 Rachel Goldberg Today's book launch for the new book "Social Security Works" reminds us how important the Social Security program is to all Americans. B'nai B'rith International supports strengthening and expanding the most successful social program in the history of the republic. When President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to discuss ways we can support and strengthen the middle class—and bring more people into it--many were disappointed that Social Security, and the critical role it plays for most Americans, was mentioned only in passing. For millions of middle class Americans, it represents their only real retirement asset. But the program does more then provide income for the retired. In doing so, it makes it possible for middle class workers to go to work knowing their parents have shelter and food. Retirement security for our parents allows us to put our money into mortgages, student loan payments and savings accounts for our kids. But Social Security is more than that. It's our disability insurance. It's our life insurance. If a worker can't work, Social Security provides insurance benefits to replace some of the lost wages. Millions of American children have been kept out of poverty by wage replacement insurance for disability and the death of a worker. Middle class workers are strapped and their resources are pulled in dozens of directions. Social Security is just that: security for America's workers. If strengthened and expanded, Social Security can be the backbone of “middle class economics.”  Rachel Goldberg, Ph.D has been the B’nai B’rith International director of health and aging policy since 2003 and the deputy director of the B’nai B’rith International Senior Services since 2007. Before joining B'nai B'rith International, she taught politics and government at the University of Puget Sound and Georgetown University. To view some of her additional content, Click Here.
B’nai B’rith International's Legislative Affairs department looks ahead to Tuesday’s State of the Union address and notes things we may hear, and things we hope will be addressed. Click on each panel below to read more about our position: Rachel Goldberg, Ph.D has been the B’nai B’rith International director of health and aging policy since 2003 and the deputy director of the B’nai B’rith International Senior Services since 2007. Before joining B'nai B'rith International, she taught politics and government at the University of Puget Sound and Georgetown University. To view some of her additional content, Click Here.
B’nai B’rith International's Legislative Affairs department looks ahead to Tuesday’s State of the Union address and notes things we may hear, and things we hope will be addressed. Click on each panel below to read more about our position: Eric Fusfield, Esq. has been the B’nai B’rith International director of legislative affairs since 2003 and the deputy director of the B’nai B’rith International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy since 2007. He has worked in Jewish advocacy since 1998. To view some of his additional content, Click Here.
 Mark Olshan and Rachel Goldberg Among the first acts of the 114th U.S. Congress was the adoption of a new rule that will undercut Social Security as a whole, and risks steep cuts in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits (DI) by late 2016. During the summer, the 2014 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report stated the DI trust fund is at risk of being depleted by 2016. The latest forecast is consistent with past reports, including expectations in the early 1980s, when funding allocations between retirement and disability benefits were last adjusted. The new rule would essentially prohibit a “clean reallocation” bill, and require any reallocation to be accompanied by proposals likely to cut benefits somewhere in the Social Security system. Proponents of the rule insist that is needed to protect the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund from moving funds to the “broken” DI system. B’nai B’rith International urged Congress to increase the DI’s allocation from the payroll tax, funding that all Social Security programs share. Reallocating funds from the payroll tax has been a measure routinely carried out 11 times over the life of the program. B'nai B'rith International pushed for this reallocation to keep millions of disabled Americans, many of whom are also elderly, from experiencing benefit cuts of 20 percent in late 2016. The disability system is not broken, and a reallocation is not only appropriate and routine, but also will not cause appreciable harm to retiree benefits. A reallocation of funds from the payroll tax to DI would actually put the fund on equal footing with OASI and other Social Security programs, making the benefits fully funded through 2033. Mark D. Olshan, Ph.D. began his career with B’nai B’rith in 1983 when he was hired as its Director of Senior Housing. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Senior Services and Associate Executive Vice President of B’nai B’rith International. He was awarded the Julius Bisno Professional Excellence Award in 2000. To view some of his additional content, Click Here.
Rachel Goldberg, Ph.D has been the B’nai B’rith International director of health and aging policy since 2003 and the deputy director of the B’nai B’rith International Senior Services since 2007. Before joining B'nai B'rith International, she taught politics and government at the University of Puget Sound and Georgetown University. To view some of her additional content, Click Here.
Why HarperCollins Was So Wrong To Erase Israel
Before the HarperCollins Middle East atlas story is deleted from email inboxes, it pays to spend another moment ruminating on the damage caused by companies that ought to know better. On its website, HarperCollins bills itself as “one of the world’s leading English-language publishers.” It has a storied brand and a list of top-notch authors going back some 200 years. It markets books in more than 150 countries on a wide range of subjects and boasts of having had 400 best-sellers in the past fiscal year. Among its offerings in 2014 was the Collins Middle East Atlas, which was sold to schools in the Middle East. Atlases are usually reference works, not consulted for daily reading but good to have on the shelf when needed. This edition omitted Israel from maps in the Middle East. The West Bank and Gaza are noted, but not Israel. Confronted with this omission, a HarperCollins spokesman said that maps marked with Israel’s location would have been “unacceptable” and the omission — clearly intentional — was a bow to “local preferences.” Leaving Israel off the map in Middle East textbooks and atlases is nothing new. Arab countries, from 1948 on, have perfected the practice. Palestinian textbooks not only leave Israel off the map but put Palestinian place names instead of Israeli cities and towns. Airlines for years have been guilty of the same practice. Last year, the United Arab Emirates-based Etihad Airways left Israel off its travel-route maps (all other countries in the region are noted), and does not carry Israeli passport holders. BMI, a British carrier that until 2010 flew to Tel Aviv, failed to note Israel on its in-flight maps, but did put Haifa on the map — in Arabic. At the time, BMI pleaded a “technical error” and subsequently apologized. HarperCollins has now apologized as well, stating that it will “pulp” all remaining copies of the atlas and offering the now-standard apology for the omission “and any offense caused.” So perfunctory! In first defending the map, HarperCollins clearly implied a business motive for its actions. The publisher assumed it could willfully rewrite history, cast aside diplomacy and appropriate a blinders-on approach to its sales in the region. Imagine if other countries engaged in territorial disputes — and there are many today, from Europe to Asia to Latin America, not to mention the Middle East — made the same demands of HarperCollins. What if the company bowed to one side or another in these conflicts? Would anyone want to use, or trust, such a geographically incorrect reference? The international effort to delegitimize and demonize Israel comes from many quarters. Most are predictable: far-left and far-right political organizations, Islamic extremists, a host of “human rights” nongovernmental organizations, the Palestinians themselves. But when otherwise respectable parties like HarperCollins engage in willful distortions of geography or historiography, they legitimize the delegitimizers. And making matters worse, the company defended its pandering to its Arab customers and their “local preferences.” As an educational publisher headquartered in New York, not in the Middle East, how can HarperCollins defend not providing students with facts, or in the case of the atlas, the world as it is? The publisher of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as so many acclaimed works of history, sociology and even the Bible, should have known better. We will never reach conflict resolution between Israelis and Palestinians when an eraser is taken to history, diplomacy — and maps. |
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