Alef: The NEXT Conversation

11: Money, Greed, & Guilt

This week we introduce Issue #11: Money, Greed, and Guilt

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As Jews, we get negatively stereotyped for a whole slew of things. And perhaps one of society’s “favorite” Jewish stereotypes revolves around the Jewish relationship with money, which results in the identification of Jews as being rich, money hungry, greedy. But stereotypes come from somewhere, and often they emerge from real-world observations about a group’s members that are then related back to all of the members of that group, regardless of individual differences. With this in mind, statistically speaking, Jews happen to be disproportionately represented amongst the top earners in the United States. According to GOOD, in a graph that maps distribution of wealth among the major U.S. religions, 46% of Jews have an annual income of more than $100k, compared to the national average of 18%. Where does this tendency towards wealth come from? Is it because of the importance Jewish culture places on education and success (which inevitably creates lots of wealthy Jewish doctors and lawyers and businessmen/women), or is it something else?

One of the scariest things about stereotypes is that they make sweeping generalizations that ignore the complex realities of a people. The stereotype of the rich Jew completely misses the fact that many Jews are far from wealthy, and many grew up harboring their own sense of financial inadequacy. According to the National Jewish Population Survey 2000-01, 5% of Jewish U.S. households live below the U.S. poverty line. This is even more prevalent among some Hasidic communities, where, according to a 1997 New York Times article, more than one-third of Hasidic Jews living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn received financial assistance from the goverment. This is all a far cry from the caricature of the Jew atop the economic pyramid.

That’s why, with tax season upon us, we though we’d devote an issue to Jews and money (or, more generally, money, greed, and guilt). We’ll hear stories from people who grew up with money and who were made to feel guilty by other Jews for it. We’ll hear recollections from people who have worked on Wall Street and experienced greed firsthand (just last year, Jews had to contend with the negative image generated by the Madoff scandal and what has ended up becoming the story of a Jew who propagated one of the greatest scams in recorded history). And we’ll hear stories from the other side of money, about the Jewish relationship with tzedakah and philanthropy, and maybe gain a better understanding of why, according to Business Week’s 2004 study of the “50 Most Generous Philanthropists,” 19 of the 50 most giving philanthropists were Jewish.

Have a complicated relationship with money? Want to chime in with a story of your own? A penny for your thoughts…

- Alef

Photo by Macro Arment, licensed under Creative Commons.

Money, Greed and Guilt Posts:
Atlas Mooched
Greed is Good
Loose Change
Labeled Goods
J.A.P. – “Jewish American Princess” or “Just Another Person”?
Why I Give

Posted by Sarah, Monday, March 1st, 2010, 2:16 pm, Money Greed and Guilt.

One Response to “11: Money, Greed, & Guilt”

1. Loose Change | Jewish Choices Jewish Voices says:

   July 29, 2010 at 2:03 pm

   [...] Read more posts from Issue #11: Money, Greed, & Guilt. [...]