Survivor Assistance Program
Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service located in south Florida, is a nonprofit, social service agency that offers mental health and support programs for individuals and families; senior services and case management; community outreach; social and educational programs; financial assistance programs; and volunteer opportunities. Within that host of services, they provide access to home health care service to 136 elderly Holocaust survivors. This number is more than double that of last year.
Approximately 35 to 40 percent of Holocaust survivors in Florida live at or near the poverty level. According to a 2000 National Demographic Study, survivor’s median income is about one-third of the income of other elders in the same age group. The goal of the RRJFS Holocaust Survivor Program is to enable survivors to live out their lives in their own homes, safely and with dignity. Because of the horrors experienced at the hands of the Nazis, survivors do not fare well in congregate care facilities, such as nursing homes. Removing survivors from their homes and placing them in such facilities often causes flashbacks of the war and Nazi persecution.
They took us out of the camps, but they can't take the camps out of us, said Norman Frajman a survivor who resides west of Boynton Beach, Florida. The trauma never disappears.
The program historically has been by and large funded by allocations from the Area Agency on Aging and the Conference on Material Claims Against Germany, commonly known as the “Claims Conference.” Calls come in almost daily from survivors or their families requesting help. RRJFS is finding that allocations from the Claims Conference are not meeting the actual needs. Beyond the increase in numbers of survivors needing help there are also emergency situations that occur. As an example, a caregiver is looking after her husband who has Alzheimer’s and she herself falls ill and needs hospitalization. Immediately, the eight hours per week they previously needed becomes eight hours a day until she is rehabilitated and returns home to care for him as before. These are unplanned for but necessary costs that apply further pressure on the program’s budget. In some cases, families can help and in other cases, there is either no family or they are unable to contribute to the cost of help.
Our Involvement
Hands On Tzedakah recognizes the need for a survivor assistance program. Unfortunately the additional needs that come with time as survivors get older are not being funded by the Claims Conference and others must step in to help. On average it will cost $4,830 annually to provide the minimum necessary home health care and other services to one survivor. HOT has committed $9,660 to help the make up for the shortfall in funding to assist in ensuring no survivor has to wait for services. We are trying to raise enough funds to cover the program for 26 more survivors.
Contact Information:
Beth Levine, Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service, 21300 Ruth and Baron Coleman Blvd., Boca Raton, FL 33428; (561) 852-3333; bethl@bocafed.org; www.ruthralesjfs.org
