The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) announced on Wednesday that it has allocated $720 million in funds to more than 300 social-welfare organizations to support home care and supportive services for frail and vulnerable Holocaust survivors.
This allocation includes $47 million in support for social welfare agencies in Ukraine, which is facing a Russian invasion that has created a humanitarian disaster.
“We are proud to announce this significant allocation at a time when these funds are critical, due to the age, poverty and increasing disability of our waning survivor population and as they also continue to face the ongoing uncertainty and threat of COVID-19. We know these funds provide vital support during these difficult times,” said Gideon Taylor, president of the Claims Conference.
In recent years, during negotiations with the German government, the Claims Conference pressed the urgent need to increase home care funding for Holocaust survivors both in the United States and across the globe.
The new allocations are distributed to social-welfare organizations in regions where significant numbers of survivors live, to ensure vital services, such as home care, medical care, emergency assistance and food are available for Holocaust survivors in those regions. Funds for these vital services provide a critical lifeline to frail, elderly Holocaust survivors in need around the world, enabling them to live out their remaining days in the dignity that was stolen from them in their youth.
“I cannot overstate how critical these lifesaving funds from the Claims Conference are to ensure the well-being of survivors in the former Soviet Union. As we see in Ukraine and throughout the region, a crisis can erupt at a moment’s notice and increase the plight and needs of survivors and other elderly. The services we provide them in partnership with the Claims Conference are a literal lifeline of care, dignity and hope for better days,” said Mark Sisisky, president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, also known as the JDC.
