People protest Israeli Holocaust survivors living in poverty
Posted on August 2, 2007 • By Deena Levenstein
Category: Social 1 Comment
A friend of mine who is a Holocaust survivor says she feels like Job of the Bible. She has endured great suffering throughout her life (including after her “liberation”) and now she is thankful that she is at least financially secure.
But what about those Holocaust survivors living under the poverty line? Namely the estimated 120,000 such people in Israel? I cannot help but feel that a Holocaust survivor deserves special treatment. And so to hear that so many of them are barely surviving financially, especially in the Jewish state, seems greatly unjust.
Two organizations have decided to take action to try to change this. The Yedid community empowerment organization and Tel Aviv’s Academy of Commercial Communications copywriting school are joining together to stand behind the 25 Holocaust survivor organizations of Israel in their fight to change the laws so that more support is given to the survivors living in Israel. They will begin protesting the beginning of next week using signs the students created as part of their final project at the Academy of Commercial Communications.
A Knesset (Israeli parliament) bill initiated by Yedid and led by MK Colette Avital (Labor) would give all Holocaust survivors in Israel within the same income bracket equal monthly allowances, as opposed to the current laws which, among other things, differentiate depending on how much they suffered during the war.
Shelly Paz, “‘March of Living’ to campaign for needy survivors”, The Jerusalem Post, August 2, 2007.
Update: Protest happens, officials listen
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