Medical Aid Fund Turns Away Holocaust Survivors
A fund that helps Israeli Holocaust survivors pay medical expenses told recipients that it would stop receiving applications until next year, citing an overflow of requests.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported that the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel this week suspended the transfer of funds to over 8,000 survivors eligible for benefits.
The group has been receiving 100-150 such requests every day this year and has so far paid out $7.7 million to 9,100 applicants. The Foundation’s dedicated budget for such reimbursements has a shortfall of $5.1 million, Ynet reported.
The fund reimburses low-income survivors for medical bills of up to NIS 4,000 (roughly $1,000), which they have already paid out of their own pockets. The reimbursements cover dental services, hearing aides and prescription glasses.
Established in the 1990s, the foundation is funded by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which covers 60% of its budget. Another 30 percent comes from the Israeli Ministry of Finanace, and the rest comes from other donors.
The organization’s overall budget was $112.5 million this year.
Rony Kalinsky, the foundation’s general manager, blamed the government for the budget shortage, according to Ynet. The Finance Ministry said that it had increased its contribution in recent years.
The Foundation operates independently of the state.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO