Lawyers aid Southern Nevada Holocaust survivors

Groups offer guidance in receiving reparation payment from Germany

Heather Cory

Bernard Judd, a Holocaust survivor, talks with his attorney, Audrey Levinson, at his home last week.

By Jeff O'Brien (contact)

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 | 12:01 a.m.

Lawyers help Holocaust survivors

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Justice Network

The Jewish Family Service Agency and Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada have partnered with a pair of local attorneys in an effort to heal the wounds of local Holocaust survivors.

In September, attorneys Alan Sklar and Audrey Levinson began providing free legal services to Holocaust survivors in Las Vegas who worked while living in German-controlled ghettos during World War II.

Through a nationwide program called the Justice Network that was founded in 2007, eligible Holocaust survivors can receive a one-time payment from the German government of approximately $3,100.

The program is geared toward survivors who worked in German-controlled ghettos, regardless of their age at the time. Survivors must still be alive in order to be eligible.

"We know of about 300 survivors living here in the Las Vegas Valley," said Danielle Pokroy, program manager of the Jewish Family Service Agency. "So far, the program has completed about 40 applications."

About one-fourth of those applicants have received their reparation with an average processing time of three months.

Some of Sklar's elder family members, including his maternal grandfather and mother, were Holocaust survivors.

"This is all very personal to me, and even 63 years after the end of war, still very raw," Sklar said. "I covet the opportunity to help Holocaust survivors in any way."

Pokroy said that although money will never make up for what the survivors experienced during World War II, reparations can help make life easier.

"Many survivors in southern Nevada need assistance with basic living needs," she said. "This can help with paying for food, rent or prescriptions."

The Jewish Family Service Agency was founded in 1977 and provides counseling, adoption and food services to Southern Nevada seniors, adults and children in need.

To learn more about the reparations program, call the Jewish Family Service Agency at 732-0304

Established in 1958, Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada — formerly known as Clark County Legal Services — provides legal advice and representation for those who cannot afford to hire an attorney. For more information, visit www.lacsn.org.

Jeff O’Brien can be reached at 990-8957 or jeff.obrien@hbcpub.com.

Discussion: 3 comments so far…

By captainamerica

1/8/09 at 3:46 p.m.

Comment removed by staff.
By jfnance32

1/8/09 at 4:21 p.m.

Comment removed by staff.
By momrocks

1/26/09 at 12:56 p.m.

Suggest removal

Isn't it refreshing to see anti-semetism alive & well here in Las Vegas?!?!
Only PURE IGNORANCE & PURE EVIL could compare Israel's self defense to Nazi Germany! {Way to go captainamerica & jfnance!} Just rub salt in the wounds of the survivors of the holocaust! These comment posters have obviously no clue about history or truth! You got politics out of this story??? (perhaps your reading skills aren't up to snuff - THAT would explain A LOT!)The story is about helping people who suffered unimaginably at the hands of sadists. You dare to compare the IDF - the most advanced military - to those butchers?? You should be ashamed, and your comments should be removed from the site!