Survivor no longer forced to prove his toothache started in Shoah
State will pay for dental care for Moshe Eliyahu, 91, who was earlier asked to show tooth problems began during Holocaust
A 91-year-old man will receive dental care at the state’s expense, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon decided on Wednesday, after the state initially demanded the man prove that his tooth problems were sustained during the Holocaust.
Moshe Eliyahu, who also suffers from damaged lungs as a result of work in Nazi labor camps, is an acknowledged victim of persecution, and currently receives disability benefits from the Finance Ministry’s Holocaust Survivors’ Rights Authority.
According to Hebrew-language daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Eliyahu is hooked up to a respirator and in need of constant medical care, and has been suffering intense pain in his teeth.
But when he asked for dental treatment, the authority asked him to prove that his dental issues were a result of the hardships he suffered as a young man during the Holocaust.
Only after intervention of the finance minister did the department agree to fund Eliyahu’s dental care. Kahlon told Moshe Eliyahu and his wife that they will receive treatment and counseling from a state-appointed social worker.
His wife Osnat told Yedioth she was angered by the department’s initial response.
“I hope [they] will change the policy regarding other [survivors’] dental care.”
According to the paper, Eliyahu was forced to load charcoal on trains during World War II, and as a result his lungs were damaged.
He was asked to prove this as well before the state agreed to finance the respiratory treatment he requires.
“He needed to prove that because of the charcoal he was stricken with a lung disease, which is something one can somehow still agree to. But to remember which tooth hurt him 70 years ago? Who remembers these things? It is absurd,” his wife said.