The right to talk
low percentage of retirees residing in assisted living facilities.
The costs consist of basic monthly charges of rent for maintenance and utilities beyond a deposit payable upon entry. The deposit, a large sum of money, is an interest-free loan granted to the owner of the facility for the period of residence. It is usually met from life savings for retirement or from the sale of a home. In addition, the deposit is depreciated by 3% annually for up to 12 years, providing additional income to the owner of the facility. It is fair to say that this is paid by the future generation, as it reduces the amount of the legacy available upon the demise of the tenant or upon his leaving the facility.
What is grossly unfair is that the depreciation is taxable and subject to VAT, whose charge is passed on to the tenants annually. As the deposit generally comes from life savings from employment – which were already taxed – we have double taxation in old age as a reward for our working life. The annual charge of VAT is a raid on the meager income of the elderly from the old-age benefit paid by the National Insurance Institute and/or payment of restitutions for Holocaust survivors.
The time has come for the Finance and Social Services ministries to review this paradox of hurting the elderly by additional taxation, and to offer a remedy. MICHAEL ALBERT
Bitan Aharon
Yaakov Katz is right that “Diaspora Jewry has a responsibility for Israel, but Israelis have no less a responsibility for the Jews of the Diaspora” (“Trump’s process to peace,” Editor’s Notes, March 31).
Few deny that Israel should speak to American Jews, but many right-wingers deny that we – especially American liberals – should speak to Israel. Using double standards, they don’t criticize conservatives who could be driving Israel into a dangerous regional war, civil unrest or a one-state solution,yet think that liberals have no right to warn that Israel should beware of these threats.
Also, many Israeli liberals agree with us and want us to speak out – they make speaking tours to encourage us to.
Why would American liberals know less than conservatives? And why would American conservatives know less than Israel’s own liberals? Why would politically conservative American Jews or fundamentalist Christians who know fundamentalist doctrines but don’t live “on location” know more than American liberal Jews? Or know more than Israeli liberal Jews who actually live “on location”? Or know more than Israeli Arabs and occupied Palestinians who also live “on location”?
This doesn’t mean conservatives or liberals are right. And location has relatively little to do with it. Rather, it is dialogue among ourselves – and, to add to Katz, among our non-Jewish neighbors, who, as he says, share a solemn and caring responsibility for each other.
JAMES ADLER Cambridge, Massachusetts