Beseva Tova: President Katsav's Initiative for the Elderly Poor

With Israel's recession stretching through its third year, the country is facing a social crisis that is as serious in its way as the security crisis that triggered and feeds it. Unemployment is close to 11 percent, while the government – straining to meet defense needs as tax revenues fall – has been forced repeatedly to slash spending on social services.

Israel's elderly are especially vulnerable. Even before the crisis, social service levels were lagging behind demand from an elderly population that grew by some 50 percent in the 1990s and that includes many – most of the 120,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union among them – who are entirely dependent on state assistance.

The JDC-Brookdale Institute conducted a national survey, The Consequences of Poverty on the Lives of the Elderly, which examined the implications of financial difficulties on the lives of the elderly including housing conditions, loneliness and their ability to maintain social contacts, and access to treatment of key health problems that particularly affect their functional independence. These findings helped President Katsav frame and develop an initiative for the elderly poor.

In late 2002, Israel's President Moshe Katsav looked to JDC-ESHEL, the JDC/government partnership that develops services for the elderly, for the kind of broad yet innovative response the country and its elderly urgently needed. Working closely with its partners in the Ministry of Welfare, JDC-ESHEL developed Beseva Tova: The President's Initiative for the Elderly Poor. And it did so in a way that brings relief as quickly as possible to those in most serious need.

As a first step, JDC-ESHEL rallied a coalition of partners to bring these elderly the "dignified old age" pledged by the initiative's Hebrew name. Most of these partners represent sectors of Israeli society that had not played significant roles in helping seniors – the IDF, the Prison Service, voluntary groups such as Koach la’Tet, and the Israel Manufacturers' Association. Now they were being asked to help and were offered a way to do so.

Soldiers and prison officers are encouraged to volunteer through Beseva Tova to repair and paint decrepit homes; so are high-school students and even participants in "Israel experience" programs such as Livnot u’Lehibanot. Complementing these efforts, Koach La'Tet donates beds, heaters, blankets, and other home equipment to replace those that are broken or worn out.

The business community, too, is working to solicit donated goods and services. Most importantly, though, employers are being approached to offer poor seniors part-time employment so that those who are able can augment their pensions with pride, through their own labors.

Beseva Tova is also finding ways to leverage existing services. Health promotion programs, for example, are being enhanced to help seniors plan meals that are both nutritious and economical. The initiative also enables community screening programs to provide subsidies for dental treatment, hearing aids and eyeglasses for those found to require them. Subsidies for medicines also now help cushion the burden of co-payments for impoverished, chronically ill seniors.

The Beseva Tova projects are now targeting some 15,000 elderly poor in eight areas and with proven success, the initiative is preparing to expand towards its ultimate goal of reaching 100,000 whose needs are greatest.

Support for this program comes from sources such as the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews in the United States, and the Recanati Foundation in Israel.