Alpert JFS: Easing the Lives of Holocaust Survivors
Ferd & Gladys Alpert Jewish Family Service’s (Alpert JFS) Holocaust Survivors Assistance Program has been providing local survivors of the Shoah (Hebrew for catastrophe) with dignity, companionship and a voice that must continue to be heard for the past 25 years!
Today, seven full-time employees devote their workdays exclusively to identifying and addressing survivors’ distinct social welfare, health care, and emotional needs with the utmost sensitivity. The team arranges for more than 220,000 hours of in-home care for nearly 300 survivors living between Boynton Beach and the Treasure Coast each year, thanks to a grant of $6.1 million from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), the body that supports organizations around the world that provide the best care for victims of the Holocaust – like Alpert JFS!
Assistance is provided for:
- Navigating the reparations benefit process
- Care management and coordination
- Psychiatry, counseling and support groups
- Transportation
- Food security
- Respite care
- Socialization activities
The HonoringLifeTM program facilitated by Alpert JFS provides cultural competency training for those who may encounter Holocaust survivors professionally, such as home health aides, nurses, doctors, and lawyers, for example.
Additionally, an educational component of the Holocaust Assistance Program helps identify survivors to tell their story to school children in elementary, middle, and high schools; presentations that have an impact on students and survivors alike!
“We work closely with our partners in the home care community to provide services that will allow ‘our’ Survivors to age in place—in their own homes with support, dignity and as much independence as possible,” said Alpert JFS Holocaust Program Coordinator Eva Weiss, M.Ed., Ed.S.
The success of the program can be attributed to the highly skilled professionals at Alpert JFS and the support of the generous donors in our caring community of the Greater Palm Beaches.
If you are a Holocaust survivor, or know one, please contact Alpert JFS at 561-684-1991.
To learn more about the services and support provided by Alpert JFS to Holocaust survivors,
call Alpert JFS Director of Long Term Care Jennifer Weems-Escobar at 561-238-0237, or visit AlpertJFS.org/for-seniors-holocaust-survivors-assistance for more information.
This blog was writing by Nina Glaser, Alpert JFS Communications Coordinator, who supports the marketing and public relations efforts of the agency, and serves as the feature writer for its quarterly publication, Transformations. She has experience in magazine and newspaper publishing, and luxury retail marketing and sales. Glaser is a graduate of Parsons School of Design and Pace University.
