“Israel is Waiting For Its Holocaust Survivors to Die” is the title of an opinion piece by Amos Rubin in Haaretz arguing that the Israeli government only thinks of Holocaust survivors as a financial burden.
The 1997 Los Angeles Jewish Population Survey also found disproportionate poverty among Holocaust survivors.
As a demographer who has researched the Holocaust survivor population I have been asked about the size of this dwindling vulnerable communtiy. In 1997 I found an estimated 13,975 Holocaust survivors through the Holocaust question to household respondents on the LA Jewish Population Survey. Their Second Generation children, numbered an estimated 37,010 persons.
The US life expectancy in 2000 of 70 year-olds was about 18 years. Being a little more conservative, lets make that life expectancy 20 years, or that by 2020 most Holocaust survivors in LA will have passed.
Assuming that there hasn't been migration in or out of LA of Holocaust survivors, I estimate that there are about 4,200 Holocaust survivors living in Los Angeles currently.
Pini Herman, PhD. has served as Asst. Research Professor at the University of Southern California Dept. of Geography, Adjunct Lecturer at the USC School of Social Work, Research Director at the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles following Bruce Phillips, PhD. in that position and is a past President of the Movable Minyan a lay-lead independent congregation in the 3rd Street area. Currently he is a principal of Phillips and Herman Demographic Research. To email Pini: pini00003@gmail.com To follow Pini on Twitter: Follow @pinih
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.