Sharma’s support for survivors
Australia’s ambassador in Tel Aviv has joined a major campaign to raise the profile of Holocaust survivors.
Spring for Holocaust Survivors, an advocacy organisation that fight the widespread poverty that exists among survivors in Israel and helps them to get the full benefits they are entitled to under law, is aiming to get 180,000 people to put their names to its campaign by Yom Hashoah in May.
They sign their names on an online “wall of hands,” saying that they are “giving a hand to Holocaust survivors.” All names appear next to a picture of a yellow hand, and high-profile signatories like ambassador Dave Sharma, who added his name just before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, also upload pictures of themselves with yellow paint on their hands.
The project has the support of Knesset members and Israeli mayors, actors and athletes, and Sharma is one of the first international figures to get involved.
He told The AJN: ”More than half of Australia’s Jews are descendants of Holocaust survivors so it is only natural for me to add my support for such an important cause — that every survivor will receive all the rights and benefits to which he is entitled.”
Attorney Aviva Silverman, executive director of Spring for Holocaust Survivors, said: “I’m sure the Ambassador’s support will help us raise awareness in the country and the world to the situation of the Holocaust survivors living among us.”
She said that her organisation’s work helps survivors to “drastically change their economic situation,” commenting: “The aid that the association gives is professional, and most important, free. Holocaust survivors deserve to live with dignity.”
Nathan Jeffay
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