189,000 survivors live in Israel - more than 800 passed the age of 100 • In the past year 15,170 survivors passed away • "It is our duty to guarantee them a life of honor"
77% of Holocaust survivors are over 80 // Photo: Rafael Ben Ari
Send a hug to Holocaust survivors: In Israel, Holocaust Remembrance Day will be marked differently and more sadly, while Holocaust survivors find their death from the Corona virus and others are forced to stay alone for fear of being infected. In Israel, today there are 189,500 Holocaust survivors and victims of anti-Semitic harassment, 77% of whom are over the age of 80, so they are at the highest risk. The average age of Holocaust survivors is 83.9. 16% (31,000) crossed the age of 90, and more than 800 passed the age of 100.
Most of the sellers of the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority in the Ministry of Finance are women - 60%. In the past year, 15,170 survivors and survivors have died - more than 41 survivors and survivors on average each day. According to the Treasury's Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority, about 64% of European-born Holocaust survivors, of whom the largest group are former USSR - 36%, Romanian - 12% followed by Polish (6%), Bulgaria ( 3%), Hungary (2%), Germany (1%) and Czechoslovakia (1%).
36% are native to Asia and North Africa. Of these, half are natives of Morocco and Algeria, who suffered from anti-Semitic harassment and various restrictions during the Vichy regime. 11% are Baghdad Jews who survived the prehistoric riots in Iraq in early June 1941. Another 7% are Tunisian and Libyan immigrants who suffered Nazi persecution.
Mental support for survivors
Currently the Holocaust Survivors' Rights Authority provides a care and mental support system for some 7,000 survivors. The service is provided by professionals in telephone and video calls, and the authority invites additional survivors to use this service. For any request for Holocaust survivors' rights and assistance, contact the Authority's Information Center at 5105 *. Holocaust survivors who are not being cared for by nursing homes at the present time can convert the additional nursing hours provided by the Authority to a monetary amount. In 2019, the Authority spent NIS 5.5 billion in benefits and benefits.
As part of the Holocaust Day, a Holocaust survivor venture entitled "Remembering the Fallen - Embrace the Survivors of the Balconies" will be held. This is an initiative of the Aviv Association for Holocaust Survivors in collaboration with the cities of Hadera and Netanya. On Holocaust Day the next morning, at 10:00, the citizens are asked to go out into the courtyards and balconies and stand still for the Holocaust memorial, and at the end of the siren to sing "Hope", as a signal of social solidarity with the heroes who survived the inferno and are bravely faced alone at this time.
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The Holocaust Victims Welfare Fund also increased its activity during this complex period. The foundation, which provides assistance in various respects to tens of thousands of Holocaust survivors, has expanded the volunteer system and helps survivors with solitude, providing emotional, mental health, food supply, medication acquisition and immediate assistance.
Limor Livnat, Volunteer Chairman of the Holocaust Victims' Welfare Fund: "We have a moral obligation to assure Holocaust survivors, those who have experienced the inferno, and still live among us - living with dignity." Living with Dignity "which distributes about 400,000 meals a year to Holocaust survivors.