Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty

Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty

Motto	Acts of Charity, Deeds of Kindness
Formation	1972
Headquarters	New York, NY
CEO/Executive Director	David M. Frankel
Website	http://www.metcouncil.org

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) is a New York City-based non-profit social services organization. It offers services to help needy New Yorkers.

History

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, also known as Met Council, was founded in 1972 after two studies reported 300,000 Jewish New Yorkers live in poverty.^[1] Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty received support from the American Jewish Congress and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York to begin its programs. Although founded to help the Jewish poor, today Met Council’s services help all New Yorkers, regardless of age, sex, religion, race or ethnicity.

Mission and services

The Federal Poverty Guideline, based on a standard developed in the 1960s, does not consider regional differences in the cost of housing, transportation, and taxes.^[2]

New York City has a poverty rate of 20%, well above the 12% national average.^[3]

Met Council works to assist New Yorkers in need and raise awareness about the growing problem of Jewish poverty. The organization has eight main departments, each providing services that help New Yorkers who are struggling financially.

Examples include the crisis intervention department which aids clients going through job loss, eviction, utility turn-off, medical needs and other emergencies.^[4] Career services leads workshops on job searches, resume skills, and interview preparation and has training programs for careers in healthcare.^[5] In the United States, Met Council has the largest kosher food pantry and opened the three kosher soup kitchens in partnership with Masbia.

Partner organizations

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty works with 25 local Jewish Community Councils and is affiliated with the UJA Federation of New York. Met Council also partners with Food Bank For New York City, City Harvest and Masbia.

Criminal charges

In January 2014, David Cohen, former Executive Director, and Herbert Friedman, Chief Financial Officer, were arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of grand larceny, money laundering and conspiracy. William Rapfogel, former Met Council CEO, was arrested earlier.^[6] They were accused of getting $7 million in kickbacks from the Met Council's insurance broker. According to court papers, Joseph Ross said that Rapfogel used some of his share of the kickback cash to make contributions to political campaigns and to political organizations, and Friedman helped transfer some of that cash.^[7]

According to the New York Times, one of the strong supporters of the Met Council is New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan), who has gotten the Met Council millions of dollars. Rapfogel's wife, Judy, is Silver's chief of staff.^[8]

In 1967, New York City leveled 20 acres, the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, on the southern side of Delancey Street, and removed more than 1,800 low-income largely Puerto Rican families, with a promise that they would return to new low-income apartments when they were built, but went undeveloped for decades afterward. Silver and Rapfogel were promoting specific plans for favored developers, which would maintain the area's Jewish identity, at the expense of other communities. They opposed affordable housing, which would have brought more Chinese and Hispanic residents to the neighborhood. Silver instead proposed a shopping center with no housing for the site. Later, they proposed a big-box store like Costco, to be built by the developer Bruce Ratner, who had helped raise $1 million for Met Council, in addition to having hired Rapfogel's eldest son Michael in 2007.^[8] However, Silver and Rapfogel promoted specific plans for the project, opposed affordable housing, and proposed a store in the area. As of 2015 the land is being developed for the Essex Crossing project.^[8]

References

External links

• Federal Poverty Guidelines
• Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty