thereby, using William Rapfogel to gain Political power for Tisch through his kickback scheme. Sheldon Silver appointing Tisch as Chancellor of New York State Board of Regents would then give her the status as a champion of Education and a foothold into the Mayors office. Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg is also part of this conspiracy as he has become the U.N. special Envoy for climate change; which would assist in the advancement of the oil Pipeline and would overpower environmentalist who beleive this pipeline will be a detriment to the land and water with it's capacity to produce 700,000 barrels of oil per day.

All this on the backs of the poor/Elderly/Homeless. Tisch/Rapfogel/Silver/Bloomberg all used the Met council of Poverty as a way to Advance this agenda at the expense of the vulnerable, minorities and poor!