Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2014 (26. évfolyam, 1-39. szám)
2014-01-17 / 3. szám
Hungarian Journal >• ■ ’ _-' # i f* I f f- # t W> I i l § í 1 ? * Mii Um :r. v ' * ' n •*'j| The place in the US where almost 20% of the residents have Hungarian origin The life in Kiryas Joel The most significant part of the almost 5 million Hungarian diaspora living in North America. In the United States, the Hungarians or Hungarian origin number at more than one and a half million. Kiryas Joel is the place in the United States with the highest percentage of people who reported Hungarian ancestry, as 18.9% of the population reported Hungarian ancestry in 2000. And the poorest place in the United States is not a dusty Texas border town, a hollow in Appalachia, a remote Indian reservation or a blighted urban neighborhood but this Kiryas Joel. According to 2008 census figures, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation. More than two-thirds of residents live below the federal poverty line and 40% receive food stamps. And it has no slums or homeless people. No one who lives there is shabbily dressed or has to go hungry. Crime is virtually nonexistent. Kiryas Joel is a village within the town of Monroe in Orange County, New York, United States. The great majority of its residents are Hasidic Jews who strictly observe the Torah and its commandments, and belong to the worldwide Satmar Hasidic dynasty. Most of the village’s residents speak Yiddish as their first language. The village has the youngest median age (13.2) of any population center of over 5,000 residents in the United States. Residents of Kiryas Joel, like those of other Haredi Jewish communities, typically have large families. About 70 percent of the village’s 21,000 residents live in households whose income falls below the federal poverty threshold, according to the Census Bureau. Median family income ($17,929) and per capita income ($4,494) rank lower than any other comparable place in the country. Nearly half of the village’s households reported less than $15,000 in annual income. Kiryas Joel’s unlikely ranking results largely from religious and cultural factors. Ultra-Orthodox Satmar Hasidic Jews predominate in the village; many of them moved there from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, beginning in the 1970s to accommodate a population that was growing geometrically. Women marry young, remain in the village to raise their families and, according to religious strictures, do not use birth control. As a result, the median age (under 12) is the lowest in the country and the household size (nearly six) is the highest. Mothers rarely work outside the home while their children are young. Most residents, raised as Yiddish speakers, do not speak much English. And most men devote themselves to Torah and Talmud studies rather than academic training — only 39 percent of the residents are high school graduates, and less than 5 percent have a bachelor’s degree. Several hundred adults study full time at religious institutions. Still, the Census Bureau’s latest poverty estimates, based on the 2005-9 American Community Survey, do not take into account the community’s tradition of philanthropy and no-interest loans. Moreover, some families may be eligible for public benefits because they earn low salaries from the religious congregations and other nonprofit groups that run businesses and religious schools. Nearly half of the village’s residents with jobs work for the public or parochial schools. “If people want to work in a religious setting and make less than they would earn at B & H, that’s a choice people make,” said Gedalye Szegedin, the village administrator. Most children attend religious schools, but transportation and textbooks are publicly financed. Several hundred handicapped students are educated by the village’s own public school district, which, because virtually all the students are poor and disabled, is eligible for sizable state and federal government grants. Statistically, no place comes close to Kiryas Joel. In Athens, Ohio, which ranks second in poverty, 56 percent of the residents are classified as poor. Still, poverty is largely invisible in the village. Parking lots are full, but strollers and tricycles seem to outnumber cars. All of which prompts a fundamental question: Are as many as 7 in 10 Kiryas Joel residents really poor? “It is, in a sense, a statistical anomaly,” Professor Helmreich said. “They are clearly not wealthy, and they do have a lot of children. They spend whatever discretionary income they have on clothing, food and baby carriages. They don’t belong to country clubs or go to movies or go on trips to Aruba. “They’re not scrounging around, though. They’re not presenting a picture of poverty as if you would go to a Mexican neighborhood in DUNA Travel 8530 Holloway Dr. 11102 W. Hollywood, CA 90069 Spa, Hotel foglalások, Kocsi bérlés Kedvezményes repülőjegy árak Hajóutak bárhová a világon Hívják ZSUZSÁT TEL: (310) 652-5294 FAX: (310) 652-5287 1-888-532-0168 Január 17, 2014 ^ | Corona. They do have organizations that lend money interestfree. They’re also supported by members of the community who are wealthier — it’s not declarable income if somebody buys them a baby carriage.” “You also have no drugtreatment programs, no juvenile delinquency program, we’re not clogging the court system with criminal cases, you’re not running programs for AIDS or teen pregnancy,” he said. “I haven’t run the numbers, but I think it’s a wash.” nytimes.com wikipedia.com Hungary turns to black market for a smoke In a parking lot in Nyíregyháza, a Hungarian town near the Ukrainian border, Imre describes his black-market cigarette operation, whose business is booming thanks to a controversial government tobacco crackdown. “We sell several hundred cartons per day,” says the young man, who is using a fake name. His colleague “Janos” explains how the contraband merchandise crosses the Tisza river in small rafts. “We don’t even have to climb on board. We just pull the rafts from one shore to the other with ropes,” he tells AFP. “When they reach us, we sort them out and the cigarettes are sent to the four corners of the country.” Business has never been so good, he adds. In July, the Hungarian government shut almost 90% of the country’s licensed cigarette vendors, squeezing the number to 5,300 from a previous 42,000. The authorities said their crackdown was an effort to stop sales to minors and reduce smoking in the country of 10 million people, where about 46% of men and 34% of women light up. But critics say it is a ploy to favor close allies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government with lucrative tobacco concessions. Nora Ritok, head of the charity group Igazgyöngy in northeastern Hungary, said she doubted the truth of official estimates that the number of smokers in Hungary has dropped by at least 200,000 in one year. “Almost everyone smokes here,” she said. “Before, you could buy cigarettes everywhere, in every shop, in pubs. Now it’s banned and there are many smaller villages where you won’t find an (official) cigarette shop... That’s why the black market is developing.” How much the black market has grown is unclear. But cigarette seizures increased to 85 million in the first 10 months of 2013, compared with 68 million for all of 2012, according to the tax and customs authority (NAV). A political decision to quit smoking Smoking has been banned in public places in Hungary since 2009, but some see a more noticeable change in attitudes thanks to the government’s newest efforts. “I think there are a lot of people who are now smoking less,” Janos Murci, a lung specialist and president of an anti-smoking association, recently told the weekly Kiskegyed. “That’s because the price of cigarettes has gone up - in two years, they’ve gone from 600 forints ($2.75) per pack to 1,000 forints - but also because of the tobacco reform, as there are towns where there are absolutely no cigarettes for sale.” The government’s tobacco policy has sometimes chalked up ironic successes. Some opponents of Orban’s government refuse to patronise the so-called “national cigarette shops” because of their alleged ties to the ruling center-right Fidesz party. An unintended effect of the law has been a significant drop in tax revenues from cigarette sales, down to 24 million forints in August, compared with 36 million forints a year earlier, according to the tax authority. Still, the government wants to press ahead with its measures, with new restrictions planned on e-cigarettes as well as tobacco and papers for hand-rolled cigarettes. The campaign has already paid off, at least for Orbán. In October, the World Health Organization (WHO) awarded him a certificate of special recognition for his efforts to clamp down on smoking. This was a rare international tribute for a man often criticised abroad for his tightening grip on power, bworldonline.com Highest Quality Care at the Best Price! Elderly, Rehabilitating, Children, Newborn Beszélünk magyarul la! Ingyenes konzultáció otthonában. 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