BRIGHT SPOT FOR SURVIVORS
‘It’s a tremendous increase,’ spokesman Sidney Zoltak says of a boost in aid from the Claims Conference for home care for Holocaust survivors. Brenda Branswell has the details.
Like many seniors still living in their own home, Judith Shahar has some outside help for things like cooking and housekeeping.
But for Shahar and other eligible Holocaust survivors, the home- care and cleaning services are funded by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Founded in 1951, the Claims Conference’s work includes negotiating for compensation payments and help for victims of Nazi persecution.
“I feel very great because I have a little anxiety being alone,” Shahar said of the home- care help.
“And that is very, very good for me — excellent,” said Shahar, a Holocaust survivor originally from Romania, who declined to give her age.
On Monday, the Claims Conference will announce a big increase in aid to Holocaust victims in Canada, primarily for home care. Its allocation to 11 social service agencies in Canada for 2015 will jump from $ 6.4 million US this year to $ 18.6 million in 2015. The increase comes from its negotiations with Germany, the Claims Conference said.
The Cummings Centre administers funding from the Claims Conference in the Montreal- area, but also for organizations in Halifax, Winnipeg, Calgary, Windsor, Hamilton and Victoria. Its allocation in 2015 will jump from $ 2.4 million to $ 7 million, a large part of which will go to helping Montreal- area Holocaust survivors. ( Agencies in Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa, and, for the first time this year, Edmonton, receive their funding directly from the Claims Conference.)
“It’s a tremendous increase and I’m sure that the agencies, not only in Montreal but also in the rest of the country, are going to be very happy,” said Sidney Zoltak, a Claims Conference board member who is also the co- president of the Canadian Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants.
It’s estimated there are between 13,000 and 15,000 Holocaust survivors still alive in Canada, according to Zoltak. Toronto now has a larger survivor community than Montreal although it used to be the reverse, he said.
The Cummings Centre is excited about being in a position to expand the home- care program in 2015, said Benita Goldin, co- ordinator of community relations.
“We’re very fortunate that the Claims Conference is assisting us with this and providing us with the funds to provide much needed home- care and cleaning services to Holocaust survivors so that they can stay in their own homes for as long as possible.”
The German government agreed in its annual negotiations with the Claims Conference in 2013 to contribute about $ 1 billion for home care for Jewish Holocaust victims over four years through 2017.
The programming objective for the coming year for home- care and cleaning funds is to provide any eligible survivor with the maximum amount of hours of service that they would be eligible for based on a needs assessment, Goldin said.
Depending on the individual, that could be anywhere from four hours a week to 25. The service supplements government- funded home care, Goldin said. So if a person is eligible for four hours, but already received two hours a week from a CLSC, they would receive two through the Cummings Centre.
To be eligible for the program you have to meet the definition of a survivor that’s provided by the Claims Conference, Goldin said. Survivor eligibility for home care is set out by the German government and means- tested to make sure those who need it most are helped, the Claims Conference said.
A minority of survivors don’t want the assistance because it comes from Germany.
“They’re not able to handle it psychologically,” said Rebecca Levy, director of the social services department at the Cummings Centre. “The trauma is so difficult and so deep.”
There are also financial criteria to be eligible for the program.
“It’s very generous actually because the idea is they want to give the program to as many survivors as there are out there. As many as we can reach,” Goldin said.
“The way it is now, for this year, you can have income of $ 25,000 per year, but there ... are pensions and retirement income that don’t count into the $ 25,000. And then you’re allowed to have up to $ 500,000 in assets and it doesn’t include a ( primary) home or a car.” She expects that criteria to remain the same next year.
The survivor has to be living in their own home as opposed to in assisted living or long- term care.
Four hours a week for home care services and about three hours every second week for cleaning is probably their average now, Goldin said. “But starting in 2015, it should be much higher.”
To find out if a Holocaust survivor is eligible for home care and cleaning services, people can call the Cummings Centre at 514- 3421234.