Rivlin: Assisting Holocaust survivors is our moral obligation

President Reuven Rivlin called for Holocaust survivors to be enabled to live in dignity. The president was speaking at a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at his residence Monday evening.

“There is no greater responsibility than this. It is our moral obligation as a state and nation,” he said at the holiday event attended by 150 Israeli Holocaust survivors.

The event, entitled “Heroism and Rebirth,” was also attended by representatives of Yad Vashem. The chairwoman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel, Colette Avital, also addressed the audience.

With one in four Holocaust survivors in Israel living in poverty, there have been several recent legislative initiatives to improve their quality of life before it is too late.

A bill passed in June allocated higher monthly stipends and free medication for survivors. “The State of Israel has a historic obligation to the Holocaust survivors, and our mission is to make it easier for them during the last years of their lives,” Yesh Atid leader and then finance minister Yair Lapid wrote in a statement at the time.

In 2013, the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel published a report that found that one in four Holocaust survivors lives below the poverty line, and 58% of those who requested financial assistance subsisted on NIS 3,000 a month (about $830).