Jews in the D
12 | DECEMBER 12 • 2019
JUDY GREENWALD CONTRIBUTING WRITER
I
n keeping with its dedication to pro-
vide compassionate, personalized
services to help thousands in the
Jewish community and its vitally import-
ant role in assisting Holocaust survivors,
Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan
Detroit (JFS) has been named Midwest
Administrator for the Holocaust Claims
Conference.
Since 1951, the Conference on Jewish
Material Claims Against Germany (the
Claims Conference) has been providing
care for Jewish Holocaust victims through
negotiating with the German government
for millions of dollars in payments to
victims, promoting Holocaust education,
documentation and research, and funding
social services that aid communities in
looking after elderly survivors.
JFS CEO Perry Ohren noted JFS has
been working with the Claims Conference
for decades, and with
Holocaust survivors for more
than 70 years, and this part-
nership is crucial to the work
JFS undertakes: helping sur-
vivors to age with dignity and
respect.
“The Claims Conference’
s
purpose is to be the worldwide centralized
entity that helps us help survivors locally,”
said Ohren, who’
s served as CEO since
2011. “This happens at JFS through the
provision and facilitation of services for
survivors as well as helping them access
restitution.”
According to Ohren, the Conference
decided the way it was helping survivors
who weren’
t close to places like JFS wasn’
t
effective, so a handful of providers across
the country were asked to take on a region.
“Helping survivors both in Michigan
and in a multi-state area is sacred work,
so, of course we agreed to partner in this
endeavor,” Ohren said.
“JFS Detroit is one of four hubs respon-
sible for multi-state coverage,” he con-
tinued. “Our designated area includes 15
states: Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia,
Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri,
North and South Dakota, Nebraska and
Kansas.
“We’
re currently working on starting
services for a survivor in Petoskey and
are working with Flint and Ann Arbor to
qualify their communities’
survivors for
services. Also, services are being provided
to the last-known Holocaust survivor in
Iowa.”
The aid JFS offers includes facilitating
non-skilled homecare services such as per-
sonal care, cleaning and grocery shopping.
Survivors are directed to New York-based
agency Blue Card Inc. for emergency
financial assistance.
There’
s much involved in handling the
duties as the Midwest Claims Conference
administrator, Ohren explained.
“
Administrative responsibilities include
receiving referrals from agencies and
individual prospective clients, completing
paperwork to qualify prospective survi-
vors for services, collecting supporting
documentation, identifying, screening
and training potential homecare service
providers, training social workers at vari-
ous referring agencies, obtaining monthly
documentation for services, paying service
providers and obtaining reimbursement
from the Claims Conference,” he said.
Yet Ohren and everyone at JFS under-
stand how necessary this work is — and
how critical this program is to help victims
of Nazi terror.
“There’
s nothing more important in all
we do than helping Holocaust survivors,”
he concluded. “We at JFS are mindful of
values such as tzedakah and tikkun olam,
creating justice and working to make the
world right and whole, and the concept of
chessed, compassion and caring for others.
We’
re honored to provide these services
because if we see each person as created
in the image of God, we can see humanity
and dignity in all people.”
Perry Ohren
‘Sacred Work’
Jewish Family Service named administrator
for Holocaust Claims Conference.
JFS staff member
Shelby Patterson
spends time with
survivor Mrs. Weiss
of Oak Park.
COURTESY OF JFS