The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) is a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
-based
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
social services organization. It offers many services to help hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers in need.
History
The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, also known as Met Council, was founded in 1972 after two studies reported 300,000
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
New Yorkers were living in poverty. The organization, whose original full name was ''Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty'', was formed with the cooperation of "36 national and grass-roots Jewish organizations,"
[
including the American Jewish Congress and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York. 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 guidelines, based on a standard developed in the 1960s, do not consider regional differences in the cost of housing, transportation, and taxes. Even so, New York City has a poverty rate of 20%, well above the 12% national average.
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. Career services leads workshops on job searches, resume skills, and interview preparation and has training programs for careers in healthcare. Met Council has the largest kosher food pantry in the United States, and it opened 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
UJA-Federation of New York ( United Jewish Appeal – Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...
. Met Council also partners with Food Bank For New York City
Food Bank For New York City is a non-profit social services organization and the major hunger-relief organization working against hunger in the five boroughs. Its aim is to organize food, information and support for needy citizens of New York City ...
, City Harvest and Masbia.
Budgets and leadership
Both the budgets and the leadership of the organization have seen downturns and recoveries, yet funding for Passover meals (verified with photo ID) has been relatively constant. 88% - 92% of the money they distributed 2012 - 2018 was from grants and contributions.
Jack Simcha Cohen
Controversies
Former New York State Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver's chief of staff was the wife of former Met Council CEO William Rapfogel;grand larceny
Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Engl ...
, money laundering, and conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...
. They too were jailed.[
To ensure that this never happens again, in 2015 the Met Council hired a former federal prosecutor as their Chief Compliance Officer and ]General Counsel
A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department.
In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...
.
New Leadership, 2018
One of New York's highest-profile Jewish leaders, Councilman David Greenfield, announced in July 2017 that he would not run for re-election in order to assume the leadership of the Met Council and restore its role as the central Jewish charity in New York. He joined the organization as CEO on January 1, 2018 and has already instituted new initiatives including a new digital food pantry initiative to serve the more than 200,000 New Yorkers that rely on Met Council's food distribution network. After Greenfield joined, the UJA-Federation announced that they were partnering with the Met Council on their newly announced $35 million initiative to combat poverty.
During the post-Passover Coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
, more than 1,000 Holocaust survivors benefited from a special program that focused on their specific needs.
References
External links
Federal Poverty GuidelinesMetropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty
{{DEFAULTSORT:Metropolitan Council On Jewish Poverty
Charities based in New York City
Jewish charities based in the United States
Jews and Judaism in New York City
Organizations based in New York City
Poverty and religion
Poverty in the United States
1972 establishments in New York City