'Survivors', barely surviving Israel

JTA

Almost half of Holocaust survivors in Israel live below the poverty line, a welfare group said. Zeev Factor, chairman of the Fund for the Welfare of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, said Thursday that 40 percent of those he represents must live on only $450 a month. He blamed the statistic on the recent immigration of some 170 survivors from the former Soviet Union. "These people are not eligible for any German reparations or an Israeli government pension," he said. Factor called on the Justice Ministry to speed the release of private Holocaust-era accounts found to have been held over in Israeli banks, so that the money can be used for survivors´ welfare.