Holocaust charity hopes 5769 will be better for survivors

New charity calls for help for Israel's Holocaust survivors live out their final years in dignity.

By RUTH EGLASH
Holocaust survivor 224 (photo credit: AP)
Holocaust survivor 224
(photo credit: AP)
Efforts to help Israel's Holocaust survivors live out their final years in dignity should happen the whole year around and not just on certain Jewish holidays, the newly founded Association for Immediate Help to Holocaust Survivors urged this week. "We want the people of Israel to join us in making this year the one that will end the starvation and suffering of thousands of survivors in this country," said Tamara Mor, founder and spokeswoman for the non-profit organization, which was started six months ago to distribute food parcels to lonely and bedridden Holocaust survivors who may have been turned down by other food charities. "Many organizations ask their clients to fill out endless paperwork, produce proof that they are survivors or that they receive certain social welfare benefits," pointed out Mor, adding "We want to help anyone who needs us." She said that the organization already handed out more than 400 food baskets to survivors ahead of the Rosh Hashana holiday and that it currently runs a 24-hour hot line - 03-525 7888 - to provide those in need with immediate assistance. "We are all volunteers in this organization and the donations come from our own pockets," emphasized Mor, adding that the small, grass-roots charity even took out a bank loan to pay for food to fill the holiday baskets. According to the organization, recent government reports on the status of Holocaust survivors in Israel show that more than a quarter, roughly 80,000, of the 250,000 survivors here live below the poverty line, with 14 percent not having enough income to purchase basic food staples. "They use fancy language such as 'food staples' to mask the situation that these people are actually starving and will die if they don't get immediate help," added Mor, who claims she has yet to see evidence that additional government benefits approved earlier this year are making any real difference. The main problem, she said, was with survivors who arrived here in the past 15 years from the former Soviet Union and who are not necessarily recognized by the state as survivors or eligible to collect these additional benefits. In April, the Knesset unanimously approved a new law aimed at providing some 8,000 Holocaust survivors with fiscal and other non-fiscal benefits. However, Mor, pointed out that the bureaucracy sometimes proves prohibitive to many survivors who do not even speak Hebrew. She urged people to come forward and "join us in making this year the one that will end starvation for these people."