JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands more Holocaust survivors in Israel will receive benefits under a law passed by the Knesset.
The law passed Monday in a unanimous vote expands an annual grant of more than $1,000 to 18,500 Israelis who survived Nazi death camps and ghettos during World War II. It also includes a retroactive payment to 2013.
Some 6,000 survivors who qualified for welfare assistance were receiving the grant.
The new law also means that an additional monthly grant given to survivors will be paid in cash instead of in vouchers for services.
Many elderly Holocaust survivors in Israel, as well as in the United States and other countries, live in poverty.
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