By Jonathan Feldstein
Jerusalem, Israel, April 13, 2026… Marking Yom HaShoah – Holocaust Memorial Day – in Israel and around the world, the Genesis 123 Foundation has announced a bold initiative to be a physical and emotional comfort to the remaining Holocaust survivors who are still alive. It’s estimated that there are 196,000 survivors remaining around the world: a 20-25% decrease from five years ago. As they age, their individual and collective material needs increase significantly. Through this initiative the Genesis 123 Foundation will provide resources for the next 10 years to make a tangible impact, providing comfort and material support in the last years of the remaining survivors lives.
In Israel, 111,000 survivors remain. This is 12,000 fewer than the same time a year ago. Sadly, and uniquely, there is a high rate of poverty and insecurity among them, due to several unique historical, demographic, policy, and economic factors. Many rely on modest pensions, welfare, and nonprofit aid that often fall short of basic needs like food, heating, housing, and private care.
One of the biggest factors leading to the high rate of poverty is the immigration of many survivors from the former Soviet Union (FSU) with minimal assets and many integration barriers. Many of the poorest survivors arrived in the 1990s from the FSU after its collapse. They came with few savings due to the communist system that prevented wealth accumulation, without pensions, and faced late-life challenges learning Hebrew, building new social networks, integrating as new immigrants, transferring jobs and careers from the USSR to modern Israel, and transferred pre-existing health/socioeconomic vulnerabilities to Israel.
Because so many of these survivors lived behind the Iron Curtain, they were blocked from Holocaust reparations from Germany, and ineligible for full state compensation pensions due to cutoff dates under the 1950s Reparations Agreement with Germany, providing compensation to those who arrived in Israel only by October 1953. Nobody imagined in the 1950s, at the height of Stalin’s reign of terror and antisemitic purges, that 40 years later, hundreds of thousands of survivors would immigrate to Israel, or what their needs would be as they aged.
Today, relatively new immigrants from the FSU make up the bulk of the remaining survivors and largely do not have pensions or any savings from their previous lives. They arrived too late in life to make a meaningful impact professionally to pay into Israel’s social security program. Sadly, during a decade in which Israel absorbed a million new immigrants, nobody paid attention to the specific needs that would be required of this segment of the population as they aged decades later, the challenges of which we are experiencing now.
This is compounded even among those who have pensions, but are not able to keep pace with Israel’s cost of living, inflation, housing, utilities, and food prices. All this has been exacerbated by the war that started after the October 2023 Hamas attack and massacre, with cost of living increasing across the board. As a result, many report having to choose between food, medicine, heat, and other essentials.
One factor in the increased needs that correspond to their advanced age, are unique Holocaust-related physical and mental health issues. A unique issue that needs to be addressed is that for most of these elderly survivors, their earliest memories are of fear and trauma. Now, since the Hamas attack and massacre and ensuing war, many are experiencing PTSD related fear and trauma in their final years. For those who are able to realize this and not simply live with these fears as “normal,” the additional needs are significant.
Long-term care costs are high in general with most survivors are now in their 80s–90s experiencing elevated rates of physical/mental health problems, mobility issues, depression, and need for full-time nursing or daily support. These drive up medical, homecare, and housing expenses while preventing any supplemental work or family financial buffers. Many live alone with limited children or support networks.
These are not just statistics and anonymous faces with wrinkled skin. 63% are women. Nearly half of survivors (49.3%) are widowed and alone. Yet there are 9,300 couples in which both are Holocaust survivors. Some 60% of Holocaust survivors in Israel were born in Europe, with the largest group being from the former Soviet Union, who make up 36%.
Since survivors are spread out across the country, (the largest numbers being in Haifa – 7,500, Jerusalem – 7,100, Tel Aviv – 6,000, Ashdod – 5,500, Netanya – 5,400) there is no one place with the highest concentration, or particularly noteworthy social services. Much of the services for these survivors are provided by a network of non-profits, the best of which the Genesis 123 Foundation has partnered with over the past decade, and will continue to partner with in the coming decade.
Jonathan Feldstein, president of the Genesis 123 Foundation, noted, “The window is narrowing to be a meaningful comfort to these remaining survivors because, at the rate at which people in their 80s and 90s are dying, in a decade there will be none left.”
Feldstein explained the goal and the urgency, “Our strategy through this initiative is not to provide new services under new auspices, but to zero in on where the needs are the greatest and make the biggest impact by strengthening the existing network of organizations that provide the most impactful resources with the greatest integrity. We ask that Jews and Christians and their synagogues and churches that they are part of make a once in a lifetime commitment, for the next ten years, to be the greatest comfort to these people who have suffered the most.”
“Individuals can make monthly commitments at any amount, using this link. Those wishing to donate $5000 or more annually will receive special acknowledgment, personal and virtual programs and meetings, and receive special publications and briefings about the programs being supported and the people (and their stories) being impacted.”
The Genesis 123 Foundation is a US nonprofit organization whose mission is to is to build bridges between Jews and Christians and Christians with Israel in ways that are new, unique and meaningful. To be part of this initiative please or for additional information contact Gen123Fdn@gmail.com, or visit www.Genesis123.co.
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 Jonathan Feldstein, President, Genesis 123 Foundation+972-53-761-4220 |www.Genesis123.co |
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