For US Orthodox, ‘upper-class’ incomes often not enough


by Dmitry Shapiro

February 5, 2015

For Orthodox Jews in the United States, President Barack Obama’s proposed tax reforms present a numbers-crunching paradox: Income he designates as well-off may mean just getting by for large families

Obama’s 2015 budget, which was introduced Monday, aims to offset economic breaks to upper-income families to help working- and middle-class Americans, a key goal of his State of the Union address. The reforms would fund most tax breaks and social services by increasing taxes on those in the higher brackets.

For Orthodox Jews, the fastest growing segment of Judaism according to a 2013 Pew Research Center study of American Jewry, higher taxes for households making more than $100,000 per year can strain finances already challenged by day school tuitions and the burdens of feeding larger-than-average families.

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