Budget cuts will allow increased aid for Shoah survivors

"This is a very important increase to a certain group of Holocaust survivors," Director-General of the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry says.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
holocaust survivors 248 88 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
holocaust survivors 248 88 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
The government on Sunday approved cutbacks totaling some NIS 740 million from the 2008 budget to offer additional assistance to Holocaust survivors this year in keeping with the findings of a recent public commission of inquiry. The budget cuts, which affect every ministry except for Defense and Education, will be used, in part, to implement the Dorner Commission recommendations regarding Holocaust survivor stipends, as well as towards the employment of an additional 1,000 policemen. "In order to implement the commission's recommendation, budget cuts were needed in all government ministries," said Nachum Itzkovitz, Director-General of the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry. The panel's proposal, which was presented on June 21, calls for a monthly increase of between NIS 1,000 and NIS 2,000 for about 43,000 survivors who had not benefited from a recent government agreement to boost the stipends of Holocaust survivors in Israel. "This is a very important increase to a certain group of Holocaust survivors, which complements a previous government accord for other survivors," he said. The total cost to the state budget is estimated to run between NIS 260-440 million. A government official's proposal last week to postpone implementation of the panel's findings until next year was widely condemned, as elderly survivors are fast dying out. The heads of the umbrella organization of Holocaust Survivors in Israel will meet Tuesday with the director-general of the Prime Minister's Office to be briefed on the arrangement, a group spokesman said Sunday. About 250,000 Holocaust survivors are living in the country. Nearly one-third of them live in poverty, Israeli welfare reports have found, prompting a national outcry that triggered a landmark accord for additional government assistance.