State grant doubles aid to Shoa survivors

New Jersey’s Jewish Family Service agencies will receive $400,000 to serve Holocaust survivors in the new fiscal year, thanks to a “Grants in Aid” allocation in New Jersey’s new state budget.

The allocation doubles the amount the state granted to the Holocaust Survivor Assistance Program of the New Jersey Jewish Family Service Agencies in fiscal years 2014 and 2015. It brings the three-year total to $1,000,000 in state funding to provide services to New Jersey’s 4,700 Holocaust survivors.

The new state grant allows the Family Service agencies to meet essential needs of survivors, including home health aide services, transportation, nursing services, subsidized adult medical day care, emergency financial assistance, and kosher meals-on-wheels programs. 

According to proponents, the additional funding will provide survivors with 11,000 hours of home care service, 3,000 meals, and 1,500 hours of case work and social service needs management.

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In addition, $75,000 will be devoted to emergency assistance requests and to provide survivors with as many as 600 rides for shopping and medical appointments.

“We are grateful to Gov. Chris Christie and the legislature for once more recognizing, in a bipartisan way, that the concerns of Holocaust survivors are unique because of what they have been through, and because their vulnerabilities at this age are increasing and are real,” said Mark Levenson, president of the NJ State Association of Jewish Federations, in a July 6 press release. 

“The annual HSAP allocation assists our community to meet the anticipated and increased needs for direct and acute services for survivors as the survivor population ages,” said Jacob Toporek, executive director of the State Association. 

Federations in New Jersey worked with the State Association and were instrumental in securing the funding.