Israel Facts, Figures and Statistics About Poverty Stricken Holocaust Survivors

Article rewrite demanded by a teacher named Nellie Deutsch. The original was by two of her students, and apparently wasn't intended to be published.

Questions surround the treatment of Holocaust survivors in Israel, yet plenty is invested every day into displacing the Palestinian population. This image from an Israeli newspaper is titled, Leopold Rosen, "I don't have enough money for food"

(JERUSALEM / SALEM) - The original article that occupied this space was sent to Salem-News.com and published along with the regular flow of information that passes through our electronic halls each day. I thought it came from Democracy Now, I must have been mistaken.

We have been notified that the story was not cleared to be published; it was written by two high school students. Their teacher, Nellie Deutsch, contacted Salem-News.com and demanded that the girls' names be removed, and they have been.

The original piece was presented exactly for what it is, with full credit to the writers and teacher. It basically stated that the Holocaust was one of the most horrific events of the 20th century. The students cited how the whole nation of Jews were haunted by the Nazis. The information also mentioned how the Jewish people paid a very high price - 6,000,000 Jewish lives.

The students wrote about how WWII may have ended in 1945, but the suffering is still fresh. They claimed that many survivors of the Holocaust are living in poverty. Their teacher said the piece was out of context.

According to the NY Times in Jerusalem, "Nearly one-third of the estimated 260,000 Holocaust survivors here are now living in poverty. According to a report by the Holocaust Survivors' Welfare Fund timed to be released around the official day of remembrance, thousands of people who escaped death camps are struggling to get services like medical care or sufficient pensions."^[1]

Interestingly Ms. Deutsch, that is almost word for word what the two 16-year old female students cited, only they rewrote the paragraph, but kept the attribution to the Holocaust Survivors' Welfare Fund. Their information came from the Israeli news group YNET and that, they also properly attributed.

In the students' article, it is stated that a third of the Holocaust survivors are living in poverty, and it gives the impression that Israel is forgetting its obligation to these people.

I do not see a conflict, intellectually or conceptually, with anything your two now unnamed students have written up to this point. The presentation is straightforward and highlights the facts while discussing both the tragedy and responsibility.

In the NY Times article, Collette Avital, a member of Parliament and advocate for Holocaust survivors for several years, is quoted saying, "Our claim to fame is that we are the state of the Jewish people. We keep being very critical of those who have not admitted guilt or deny that there was a Holocaust, but here we are ignoring the people who are living in dire poverty."

The girls then wrote a paragraph about how Israel should offer financial support to these survivors. They cited the huge pain and loss of the Holocaust generation; they talked about how the survivors are getting up there in age and experiencing health problems; they mention how the problems are not just physical... these people need mental care for the immense suffering they endured. They talked about the other costs these fragile citizens face, and they mentioned how many have few if any family members left alive.

The NY Times article further reveals that the survivors living in Israel get about $600 a month from the German government. Some receive about $350 from Israel's Finance Ministry, but the Holocaust survivors who emigrated to Israel after 1953 only receive a national retirement allowance.

About 70% of these so-called "newer immigrants", account for the Holocaust survivors living in Israel. They do not receive any special dispensation, according to a report referenced in the article. The NY Times also states that these economic hardships of Holocaust survivors are not new, but they are receiving increasing attention, or at least they were in 2007, when the article was written.

Of course that was before Israel spent hundreds of millions of dollars attacking the civilian population of Gaza in retaliation to Hamas rocket attacks. Perhaps just a small fraction of that military budget, mostly supplied by the U.S. to start with, would properly care for these precious survivors of unspeakable inhumanities.

Again Ms. Deutsch, as I go through here reviewing and confirming the information these students of yours put together, I just don't see any fantasy in it.

In fact that was the extent of it, except for the link to the Holocaust survivors' site. Not exactly a controversial move. I would say that your students are faring better than you realize, Ms. Deutsch. They brought light to an important fact, no doubt one that not just Israel, but the entire western world should hang its collective head in shame over.

Now the students have been deleted, and they will not be able to reference this in the future for a resume. They can't show friends and family how they were published on a news Website that is in the top one half of one percent of all Websites in the world. I am a news editor and writer; I do not know the reasons things go the way they do, but I suspect those girls might have been proud of their work.

If the two students who composed the former article are reading this, we are not against the idea of working with bright young people. We write very frank analysis of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, and we encourage all people of all nations, of all cultures and faiths and ages, to send stories to us. We will certainly consider publishing everything that is interesting.

Girls, since I have hijacked your story, I will add my bio to the bottom and you can write to me if you have interest in sharing other articles that you may write. I'm quite sure your teacher Ms. Deutsch is only trying to protect you, and she told me that the WikiEducator pages should not be viewed as a news source. She sure lays it down, doesn't she? Geez, gave me a high school flashback. I ran your piece because it made sense and is an important subject to broach. Silence is a killer in more ways than one.

Nellie Deutsch, sorry we had to tangle over this, I opened your sites and I see that you have a lot going on. We meant no harm by using this. Again, it was sent to me with information about Democracy Now and I mistakenly associated them.

Peace, Salaam, Shalom

^[1] Support for Survivors of the Holocaust in Israel

April-16-2007: Many Holocaust survivors living in poverty, report says - By Jennifer Medina NY Times

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Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines.

Tim holds numerous awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing, including the Oregon AP Award for Spot News Photographer of the Year (2004), first place Electronic Media Award in Spot News, Las Vegas, (1998), Oregon AP Cooperation Award (1991); and several others including the 2005 Red Cross Good Neighborhood Award for reporting. Serving the community in very real terms, Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com