Helping out needy (illustration)
Photo: Elad Gershgorn
Sad holiday for Shoah survivors
Dozens of Holocaust survivors line up outside Yad Ezer L'Haver aid association in Haifa to receive coupons to help them make it through the holidays with dignity. 'I feel humiliated', one says
Holocaust survivors arrived at the Yad Ezer L’Haver branch in Haifa on Wednesday, joining a long line of elderly people in need of handouts to get through the holiday season with dignity.
The line outside the association for the needy moved slowly. Dozens of survivors, some of them using walking sticks, other hunched over, and many of them with their heads down, quieted.
One after another, they stretched out their arms to a representative of the association, who placed in their hands envelopes containing holiday coupons.
Each envelope had the words "Happy Holidays" written in red marker, and included amounts ranging from NIS 100 ($26) to NIS 500 ($132), according to the individual's economic situation.
"The economic situation is not easy," said 78-year-old Elisabetta Ronvel, who was only 13 when her parents, two brothers and all her uncles were murdered in the Holocaust.
"The money isn't always enough to by all the medicine in need, and the coupons I got will help me a lot," she said quietly.
Standing in line isn't easy either: "I feel humiliated," she said, "While the association is a great help to me, and I am very lucky to have it, I am very saddened by my situation and the state of other Holocaust survivors. It saddens my heart that I have to feel like a poor woman."
Michael Shor, 85, was 19-years-old when his father was killed in a concentration camp. Despite having his share of suffering, he remains unable to make a decent living for himself and is forced to rely on the association.
Yisrael Dancziger, who will turn 78 on the eve of Rosh Hashana, will be able to celebrate his birthday thanks to Yad Ezer L’Haver's aid.
"Financially, I need this aid," he said. "We have already heard many promises from the Treasury, and here, eight days before Rosh Hashana, what did we get? Without the help of the association and its Director Shimon Sabag, Holocaust survivors in Haifa would be in real trouble."
