2023 Holocaust Survivor Program Report

DEAR SUPPORTERS:

JSSA helps our neighbors and their families through their most vulnerable moments with warmth and acceptance. Our compassionate care is especially critical for neighbors who survived the Holocaust and rebuilt their lives here in the National Capital Region. The dedicated professionals and volunteers of JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program care for the physical, emotional, and mental health and well-being of our region’s survivors, honor their life experiences, and empower these resilient men and women to safely and independently age at home.

This year imposed distinct challenges on Holocaust survivors. Old fears were reignited by the war in Ukraine and by sharply rising antisemitism—globally, nationally, and locally. The renewed anxiety triggered by these world events was amplified by the lingering uncertainties and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. JSSA’s support, sensitivity, and return to pre-pandemic models of care were essential to survivors and their families navigating financial, emotional, and health challenges compounded by their historical trauma.

The stories of our clients demonstrate the importance of JSSA’s support and your donations. Read more to learn about the profound impact of JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program on the survivors of our region in 2022. As the survivor community grows smaller, older and more frail, their needs intensify, and JSSA’s support becomes more critical than ever.

JSSA is the only nonprofit in our region designated by international funding sources to deliver critical health and social welfare services to survivors of the Holocaust. While Claims Conference funding is significant, it is not sufficient to fully meet the needs of this community, many of whom live with limited financial means.

Your partnership and generosity allow JSSA’s dedicated team to provide comprehensive and compassionate care management, which makes it possible for Holocaust survivor clients to continue to live independently in their own homes with dignity and respect. Thank you for your steadfast support.

With gratitude,

Todd Schenk, Chief Executive Officer, JSSA

OUR APPROACH

For many survivors of the Holocaust, an involuntary move to assisted living or a nursing home can give rise to deep fear and trauma by triggering memories of wartime experiences. Remaining in a familiar and comfortable environment, surrounded by family and community, is especially important to these men and women.

Cultural sensitivity is a hallmark of JSSA’s approach. More than 92% of JSSA’s clients are from the former Soviet Union, and two thirds of our care managers are bilingual in Russian and English. Care managers support clients in their native language while helping them navigate their local communities in English.

JSSA’s whole-person approach to care goes far deeper than supporting the practical needs of our clients. We see and honor each individual we support, bear witness to their unique life experiences, and address their complex situations. Instead of addressing only the most pressing “presenting problem,” JSSA’s compassionate professionals assess each individual and identify the right resources from across our robust constellation of services to strengthen overall healing and well-being.

Our care managers serve the diverse needs of our community’s survivors with cultural awareness and sensitivity. JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program services are based on the Person-Centered Trauma-Informed (PCTI) model of care, an approach supported by our partners at The Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and The Jewish Federations Institute on Aging and Trauma. PCTI promotes an individual’s safety and well-being by recognizing the impact of trauma that person has experienced and encouraging individual preference and self-determination. Each year, all JSSA Holocaust Survivor Program care managers receive training in person-centered trauma-informed care.

“We are a very engaged family, but both my parents’ health is declining and it’s an overwhelming time. Knowing that the Holocaust Survivor Program is supporting them through these challenging issues is a great support.”

CARING FOR OUR COMMUNITY’S HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS IN 2022

This year, JSSA helped survivors feel safe and supported in their homes with care management, home care assistance, nutrition support, transportation to medical appointments, financial assistance for medical needs, and pro- bono dental, optical, hearing aid, and advance planning services. We also helped clients feel connected to their community by providing social and recreational programs to alleviate isolation.

JSSA’s care managers once again offered regular in-person home visits following more than two years of pandemic-related virtual support for needs beyond home care, which remained in-person throughout the pandemic. The isolation of the pandemic triggered historical fears and trauma for many survivors. As we began to emerge from the pandemic, JSSA helped survivors reengage in meaningful social connections in the community including participation in JCC and adult day programs, concerts, cultural events, and regular medical and dental appointments.

We also continued to offer online services that brought meaning and connection to the survivor community during the first years of the pandemic when in-person activities were suspended.

• The successful Uniper program, a virtual socialization initiative offered in English and Russian and introduced during the pandemic, reached 126 individuals with the support of a generous grant from the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA), which is funded by the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living.

• Other pandemic-era programs that were introduced to increase socialization and connection in place of in-person gatherings were valued and appreciated by clients. These include home delivery of gift baskets during Hannukah and Victory Day, which included beautiful blankets and warm scarves generously donated by staff and volunteers, and flowers and cards on birthdays and other celebratory milestones.

JSSA HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR PROGRAM SERVICES

• Care Management

• Home Care (personal care, homemaker services, nursing assessments)

• Transportation to medical appointments

• Financial assistance for medical needs

• Nutrition and food security support (grocery gift cards, Meals on Wheels)

• Socialization

PRO BONO

• Optical

• Hearing

• Dental

SERVICES

• Advance Care planning

Alice* is a 99-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Washington, DC. Born in Berlin, she was 10-years old when Hitler came to power. During the war, Alice was forced to work at a Siemens factory for two years. Facing constant fears of deportation, she went underground and had many close calls with the Nazis during two years on the run. Many of her cousins, aunts, and uncles were deported and killed. Alice came to the U.S. with her husband in 1947 and started a new life. Her daughter shared:

“My mother has really been enjoying her Uniper service. Since she is primarily homebound, Uniper offers her a chance to “go to a concert” or take a “tour of a museum” or “travel to a country.” These are all things she did in the past, and Uniper helps to enrich her life now. She also enjoys the live Shabbat service, communing with other friendly Jewish individuals and singing the melodies that keep her connected to her Jewish life.”

Twin sisters Lubya* and Sasha* share a subsidized apartment in Northern Virginia. Born in Minsk in 1936, the sisters were evacuated from Belarus when the Nazis advanced. They survived the war in a small village in the Urals where their mother, who had been a physician, worked in the fields of a collective farm and their father served in the Soviet army. The family lived in a shed with animals and had no access to heat, so the sisters

WHOM WE SERVE

JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program serves members of our region’s survivor community who have the fewest financial resources. In 2022, we served 407 Holocaust survivors living in the National Capital Region Most reside in Montgomery County, 52 live in Northern Virginia and a few clients reside in Prince George’s County and Washington, D.C. Almost all our clients (92%) are from the Former Soviet Union and have limited English proficiency.

Most of our clients live on fixed incomes and rely on JSSA to help them supplement government services, including food stamps, housing vouchers, and Medicaid.

While the number of survivors served by JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program declines as this community ages, their increasing acuity necessitates additional hours of home care to enable each individual to continue living independently. In 2022, JSSA provided an average of 620 home care hours per client, up from an average of 596 hours of service provided to each client in 2021, and 493 hours per client in 2020. And there are still new people entering the program as their changing financial and health status make them eligible for services.

** Low functioning is defined as scoring 11 or greater on the Diagnostic Assessment Form (DAF). Data reflects Q3 of each year.

This year, 96% of Holocaust survivor clients remained safely living at home. This rate has remained consistent over the past three years despite the challenges of the pandemic and the increasing needs of aging clients.

Vladimir* and Tatiana* were both born in Ukraine in the late 1930s. Vladimir fled to Uzbekistan with his mother after his father was killed during the war. Tatiana, at the age of two, was forcibly relocated to a ghetto, where she and her family remained for three years. This couple met after the war, married, and raised a daughter. A few years after the fall of the Soviet Union, they emigrated to the United States.

After two decades of life in the U.S., the couple moved to Leisure World in Silver Spring. They joined JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program, through which they received care management, food assistance, personal care services, and advance care planning legal support. Tragically, Vladimir and Tatiana’s daughter passed away after a long illness, and only a few years later, Vladimir suddenly died in a weather-related accident. Tatiana required much more intensive support to continue living independently in her own home without her husband, and her surviving family members wanted to ensure Tatiana was empowered to determine how she lived out her life.

With the help of our pro bono partners at Arnold & Porter, Tatiana updated her advance planning documents allowing her to remain safely at home. And JSSA provided Tatiana with an additional 37 hours of home care each week while her granddaughter and son-in-law made arrangements for her continued care. Today, Tatiana continues to live in her own home with the compassionate support of her family members and JSSA’s dedicated professionals.

FINANCIALS

JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program is largely funded by a generous grant from The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference), but the need for home care services to maintain the dignity and independence of the increasingly frail and aging survivor community exceeds even this significant funding.

JSSA’s ability to provide robust services and support to the men and women of our region who survived the Holocaust is dependent on the generosity of individual donors, the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of Virginia, The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, The Center on Holocaust Care and The Jewish Federations Institute on Aging and Trauma, and generous family foundations, including the Dr. Cyrus Katzen Foundation.

The $2.5 million Holocaust Survivor Community Fund raised by a group of caring and generous donors more than a decade ago, and housed at the Jewish Community Foundation, is almost depleted. Increased support from the Claims Conference and the generosity of individual philanthropists have enabled JSSA to stretch the fund many years beyond what was originally expected.

JSSA has also raised nearly $11.4 million in additional donations over the last eleven years from generous community members.

This year, the generosity of our community allowed JSSA to raise $200,000 from new and current supporters in response to a challenge grant from the Dr. Cyrus Katzen Foundation. The Foundation’s May 2021 matching grant gave JSSA two years to secure the necessary gifts. An outpouring of support resulted in meeting the entire match by December 2022, seven months before the deadline, for a total of $400,000 in new donations. Thank you to the Dr. Cyrus Katzen Foundation and our many caring contributors for your steadfast commitment to the care of our region’s Holocaust survivors.

Your ongoing support is essential—and deeply appreciated. Your generosity allows JSSA to help maintain the strength, dignity and resilience of our local survivor community while addressing survivors’ increasing needs as they age.

JSSA’s generous donors play an essential role in providing the highest quality of care and sustaining services that empower individuals and families in our community to improve their quality of life. Your support helps us nurture the physical health, mental health, and quality of life of Holocaust survivors as they age.

We extend our deepest appreciation to the many caring professionals who contribute pro bono services for neighbors who survived the Holocaust.

JSSA received funds from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Holocaust Survivor Emergency Assistance Fund, administered by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany for the benefit of Jewish Nazi victims.

GUARDIAN

The Dr. Cyrus Katzen Foundation Inc

Commonwealth of Virginia

Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services

David Bruce Smith Family Foundation

State of Maryland

PROTECTOR

Family & Nursing Care Foundation

Erwin and Leena Groner

June and Marvin* Rogul

Wagner-Braunsberg Family Foundation**

Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Holocaust Survivor Emergency Assistance Fund

DEFENDER

Anonymous

Irving Cohen

Jerome A. and Deena L. Kaplan Family Foundation

The Elno Family Foundation

Patricia Fettmann and Jonathan Ginsburg

William and Diane Liebman

CHAMPION

Amity Club of Washington

Anonymous

Paul and Charlotte Chandler

Congregation Olam Tikvah

Lisa DeMarco and Leonard Goldman

Hope Eastman

Jerome Gabry

Dalbert and Nancy Ginsberg

Leon and Marlene Goldschmidt

Michael Goldstein and Linda Engel

Elaine Haas

Martha Hallowell

Jessica Kaplan and Joseph Youcha

Olam Tikvah Men’s Club

Ronald and Leslie Schreiber

ADVOCATE

Max and Adina Barkinskiy

Willard and Ellen Blalock

John Boyd

Marjorie Fridkin

Leonard & Linda Greenberg Charitable Foundation

Rachmil Jacobovits

Ann Monnig

Sidney and Linda Moskowitz

Michael Phillips

Elliot and Evonne Schnitzer

Ethel and Terry Singer

Carolyn Tager

GRATEFUL APPRECIATION TO AN ADDITIONAL 234 CARING CONTRIBUTORS

GUARDIAN $50,000+

PROTECTOR $10,000 - $49,999

DEFENDER $5,000 - $9,999

CHAMPION $1,000 - $4,999

ADVOCATE $500 - $999

*Deceased

**Payment on $250,000 pledge made in previous year.

JSSA GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE FOLLOWING INDIVIDUALS

Gary and Pennie Abramson Family Foundation, Inc.

Adam & Emily Berman

Brian Berman and Dafna Yanovich

Casey and Emily Berman

Dennis Berman & The Dennis Berman Family Foundation

Gary C. and Carol Berman & The Berman Family Foundation

Kevin & Devorah Berman

Vicki Berman

Joshua B. Bernstein

Lisa Bernstein

Norman & Diane Bernstein Foundation

Sandra and Stanley Bobb Family Foundation

M. Robert and Carol Ann Burman Family Foundation

Ronald and Lori Bubes

Paul and Gail Chod

Robert N. Cohen

Ryna and Melvin S. Cohen Family Foundation

David and Kathleen Colburn & The Colburn Family Foundation

Ralph & Frances Dweck Foundation

Elno Family Foundation Inc

Diana & Michael Epstein Family Foundation

Peter & Rachel Federowicz

Diane S. and Kenneth Feinberg

Douglas J. Feith & Pamela Auerbach

Norman Freidkin

Cheryl and Roger Friedman

Melvin & Estelle Gelman Foundation

Bruce R. and Donna Genderson

Spencer and Rachel Cohen Gerrol

Kenneth S. and Cherry Goldblatt

Greater Washington Community Foundation

Jean and Jerald B. Greenspan & The Greenspan Family Charitable Trust

Jerome A. Kaplan and Deena L. Kaplan Family Foundation Inc.

Jessica M. Kaplan

Joel Kavet

Robert P. Kogod & The Robert P. and Arlene R. Kogod Family Foundation

Mark Levitt and Kay Klass & The Levitt Foundation

Liza and Michael Levy Family Fund

Frederic S. Levy

Frederic M. Levy & Carolyn Burwell

Alan L. & Amy Meltzer

Barry and Carol Minkoff

The Morningstar Foundation

Annette Moshman

Nussdorf Family Foundation Inc.

Jack Olender & The Olender Foundation

Joshua B. Rales and the RFI Family Foundation, Inc.

Ratner Family Foundation

June A. & Marvin* Rogul

Bruce E. and Lori Rosenblum

Deborah Ratner Salzberg and Michael Salzberg & the Salzberg Philanthropic Fund of The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland

The Evonne & Elliot Schnitzer Charitable Fund

Rhea Schwartz and Paul Wolff

Shaare Torah

Keith and Roberta Solit

Larry and Barbara Teitel

P. Richard and Cindy Kramer Zitleman

* Space restrictions necessitate listing contributors at the $5,000 +. Every gift to this fund was precious to the Survivors whom benefit from every caring contribution.

WHO CREATED THE HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR COMMUNITY FUND IN 2013, CURRENTLY BEING MANAGED BY THE JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION. *

JSSA’S CELEBRATES AND RECOGNIZES THE FOLLOWING PARTNERS:

DENTAL PROGRAM

Alpha Omega-Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program

Through a partnership with the Alpha Omega-Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program, JSSA collaborated with 57 dentists to provide oral health services to 117 individuals.

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. Fifteen Holocaust survivors received new hearing aids in FY22.

OPTICAL PROGRAM

Dr. Michael Berenhaus, in collaboration with Essilor, provides JSSA’s Holocaust survivors with eyeglasses at no charge. Nine Holocaust survivors were referred to the optical program in FY22.

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 purpose is to approve emergency funds and minor home modifications over $350.

ADVANCE CARE PLANNING SERVICES THROUGH ARNOLD & PORTER AND BET TZEDEK

Arnold & Porter provides survivors with advance care planning education and clinics through Bet Tzedek’s Holocaust Survivors Justice network. This year, 21 clients executed documents with the firm’s support.

UNIPER

The goal of the program is to combine technology with person-centered, trauma-informed care (PCTI) to reduce social isolation for frail, low-income and homebound Holocaust survivors. JSSA is one of twelve agencies participating as a subcontractor to the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies (NJHSA), which was awarded a grant from The Center on Holocaust Survivor Care and The Jewish Federations Institute on Aging and Trauma.

*Clients who qualify for emergency funds earn less than $27,180 per year, 200% of the 2022 federal poverty level, and have less than $27,180 in assets.

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

Thank you for helping to ensure the men and women who survived the Holocaust living in our community receive the compassionate care required to help them live with dignity and quality of life.

For more information on how you can continue to make a difference, please contact Deborah Peeples, Chief Development Officer at dpeeples@jssa.org or (301) 610-8343.