:4011114, 111.16411.11.111011.4, ^ This Wee about 40 percent women here. This is totally unprecedented in soup kitchens, where often women feel too ashamed to go," Levkowitz said. There are tens of thousands of hungry people in Israel, but not everyone who comes to the soup kitchen is necessarily starving, Levkowitz said. "Many people are either mentality ill, or have no one who might prepare them a hot lunch," he said. Meir Panim, a non-profit inspired and run by will be hit hardest. With a progressive salary cut MATTHEW GUTMAN Orthodox Jews, has grown tremendously — largely, ranging from 6 percent for low-wage earners to 12 Jewish Telegraphic Agency and unfortunately, due to increasing demand, percent for higher earners, no one will be spared. Levkowitz said. Meir Panim soup kitchens now feed The plan also reportedly includes mass layoffs, Tel Aviv some 2,500 Israeli adults and 800 students a day in and tens of thousands of public sector employees o bad is Israel's economic situation that some five national centers. While the organization receives could lose their jobs in coming years. Netanyahu has children in the Negev town of Sderot wel- only 6 percent of its funding from the government, particularly targeted the Education Ministry, reduc- comed the Kassam rockets Hamas fired at 85 percent of Meir Panim's recipients are referred to ing the number of administrators and teachers and the town as if they were much-needed rain. its soup kitchens by state social workers. combining positions and authorities. The cuts also "It's actually a good thing the rockets hit here," Funds come from donations, Levkowitz said. will reduce social security and child , benefits, while said a smiling Shiran Avraham, 17, surrounded by a "People will call and say they want to sponsor five or raising the pension age to 67. half-dozen giggling teenage girls. "No one would 10 or 100 meals. Others say they have a bed, or a Even before the cuts are approved, the country pay any attention to this place without them, and fridge, or an oven, even sewing machines to give faces a social services gap that some people are try- we certainly would not have gotten the benefits of a away," he said. ing to fill. city on the 'front line.'" During lunch hour March Avraham's statements came just days before 17, the day before Purim, the Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told Israelis scene was both amusing and this week that a $6 billion deficit has left state cof- surreal. Orthodox men, fers empty. To combat Israel's economic woes, joined by Israeli Arab volun- Netanyahu unveiled a new austerity plan that prom- teers, acted like stereotypical ises to be as painful as it is drastic. Jewish mothers, bouncing Last week, a rocket missed, by about 30 feet, the from table to table cajoling Ulpana Girl's School that Avraham attends in "clients" to eat more and con- Sderot, a city that suffers both from constant bar- stantly ladling additional food rages of Kassam rockets and chronic unemployment onto people's plates. and poverty. "Take this," one of the Arab Avraham was unfazed, like most people in town. workers said, shoving a loaf of She said her family — like most Sderot residents — bread into the arms of a needs the added benefits allotted. to residents of homeless man already laden cities the government considers on the "front line." with leftovers. "But I don't The benefits include lowered income and property need it," the man replied, taxes and increased budgets for infrastructure, social - clutching his take-away soup. services and education. "Just take it, its good for So important are the benefits in these times of cri- you," the volunteer responded. sis that Mayor Eli Moyel proudly considers his suc- Unlike most of Israel's for- cess in securing the benefits just last week as the profit businesses, Meir Panim centerpiece of his tenure as mayor. is growing. By the end of the As Israel braced itself this week for the U.S.-led year, it is slated to open an war against Iraq, residents were more concerned additional four branches in about their sagging pocketbooks than about don- Israel's poorer cities, part of An Israeli woman talking on a cell phone turns to look at a man begging in ning gas masks or finding plastic sheeting to seal an effort to better serve the street near the central bus station in Jerusalem. emergency rooms. "periphery cities" like Sderot. A poll released by the Israel Forever Foundation In addition to food, the indicated that nearly twice as many Israelis — 20 organization provides legal counsel and medical "You see," said Moshe Levkowitz, director general percent — are concerned about the economic situa- services twice a week. of Meir Panim, Israel's only chain of soup kitchens, tion than about a possible Iraqi attack (11 percent). "the State of Israel has no system of soup kitchens." Each one, he explains, is independent and ad hoc. Bread Square Bread Lines In Israel, an economy more scary than the prospect of Iraqi missiles. S Budget Cuts 314 3/21 2003 28 To remedy Israel's economic implosion, Netanyahu's plan is designed to cut fat from the national budget. If cuts already passed in December 2002 are includ- ed, Israel's per annum budget will be sliced by about $4 billion dollars, or 8 percent. Every ministry but the Defense Ministry will lose 2-3 percent of its budget. The protracted war with the Palestinians, plus breakneck preparations for a possible attack from Iraq, have sent the defense budg- et soaring while knocking the economy into recession. According to Netanyahu's plan, the public sector Soup Charities LeVkowitz takes pride in his organization for "not only filling their bellies with food, but their hearts with pride." Meir Panim, named after founder David Kochmeister's son Meir, who died of a rare pancreatic disorder at age 13, operates in the fashion of a home-style restaurant. By keeping its premises clean and "restaurant-like," it aims to remove any feelings of shame from accepting donated food. "Because of a policy that requires respect, we get But there are many Israelis who fall through the cracks and find themselves unable to take aid even from groups like Meir Panim. "We represent those people," said Mark Elazar, one of the 30 or so resi- dents of a trash-filled camp called "Bread Square" in Tel Aviv. The new residents of Bread Square — officially Tel Aviv's swank Ha'medina Square — are a ragtag group of the chronically ill, former addicts and simply the very poor with nowhere else to go. BREAD LINES on page 32