National Project for Vaccinating All Holocaust Survivors in Israel Opens

The Claims Conference in partnership with United Hatzalah has launched a national project with the goal of making sure that all 11,000 homebound Holocaust survivors living in Israel receive their COVID-19 vaccine.

The Claims Conference will be investing NIS 5,000,000 in the project to pay for the transport of all of the survivors to and from the vaccination centers.

On Sunday morning, the Claims Conference initiated a new project in partnership with United Hatzalah that will orchestrate a national operation with the goal of making sure that all 11,000 homebound Holocaust survivors living in Israel are able to go to their local vaccination centers and receive their COVID-19 vaccine. The survivors will be transported by United Hatzalah ambulances and medical teams and receive care throughout the process as needed.

The operation kicked off with the opening of a new dispatch center that will be tasked with contacting each of the survivors and arranging special transport to take them to and from their local or regional vaccination center. The transporting ambulance team will wait with the survivors at the center during the time that is needed for them to receive their vaccine and the waiting period afterward. The Claims Conference in Israel has invested some NIS 5,000,000 in the project that will pay for all of the logistics involved in providing these transports for homebound Holocaust survivors.

Ten United Hatzalah dispatch operators will be staffing the new dispatching center, built by the organization, for the duration of the project and will need to make contact with each of the survivors requiring assistance. They will then arrange for all of the logistics of the vaccination and the transport. The newly established dispatch center will be active from 8:00 a.m until 8:00 p.m. on a daily basis.

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, or Claims Conference, which represents the world’s Jews in negotiating for compensation and restitution for victims of Nazi persecution and their heirs, understands that during the Corona-era, problems have arisen, both with regard to the physical health of Holocaust survivors, and with regard to their mental health. Therefore, the Claims Conference leadership has decided to do everything in its power to bring a regular style of living back to the survivors as quickly as possible, so that they can return to their regular, pre-coronavirus, social routines.

The joint operation between the two organizations aims at reaching every single survivor that is unable to physically arrive at the vaccination centers to receive the vaccine and assist them both in arriving at the center and in speeding up the process. This will hopefully enable the survivor to once again see their family, their caretakers, and their friends, without worrying about contracting the virus.