Haifa Home for Holocaust Survivors

Approximately one third of Israel’s some 200,000 Holocaust Survivors are impoverished, struggling with illness, or living alone.  In 2009, ICEJ began a partnership with the local charity Yad Ezer L’Haver to provide a Home especially for needy and lonely survivors.  It is the first of its kind in Israel and offers attractive assisted-living facilities and a warm family environment.  The residents enjoy healthy meals and a range of recreational activities, plus free medical care.

Yad Ezer L’Haver is an organization with a proven track record of integrity and compassion toward those in need.  Before approaching ICEJ for assistance, they had provided accommodation for about a dozen needy survivors.  The expansion of the Home from its limited capacity has been in stages.  ICEJ purchased and renovated two buildings on the same street which now make up the Haifa Home.  Nearly eighty survivors have found a loving home there.  Renovations are nearing completion which when finished will then provide accommodation for over a hundred.  The complex includes medical and dental clinics to treat Holocaust Survivors throughout the area.  Neighbouring survivors are also included in special occasions and feel part of the Home, so its care goes well beyond its own walls to many others.  Each survivor is special and their physical and emotional needs are catered for in cooperation with professionals. 

While we are grateful for the generosity of the ICEJ support base, and particularly the German Branch that has enabled the establishment of such an important facility, ongoing funding is needed.  Caring for needy aging survivors is a costly undertaking and ICEJ’s Adopt a  Holocaust Survivor Project can significantly support and maintain the kind of care that the Home offers.

• Esther has lived in the Home since November 2010 and feels very comfortable and secure living with other survivors.  As a four year-old she experienced the terror of running from the Nazis and hiding in forests.  After the war she lived in an orphanage for a time because most of her family was killed.

• Isaac remembers the terrible suffering, the sickness and hunger, and especially the cold of ghetto life.  Just 10 years old, in order to avoid being sent to an extermination camp, he worked as hard as an adult in the slave labour programs.   With deteriorating health, he and his wife did not want to live alone any longer but be among others who understood what they had been through.

• Sarah spent some of her early childhood in darkness hiding in an underground bunker under their former home. She says, “Today I live in the Haifa Home and I have loved it from the first minute I moved in. I am very grateful for all the help and love that I received. I don't know what I would have done without them."

Be a part of this wonderful project by contributing towards the daily care of lonely and needy Holocaust Survivors.

• Make a monthly commitment of an amount of your choosing.

• Receive a story of a survivor in the Home.

• Receive Updates of the residents and the activities of the Home.

The Holocaust Survivor Adoption Program also offers an opportunity to be a part of everyday life for the Home's residents.  To find out more, visit the Adoption page, or click the donate button below to give to other needs within the project.