Poor Israelis; Maxwell and a retiring butcher
Israelis battle with poverty
Nearly one in five Israelis lives below the poverty line, according to grim government statistics released this week. In 1990 — the latest available figures — 17 per cent of the population, 537,700, lived below the poverty line. By comparison, in 1989, some 15 per cent of the population lived below the line. The government has stated that anyone with an income of below £250 a month or a couple with two children with an income of less than £400 is below the poverty line. According to the report, the United States is the only country in the developed world to have higher poverty levels. Israel also follows the US in having the second-widest gap between the richest and poorest.
Maxwell’s widow opens conference
Dr Elisabeth Maxwell, widow of Mr Robert Maxwell, is continuing her long-standing commitment to Holocaust education. Last week she opened an exhibition of paintings — some depicting scenes from the Holocaust — by RomanianJewish artist Arnold Daghani. Tomorrow night, she will chair the opening session of an international conference in London commemorating the 50th anniversary of the decision to implement the Final Solution. Dr Maxwell has made no other public appearance since the death of her husband in November.
Last kosher butcher hangs up his apron
Wales’s last kosher butcher will shut up shop at the end of the month. When Mr Arnold Krotosky, of Cardiff, sells his last sausages, he will bring almost 100 years of family interest to a close. “I’ve been working in the shop since I was 15,” Mr Krotosky recalled. “I’m now 70. You can’t go on indefinitely. “I want some time to do the things I haven’t been able to do — like go and watch a cricket match at Lord’s. I’ve never had two weeks’ holiday in my life. “A couple of years ago I won a holiday to Israel but wasn’t able to go because I couldn’t close the shop.” Twenty years ago, Cardiff had its own abattoir and shochetim and laid claim to the country’s best kosher lamb. Now, “the young go off to the big cities and the provincial communities are dwindling,” Mr Krotosky reflected sadly. “I feel very nostalgic because I have made a lot of life-long friends among my customers.”