The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) announced the establishment of an emergency call center for thousands of needy Holocaust survivors in Israel. The call center is being set up in the face of a newly released report that states some 50,000 Holocaust survivors are living in abject poverty in Israel.

The Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel reported that around 193,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel. In addition, the report showed that 45 percent of Holocaust survivors feel lonely and one out of every five is forced to choose each month between food and medicine.

As part of the new IFCJ project, survivors will be given panic buttons that will allow them to call for immediate medical care, such as a doctor or ambulance, as well as social assistance, all at extremely subsidized prices.

The IFCJ hopes to establish a fund to provide monetary assistance as well, to aid those survivors who cannot afford medical treatments, equipment, food or transportation. The project is expected to cost around NIS 5.25 million per year and will begin next summer once logistics are in place and a list of eligible participants is drawn up.

“The treatment of Holocaust survivors in Israel for many years suffered severe deficiencies and many survivors today are suffering from serious problems of poverty and loneliness,” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ founder and president, said.

“This situation is a serious moral stain on the forehead of Israeli society as a whole and this population should be treated without delay and on a significant scale while they are still living among us.”

The emergency hotline was set up at the request of the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel. Last year, the foundation provided around 12,000 panic buttons to survivors. However, due to cut government funding, the foundation had to stop its lifesaving services.

“We thank the fellowship for its efforts to establish an emergency call center for survivors, a project that is a critical need for many survivors, and will run in cooperation with the foundation at its head,” said Avi Dichter, chairman of the foundation.

The foundation’s report has also sparked a change in the Israeli government. On Sunday, the Israeli cabinet approved a national plan that will now allocate NIS 1 billion per year to assist Holocaust survivors in Israel.

“It is our moral obligation to ensure that Holocaust survivors among us will live the rest of their lives with respect and blessings,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in his opening remarks at the cabinet meeting.

“Today, we are changing the priorities and correcting the injustice of many decades in which survivors were abandoned, pushed aside and lost in the great tangle known as Israeli bureaucracy. It is unconceivable that those who managed to survive the worst atrocities of human society will not survive the Israeli bureaucracy. This, we change today,” said Finance Minister Yair Lapid.