Foundation Helping Holocaust Survivors Honored By The Blue Card

MURRAY HILL, NY — A New York City based foundation helping to fund purchasing emergency alert pendants for low-income, elderly Holocaust survivors was honored alongside former vice-president Joe Biden Monday evening.

The Blue Card, a national non-profit aiding Holocaust survivors, honored New York Foundation for Eldercare with the Max L. Heine Humanitarian Award at its annual gala in New York City Monday evening.

The foundation, based at 33rd St. and Madison Ave., provides a grant to The Blue Card to support purchasing telephone emergency pendants, like LifeAlert, in the homes of Holocaust survivors to help them age in their homes or with more independence in assisted residences.

"We're honored to be in such distinguished company," said the New York Foundation for Eldercare's president Michael Tietz, the grandson of a prominent leader of the foundation, Margaret Tietz.

The foundation provides various grants for seniors services, such as nutritional programs for people aging in place, string quartet performances in retirement communities, among others.

Of providing emergency response systems to Holocaust survivors in collaboration with The Blue Card, Tietz said, "It's extremely important in order to make sure that seniors are safe."

The Blue Card also honored former vice-president Joe Biden, Marion Bergman of Henry Schein, Inc., Stanley Bergman of Henry Schein Cares Foundation, David Miliband of the International Rescue Committee, as well as past participants in The Blue Card's Bnei Mitzvah Program.

"Thousands of Holocaust survivors from your neighbors to people you pass on the street lived through the unthinkable. The hard truth is for many of them survival still remains a struggle. Those individuals living at or below the poverty line must make difficult choices — whether to pay rent, buy food or get desperately needed medicine," The Blue Card's executive director Masha Pearl said in a statement. "The Blue Card’s goal is to raise funds for current programs which deepen our connection with survivors in communities currently being underserved."