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World Jewish News
In wake of Haaretz report, homeless Holocaust survivor finds housing
21.08.2009
Holocaust survivor Ivgeny Bistritzky no longer has to sleep in the park as he had done for the past eight months. When he received the key yesterday to his new apartment, his hand was shaking.
"I'm afraid that it will be over in a minute, and I'll wake up on the park bench," he said.
Following Thursday's report of his plight in Haaretz, public housing officials found a one-room apartment for Bistritzky, 71, in an assisted living facility in Tel Aviv.
In obtaining housing for Bistritzky, the director of Amigur, the public housing authority, Yuval Frankel, succeeded where others had failed: Bistritzky had been turned down repeatedly in the past as a tenant because he was unable to provide guarantors, although he had a job as a cleaner and receives a small stipend from Germany.
After the report was published, dozens of people called asking to assist Bistritzky, including other survivors in better circumstances.
Liron Yohai, of the aid organization Latet, says she hopes help will be found for 1,200 other survivors in urgent need.
The Jewish Agency said it would provide a monetary grant and Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver pledged that cases like Bistritzky's would not happen again.
By Orly Vilnai
Источник: Haaretz
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