XPost: or.general, tx.politics, alt.politics.usa   
   XPost: can.general   
   From: jmoss9@hotmail.com   
      
   TEL AVIV, Israel — Hadasa Hershkovichi fled to Israel in search   
   of a home after the Nazis murdered her entire family.   
      
   But while million-dollar apartments pop up throughout her Tel   
   Aviv neighborhood, Hershkovichi lives in a shack originally   
   built as a laundry room on the roof of a five-story building.   
      
   "The cold winter wind is coming in through the windows so I   
   shove newspapers around the edges to stop the wind coming in,"   
   said the Romanian-born Hershkovichi, who suffers from a   
   combination of ailments that make it very hard for her to climb   
   the stairs to her tiny apartment.   
      
   "This is not the way for a human being to live," the 80-year-old   
   said. "I only have a few more years to live and I want a proper   
   home."   
      
   Hershkovichi is one of 190,000 Holocaust survivors residing in   
   Israel today. She is also one of the 50,000 estimated to live   
   below the poverty line, according to the Association for   
   Immediate Help for Holocaust Survivors. Israel classifies a   
   person as poor if they survive on around $600 or less a month.   
      
   "I'm ashamed, I want to cry but crying doesn't help," Susan   
   Rotem, a volunteer with the Association for Immediate Help for   
   Holocaust Survivors, told NBC News. "It's hard to be old but   
   it's very hard to be old, sick and lonely."   
      
   Rotem and some 3,000 fellow volunteers help people like   
   Hershkovichi by giving them meals and medicine, paying their   
   bills, and keeping them company on their birthdays.   
      
   As survivors mark the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the   
   Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, campaigners in Israel are   
   calling on the country's government to remember those who lived   
   but now exist in destitution.   
      
   "We cannot ignore the fact that the state had failed to provide   
   the remedy, welfare, containment, treatment and the   
   attentiveness that Holocaust survivors need and deserve," a   
   recent report about survivors published in Israel's Ha'aretz   
   newspaper suggested.   
      
   Tami Meroz, who supervises services for Holocaust survivors at   
   Israel's Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, said that   
   those who escaped the Nazis "are divided in terms of their   
   socioeconomic level in a similar manner to that of the entire   
   country's elderly."   
      
   She added: "As a group they had a remarkable ability to recover   
   after arriving to Israel. We provide for their special needs   
   including building special clubs, mental help and economic help.   
   The presumption that these survivors are miserable and poor is   
   wrong and damaging. All together Israel has assigned $4.5   
   billion for the Holocaust survivors and we understand that we   
   can always do better and give more money."   
      
   Such official assurances provide little comfort to people like   
   Berta Sporan. The 95-year-old Holocaust survivor was kicked out   
   of her apartment by a landlord who wanted to renovate the   
   building.   
      
   It was only with the help of the Association for Holocaust   
   Survivors that the landlord paid her some money for her to rent   
   another home.   
      
   "As a Holocaust survivor I never got anything from the the   
   state," Sporan said. "Our country is very poor and has huge   
   expenses from wars and the army so I don't demand anything."   
      
   Tamara More, the head of the association, was less inclined to   
   let society off the hook.   
      
   "Berta is an amazing woman who dedicated her life since the   
   Holocaust to helping others whether it be people or animals in   
   distress," she said. "[She] chose not to bring children into   
   this very sad world and dedicated her life to help others. [Now]   
   we provide for all her needs."   
      
   http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/thousands-israeli-holocaust-   
   survivors-struggle-poverty-n293391   
      
         
      
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