They only beggar I saw in my 10 days in Israel last year was an old Arab with a huge limp, limping towards our tour group near the Mt. of Olives. He looked like he needed help, so we gave him some shekels. Then he walked away and his limp dissapeared. Later we saw him chatting with his friends and he looked perfectly fine.

In one hand, there are some people whe are really in need, or legitimate institutions, and it is a duty to give tzdaka, in the other hand, there is a lot of fraud, there are groups of people (gangs) that harrass visitors, and are fake. My proposal, there shuld be autorized beggars, regestried beggars who are preapproved by the authorites, and have to wear a bach, anyone else, should be forbideen to begg in the Kotel, and if caugth, should be ejected from the site.

The Breslover Chassidim who beg for money (either confessing the true reason or lying) erev Yom Kippur for money to buy tickets to Uman should be banned! This is total insanity---guys who smoke, don't work, and disturb people trying to pray so they can get someone to pay for their trip to a gravesite in an anti-Semitic country!

"...we pray for the president and congress". Do you pray for impeachment? :-))

you are a good and generous man Jake- about Americans being the most generous- I distrust any poll- especially about international affairs. I speak from personal experience: in Switzerland (and Spain) depending on your tax bracket- tax is collected for your church (any registered religion will qualify) or charity of your choice- EVERYBODY pays this- and this is not taken into account by polls- so the figures are totally misleading. In addition to the tax amount, people also give directly to their church or charity-. In Canada our donations were taken off the pay cheque every months- also not mentioned in polls- this is OT I know but you mention it in your previous post.

alms for an old ex-leper?