The Times has a feature today on Kiryas Joel, New York, the ultra-Orthodox Satmar enclave (about an hour’s drive north-north-east of New York City) that is the American town with a population of over 10,000 with the largest percentage of residents living below the poverty line. The debate over it is reminiscent of the argument in Israel that widespread Haredi poverty is sapping the state’s resources.
The data is simple: A religious injunction against birth control leads to lots of children, which leads both to lots of mouths to feed and lots of women taken out of the workforce; and another religious injunction encouraging religious study leads many men to spend most of their time in relatively un-remunerative activity (many also only speak Yiddish, further limiting their economic capability). “I wouldn’t call it a poor community,” says the village administrator. “I would call it a community with a lot of income-related challenges.” That’s the sort of euphemism with Internet meme potential!