Survivor Help Line

From the JP:

"Jewish-Christian aid group announces new call center for needy Holocaust survivors"

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) announced on Friday ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the establishment of a new emergency calls center for health and social issues for tens of thousands of needy Holocaust survivors. As part of the project, a panic button will be provided to underprivileged Holocaust survivors, which will allow them to receive medical advice, call for a doctor or an ambulance and provide social assistance to alleviate feelings of distress and loneliness, all at subsidized prices. In addition, the IFCJ will establish a fund to financially assist survivors who cannot afford treatments, transportation and medical equipment. The project will cost an estimated NIS 5.25 million per year and is set to launch next summer, once a list of eligible participants will be determined and logistical operations in place. “The treatment of Holocaust survivors in Israel for many years suffered severe deficiencies and many survivors today are suffering from serious problems of poverty and loneliness. This situation is a serious moral stain on the forehead of Israeli society as a whole and this population should be treated without delay and on a significant scale while they are still living among us,” said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ founder and president. The hotline was established following a request by the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel.  In previous years the Foundation was able to provide panic buttons to some 12,000 survivors through government funding.  However due to a rearrangement of government funding to other benefits for survivors, no budget was allocated to provide this service to new survivors. “We thank the Fellowship for its efforts to establish an emergency call center for survivors, a project that is a critical need for many survivors, and will run in cooperation with the Foundation at its head,” said Avi Dichter, chairman of the Foundation. Currently, only around 8,500 survivors are connected to panic buttons, despite an increase in the need for this service, due to aging survivors and their accompanying medical needs. On Wednesday the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel released a report indicating that some 50,000 Holocaust survivors were living in poverty. Furthermore, according to the report, 45 percent of Holocaust survivors felt lonely and one out of every five had been forced to choose between food and other necessities during the past two years due to financial insecurity. The Finance Ministry recently announced a NIS one billion ten point national plan to assist Holocaust survivors during the next five years.  The plan essentially calls for the elimination of unnecessary bureaucracy, transferring allowances directly to survivors’ bank accounts in an effort to improve their conditions. In addition, it calls to raise the minimum allowances for all Holocaust survivors who receive monthly pensions, and would entitle survivors to a 100% discount on pharmaceutical drugs included in the health basket, compared to the 50% deductible they have today. “Recently, the Israeli government has announced several dramatic decisions regarding aid to Holocaust survivors.  We welcome this and call on the government to fulfill its obligations quickly to finally allow Holocaust survivors to live the rest of their lives with dignity,” said Eckstein.

 

 

^ Israel owes its initial existence to these Holocaust survivors (and the victims) since it was after the images of the death camps moved around the world after World War 2 that nations finally agreed to give the Jews their own homeland in Palestine. The UN member countries voted and agreed. These same survivors also fought off overwhelming odds when the militaries of numerous Arab/Muslim countries attacked the new Israel in 1948 and pledge to "push the Jews into the sea." It has been 66 years since Israel was established and has thrived into the only democratic and Western country in the Middle East and yet Israel doesn't do nearly enough for the Holocaust survivors living in their country. Every now and then the Government throws some more money at them, but the red-tape makes it difficult to get. While I think it's a good thing that the IFCJ is creating this emergency program to aid the survivors governments and organizations should go to the survivors themselves with the aid rather than make the survivors come to them and  "beg" for help. There are Holocaust survivors in countless countries around the world and they ALL deserve to live the remainder of their days in peace and above the poverty line. ^

http://www.jpost.com/National-News/Jewish-Christian-aid-group-announces-new-call-center-for-needy-Holocaust-survivors-350491