Holocaust care group cutting assistance to 20,000 survivors

A foundation that provides health-care assistance to elderly Holocaust survivors said yesterday it will be forced to cut off services to some 20,000 people on Jan. 15 because of a cash crunch.

The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel said it made the decision following the Finance Ministry's move to leave its funding at only NIS 7 million, the same amount it received in 2005, and half the amount it had been allocated under the former finance minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Finance Ministry responded that the state had not stopped the foundation's funding, and had even added NIS 5 million.

Because the cost of care is increasing but donations remain the same, officials said the foundation can no longer afford to provide short-term in-home nursing care and money for glasses and hearing aids, which it provided to 5,500 needy survivors in 2005. A program that provided one-time monetary grants of NIS 3,000 for medication, hearing aids, glasses and false teeth to some 16,000 survivors in 2005 is also to be stopped. The foundation's budget from now on will be devoted to its main service, long-term nursing care for some 10,000 survivors.

"We all understand that this is not an economic problem to support Holocaust survivors, but a moral problem, a problem of immoral priorities," said Ze'ev Factor, the foundation's chairman.

Dubby Arbel, the foundation's chief executive, told a news conference the group needs an additional $10 million to restore the services.

Yonah Laks, chairwoman of the Organization of Mengele Twins, said Israel is shirking the responsibility it accepted to care for Holocaust survivors.

"In the `50s, the state received money from Germany to care for the survivors but did not give it to them because there were more urgent needs," she said. "Today the state does not lack money, but Holocaust survivors are not even allowed to die in dignity."

A study this year showed that 40 percent of Holocaust survivors in Israel live below or just above the poverty line. Funding to the foundation, which was established in 1994 by Holocaust survivors' organizations, has increased by only a few million dollars since 2002, while the percentage of those approaching it for help has gone up by more than 60 percent.

Survivors also criticized the Claims Conference, an international body that distributes German and Austrian reparations to Holocaust survivors, and which provides over 90 percent of the foundation's budget. Money that could be used to save lives are being used to build museums and pay for youth trips to Poland, they said.

Hillary Kessler-Godin, a spokeswoman for the Claims Conference, said the needs of survivors in Israel are great, but added, "we hope that others in Israel will recognize the importance and attempt to ensure these programs are continued."