Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty

Met Council
Motto The Largest Jewish-Sponsored Social Safety Net in America
Formation 1972[1]
13-2738818[1]
Legal status 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Headquarters New York City[1]
Services Crisis intervention and family violence services; housing development fund; food program; career services; and home services.[1]
David G. Greenfield[2]
Joseph Allerhand and Benjamin Tisch[2]
Abraham Biderman
Revenue (2013)
$43,924,750[1]
Expenses (2013) $37,860,929[1]
Employees (2018)
200
Volunteers (2017)
1400
Website www.metcouncil.org

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty (Met Council) is a New York City-based non-profit 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 New Yorkers were living in poverty.[3] 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 guidelines, based on a standard developed in the 1960s, do not consider regional differences in the cost of housing, transportation, and taxes.[4] Even so, New York City has a poverty rate of 20%, well above the 12% national average.[5]

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.[6] Career services leads workshops on job searches, resume skills, and interview preparation and has training programs for careers in healthcare.[7] In the United States, Met Council has the largest kosher food pantry and 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. Met Council also partners with Food Bank For New York City, City Harvest and Masbia.


Theft in 2014

In January 2014, David Cohen, former Met Council 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 four months earlier.[8] They were accused of receiving $7 million in kickbacks over 21 years from the Met Council's insurance broker Joseph Ross. According to court papers, Ross said that Rapfogel used some of his share of the kickback cash to make contributions to political campaigns and political organizations, and Friedman helped transfer some of that cash.[9] Cohen, Friedman, Rapfogel and Ross were all sentenced to prison, and the Met Council was awarded nearly $9 million in restitution.[10]


According to The New York Times, one of the strong supporters of the Met Council was Assembly Speaker Silver, who helped steer millions of dollars to the organization. Rapfogel's wife, Judy, was Silver's chief of staff.[11]

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.

New Leadership 2018

One of New York's highest-profile Jewish leaders, Councilman David Greenfield, announced in July of 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. [12]Greenfield 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.[13]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Form 990: Return of Organization Exempt from Income Taxes". Metropolitan NY Coordinating Council on Jewish Poverty. Guidestar. June 30, 2013. Accessed December 14, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Our Leadership". Metropolitcan Council on Jewish Poverty. Accessed February 6, 2018.
  3. ↑ "1980-Jewish Poverty Issues" (PDF). Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  4. ↑ "Final Poverty Report" (PDF). Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Poverty Facts". Archived from the original on November 5, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  6. ↑ Kelley, Tina (November 4, 2008). "Bad Health and a Thief Put a Woman in Crisis". The New York Times. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  7. ↑ Fried, Joseph (January 20, 2008). "A Helping Hand in Technical Training". The New York Times. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
  8. ↑ Peltz, Jennifer (April 23, 2014). "Ex-CEO Admits Stealing From Prominent NYC Charity". Associated Press.
  9. ↑ Jacobs, Shayna (January 7, 2014). "Two from disgraced William Rapfogel charity arrested in $7 million kickback scam". New York Daily News.
  10. ↑ "Comptroller DiNapoli & A.G Schneiderman Announce Sentencing of Former Met Council Director" (Press release). NYS Attorney General and Comptroller. May 11, 2015.
  11. ↑ Buettner, Russ (March 21, 2014). "They Kept a Lower East Side Lot Vacant for 47 Years". New York Times.
  12. ↑ Gay, Mara. 6/17/2017. WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/brooklyn-councilman-david-greenfield-wont-seek-re-election-1500285601. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  13. ↑ Lipman, Steve. Jewish Week http://jewishweek.timesofisrael.com/uja-fed-to-launch-largest-anti-poverty-push-in-its-history/. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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