Orthodox Jewish men and their children. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – According to a UJA-Federation of New York report, Jewish poverty in the New York area is on the rise. More than 560,000 people live in poverty in the New York area, amounting to one in five New York-area Jewish households.

Over the past 20 years, according to the report entitled Jewish Community Study of New York: 2011 Special Report on Poverty, Jewish poverty has grown much faster than the Jewish community as a whole. Factors that make a family more likely to be poor include having children under 18, households with seniors, and households that include someone who is divorced, separated, or widowed.

The largest group of poor Jewish households in the New York area is Russian-speaking seniors. The Chasidic community has the second-largest number of poor households and the third-highest incidence of poverty of any group.