Holocaust Survivor Program Update FY 2020 - 2021

Holocaust Survivor Program Update FY 2020 - 2021

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May we honor all who have suffered Together, we are supporting our community’s Holocaust survivors with compassionate care that ensures their mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Without question, the last two years of the pandemic were the most challenging years in recent memory for our families, community, and country. For the more than 400 Holocaust survivors we serve, life was particularly difficult.

But through it all, your steady support has meant so much to the men and women in our care. As we moved through this long pandemic, our clients maintained their strength and well-being due to our partnership of care.

Survivors struggled during the pandemic with fear, loneliness, and isolation—intensifying the long-term effects of trauma from their wartime experiences. With our funders’ generous support, JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program (HSP) responded swiftly in March 2020 to help us ensure continuous service delivery and new innovative programs. Care management and in-home care continued to be provided safely, and online programs fostering social connection were expanded; a unique Victory Day celebration and an engaging book project were added.

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Holocaust survivors have experienced trauma and upheaval at multiple points in their lives.

JSSA has played a vital role in helping survivors since their arrival in the U.S. From the time of their arrival, JSSA helped with their resettlement needs. As they grew older, we gradually added services to help them age in the community. This support has been crucial to assisting survivors to remain safe and independent in their homes. We’ve learned that for Holocaust Survivors, an involuntary move to assisted living or nursing homes gives rise to deep trauma given their wartime experiences’ fleeing from their homes. When able to stay in one place, survivors remain in a familiar and comforting environment, surrounded by family and community.

JSSA’s culturally competent bilingual care managers support survivors’ well-being and ability to age-in-place by: ·

Helping survivor clients problem-solve, identify appropriate resources and providers, and synchronize care among multiple resources/providers.

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Proactively addressing social determinants of health, including food insecurity, social isolation, and lack of transportation, making referrals as needed to Meals on Wheels, socialization programs (online during the pandemic), Brenner transportation, and pro bono vision, dental, and hearing providers.

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Providing clients with hands-on care in their homes.

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Helping clients navigate complex medical issues and assisting with family dynamics around these and other challenges.

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Distributing Giant gift cards to combat client food insecurity.

Recognizing their special and unique care needs resulting from their life experiences as Holocaust survivors, JSSA has an enduring commitment to address these needs through providing person-centered traumainformed care which is weaved through all of our programs.

As survivors enter their 80s and 90s (a few are even past 100), they’ve become increasingly frail and dependent on JSSA for support. We have seen a distinct uptick in their care needs, particularly home care needs – assistance in dressing, bathing, eating, transferring, and toileting. While the Conference on

IN THIS UPDATE, WE WILL PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO: ·

JSSA’s past and current role in helping survivors

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COVID-related challenges for survivors

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The emotional support JSSA provided

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Creative solutions for survivors facing long-term social isolation

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Personal stories from our clients

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Comprehensive care delivered by JSSA and pro bono professional/ community support

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A picture of our service program over time

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Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) and state and local government provide generous funding for care, survivors’ greatest need to maintain their dignity and independence is additional home care support. However, home care is expensive. While the Claims Conference funds a large portion of these costs in their core funding, survivors’ current needs go beyond what the Conference can cover. We discuss how you can help later in this Update.

Our clients are experiencing distinct and unique challenges during the pandemic.

For some, anxiety surrounding the pandemic reminded them of the vulnerability they experienced as children in the 1940s. For others, the March 2020 COVID stay-at-home order and resulting isolation triggered memories of hiding or seclusion during the war. Food insecurity in the initial days of the pandemic triggered memories of wartime hunger and deprivation, further adding to their stress.

JSSA responded rapidly from the onset of the pandemic to address survivors’ emotional, physical, and mental health needs. Care managers pivoted from in-person to phone or videoconference contact to protect the health and safety of both clients and staff. Some care managers met their clients outside at a safe distance. Under our Chief Medical Officer’s guidance, home care continued in-person with aides outfitted in full personal protective equipment; in summer 2020, regular COVID-testing for JSSA staff was added to the safety measures.

For some clients, the stress and isolation brought on by the pandemic have accelerated their physical decline. Social engagement is essential for maintaining health, and its absence can lead to adverse outcomes. Client frailty and increased needs have prompted delivery of a more significant number of home care hours and more intensive care manager support.

Most importantly, we provide emotional support along with our high-quality and culturally-competent care coordination and home care. JSSA providers LISTEN attentively to the men and women in our care. We HEAR their traumatic stories—if they choose to divulge them. We BEAR WITNESS to their experiences. And we fully EMBRACE them, demonstrating they are part of a warm and caring community that is there for them for as long as needed.

Emotional support is a critical element of JSSA’s engagement with Holocaust Survivors.

As Rabbi David Rose, a JSSA Hospice Chaplain, said in a recent Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) panel discussion regarding his contact with survivors: “The war dehumanized them. Our role is to humanize them as individuals who have their own stories and trauma. Our role is to listen. They share their stories to make us a witness… because they know they won’t carry their stories into the future.”

Learn more about the Holocaust Survivor Program and how you can support continuing this service through: www.jssa.org/services/holocaust-survivors/

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JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program Helps Survivors Regain Independence In 1941, Diana’s father, Boris, was just a toddler clutched in the arms of his mother when his family fled the Nazi advance. While too young to remember what occurred, Boris does remember the stories recounted from his mother and older sister.

In December 1991, Boris emigrated with his wife to the United States. Unfortunately, following the emigration, his wife died from cancer. This was a difficult time, Diana says, and afterward, Boris stayed to himself. As the years went on, Boris began to need assistance to continue living independently in his home. That’s when Diana reached out to JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program, a program she remembered hearing about from relatives in New York.

Immediately, Diana felt a sense of relief when staff matched her with our Holocaust Survivor Program Care Manager Liza Uchitel, whom she was surprised to discover speaks Russian. Because Liza spoke Russian, Diana would no longer need to translate on behalf of her father who has limited English proficiency.

Instead, Boris could communicate his needs directly to Liza.

“I didn’t expect to meet somebody who speaks Russian, and that was a big, big help!” she said.

Furthermore, Liza provided Boris with necessary support and care coordination.

“She is always responsive, and she regularly checks in with him,” she said. “She helps as much as she can in everything.”

When Boris needed a walker, JSSA helped him pay for it.

“When it comes to something like a walker, which is around 200 dollars, it’s a big payment,” Diana said.

“This is equipment which helps him to walk,” she continued.

“He’s on social assistance and the money he receives, it’s just very limited pay for the apartment [and] for food.”

“I didn’t expect to meet somebody who speaks Russian, and that was a big, big help!” she said.

With the help of the Holocaust Survivor Program, JSSA helped Boris with a walk-in shower for increased accessibility and provided compression socks following his surgery. Still, Diana says the most important care Boris receives is the home care assistance. This service is beneficial because someone can check on Boris while she is at work.

“During the day, I am unable to help him,” Diana said. “The program helps him stay at home, and the ladies help him a lot.”

“The people who work for JSSA, the services they provide, the way they treat him…it’s a big help for him.

He’s able to stay home by himself,” Diana said.

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Over the past two years, with your partnership and support, JSSA delivered an array of high-quality care to Holocaust survivors.

The 2017 Greater Washington Jewish Community Demographic Study estimates that there are currently 2,000 Holocaust survivors living in the region. JSSA serves a portion of this survivor community (mainly from the Former Soviet Union) who have the fewest financial resources. Below is a summary of care provided over the last two years.

Summary: Holocaust Survivor Program Profile

FY20

FY21

Total clients served

470

443

New clients added

36

23

$ 6 Million

$ 6.9 Million

89%

88%

232,000 hours

264,400 hours

Holocaust program budget

Percentage successfully aging in place at home

Home care hours provided annually to all survivor clients (Baseline: 188,000 hrs in FY19)

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Current Status of Community Fund and Future Needs of Survivors JSSA has worked hard to conserve the $2.5 million Holocaust Survivor Community Fund raised by a group of caring and generous donors ten years ago. On top of this, JSSA has raised nearly $1 million additional dollars over the last ten years from generous donors to support our community’s survivors. The Claims Conference has steadily increased its annual funding to JSSA in response to our unmet needs. The Conference is continually negotiating with the German government and as a result, is able to give out larger allocations now than it did several years ago. As survivors age, however, their acuity has increased significantly and there is a greater need for substantially more home care hours. During the last two years, JSSA covered most of the survivors’ budgeted needs through the Claims Conference and generous annual philanthropic support from the community. This is why, by the end of FY21, $700,000 of the Community Fund had been preserved, and even flourished thanks to the stock market—allowing a cushion to provide for survivors’ increasing home care needs moving forward.

Your ongoing support for this Fund is essential—and deeply appreciated—to allow JSSA to address survivors’ increasing home care needs as they age.

Again, thank you for your ongoing support!

Thank you for helping maintain the strength, dignity, and resilience of our local survivor community members during these challenging times.

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Thank you to our generous donors Our generous donors play an essential role in sustaining services that empower individuals and families in our community to improve their quality of life. Your support helps us provide the highest quality of care to Holocaust survivors facing challenges to their health and well-being. $250,000+

$10,000 - $19,999

Maryland Department of Aging

Anonymous

Wagner-Braunsberg Family Foundation

The Elno Family Foundation Jerome A. and Deena L. Kaplan Family Foundation

$50,000 - $249,999

National Lutheran Communities and Services

The Dr. Cyrus Katzen Foundation, Inc Charles E. Smith Family Foundation

$5,000 - $9,999 Anonymous

$20,000 - $49,999 Family & Nursing Care Foundation Erwin and Leena Groner Harris Family Foundation

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Robert and Arlene Kogod Family Foundation William and Diane Liebman Olam Tikvah Men’s Club June Rogul Shaare Torah Men’s Club

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$1,750 - $4,999

$500 - $999

Amity Club of Washington

Anonymous

Dean Brenner and Robin Shaffert

Michael and Susan Friedman

Patricia Fettmann and Jonathan Ginsburg

Rachmil Jacobvits

Justin Goldstein

Monica Finkenthal

Jonathan and Robin Klugman

Michael Goldstein and Linda Engel

Alan and Agnes Leshner

Elaine Haas

Richard Lieberman and Helene Weisz

Martha Hallowell

Frances Miller Dina Siegel

$1,000 - $1,749

Women of Temple Rodef Shalom

Congregation Olam Tikvah Chester and Joan Levine

$180 - $499

Louis and Libby Pohoryles

Anonymous Robert and Susan Avjian Anat Bar-Cohen Ziva BenEzra Eugene Bialek and Arlene Brown Ellen and Dan Blalock

Alan and Deborah Pollack

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Martin and Elaine Book Michael Edery Beth Feldman Ellen Gerecht and Joe Rosenberg Jeremy Gold Paula Goldberg Bennett and Marlene Harte Mark Kaplan Amy and Wesley Kaplow Robin Lenkin John McMahon Julianne Mueller Franklin and Jacqueline Paulson Gary and Joanne Reusing Terri Sanker Eleanor and Dick Saslaw Fredric and Paula Simon Michael Stern Sheryl Stroud Marvin and Cyla Weiner

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JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program deeply appreciates the many caring professionals who provide pro-bono services that ensure the well-being of the men and women Holocaust Survivors in our care.

JSSA’s celebrates and recognizes the following partners: Dental Program: Alpha Omega-Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program Seventy general and specialist dentists currently participate on the dental panel, providing services to Holocaust survivors that alleviate pain and help restore function to maintain quality of life.

Hearing Aids: Partnership with the University of Maryland Hearing and Speech Clinic.

This service is expressly for clients who qualify for emergency funds*, enabling JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program to purchase hearing aids at a significant discount on behalf of our clients.

In May 2020, when the Hearing Aid Clinic reopened but was not yet seeing clients, our drivers picked up hearing aids from clients in their homes and drove them to the University of Maryland for repairs.

Optical Program: Dr. Michael Berenhaus, in collaboration with Essilor, provides JSSA’s Holocaust survivors with eyeglasses at no charge.

Advanced care planning education and clinics: Arnold & Porter & Bet Tzedek’s Holocaust Survivors Justice Network.

Working with Arnold & Porter, JSSA’s HSP offers advance care planning education to all of its survivor clients. Survivors are also provided the opportunity to create personalized advance care planning documents such as Powers of Attorney for Finance, Powers of Attorney for Health Care and Simple Wills.

Bet Tzedek works with other communities on the same project across the United States.

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Underwritten Home Care Services: Family & Nursing Care Foundation and the Dr. Cyrus Katzen Foundation Provides home care services to Holocaust Survivors who have no other means to access this type of care.

Holocaust Survivor Advisory Committee The Claims Conference requires grantees to establish this committee to approve emergency funds and minor home modifications over $350. The committee includes three Holocaust survivors, not eligible for our program, who serve with a second-generation survivor. *Clients who qualify for emergency funds earn less than $25,760 per year, 200% of the 2021 federal poverty level, and have less than $25,760 in assets.

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