It is a myth. And our collective failure to challenge it is causing real harm. One in five Jewish people lives in poverty. Let that sink in. For example, in the U.S, these are elderly Holocaust survivors who outlived their entire families and now struggle to survive on their own. They are Soviet Jewish immigrants who arrived in America with nothing after the fall of the USSR. They are families, just like millions of other American families, who never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. They are poor. And almost no one is talking about them.
That silence is not accidental. Poverty has become a taboo within the Jewish community itself — an inconvenient truth that disrupts a carefully maintained image of collective success. I’ve spent five years trying to secure funding for my documentary Jews Got Money — a film specifically designed to expose this hidden reality — my idea was met with reluctance and closed doors at nearly every turn. Not because the subject was unimportant, but because too many people preferred it stayed buried.
That preference comes at a price.
The stereotype of Jewish wealth is not merely an awkward social misconception — it is a driver of antisemitism. It was the assumption that Ilan Halimi, a young Jewish man in France, must have money that led to his kidnapping, torture, and murder. It is the same assumption that has fueled conspiracy theories, scapegoating, and violence for centuries. Every time we allow this myth to go unchallenged, we are handing ammunition to those who wish Jewish people harm.
And yet, the Jewish community’s response has too often been to look away — to quietly sustain the image of prosperity while organizations like the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty and the Hebrew Free Burial Association do the unglamorous, underfunded work of picking up the pieces. The Hebrew Free Burial Association has been burying indigent Jews since the 1880s. Over 60,000 people. That is not a footnote — that is a century and a half of poverty that history has chosen not to photograph.
The concept of tzedakah — charity as a moral and religious obligation, not a generous impulse — is one of the most powerful ideas in Jewish tradition. But tzedakah requires honesty. You cannot give to a need you refuse to acknowledge exists.
It is time to acknowledge it. Jewish poverty is not a contradiction in terms. It is not an embarrassment to be managed or a secret to be kept. It is a reality that deserves the same visibility, the same urgency, and the same communal response as any other. Pretending otherwise doesn’t protect the Jewish community’s reputation — it weakens it, from the inside out.
I saw this more clearly than many within the community did. I made the documentary anyway, on a shoestring budget, after years of rejection. Sadly, after all those years, not 1 US Jewish media mentioned it. Same in Germany, Austria, Hungary or Poland…
I believe that, in an honest and strong fight against antisemitism, silence has a cost.
Steven Pinker was kind enough during all those years, to share many times on his X account about our work, he tried to open some doors. Unfortunately, it never worked.
Make no mistake, this is an uphill battle.
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jewish-poverty-is-real-and-our-silence-about-it-is-making-things-worse/
