Judith and Louis Premselaar have pledged to make up any funding gap in the matching part of a 2008 $87,967 grant to the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Monmouth County from the Conference of Jewish Material Claims against Germany.
Photo courtesy Judith Premselaar
April 08, 2008
A Manalapan couple’s gift will ensure that services to county Holocaust survivors will not be interrupted.
Louis Premselaar has pledged funds to close a $16,000 gap that jeopardized an $87,967 grant from the Conference of Jewish Material Claims against Germany to the Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Monmouth County.
The Jewish Federation of Monmouth County has agreed to provide the remaining $5,000.
As a result, services provided by JF&CS to local Holocaust survivors will not be reduced, disrupted, or eliminated, said Paul Freedman, the agency’s executive director.
The conference grant consists of several funding components, including $33,772 that comes directly from the German government and requires a dollar-for-dollar match, Freedman said.
JF&CS uses that part of the grant to provide home healthcare and other support services, such as emergency medical care, emergency payments for utility bills and rent; and socialization events, such as Passover seders and Hanukka parties, for county Holocaust survivors.
“Last month, the agency reached out to the community for help in getting matching funds for this grant,” Freedman said, referring to a NJ Jewish News story in the March 4 issue that drew attention to the funding shortfall. “And a member of the community came through for us in the most generous way. It’s really the ultimate in generosity, and it means that the survivor population will continue to receive the services they deserve.”
Last year, JF&CS contributed approximately $15,000 from its own budget to the match and received the other $15,000 from the federation. The federation, however, was not able to provide the same amount this year because of budget shortfalls, said executive director Howard Gases.
The $5,000 will come from a federation endowment and from federation donors, Gases said. The federation’s board of directors approved the funding at a March board meeting, he added.
JF&CS will contribute about $15,000 toward the match by allocating some of the money raised at its annual tribute dinner, along with funds generated by the agency’s Asbury Park thrift shop and funds from the agency’s unrestricted resources, Freedman said.
Premselaar, whose parents are Holocaust survivors who currently live in Bergen County, was prepared to fund the full $33,772 match if portions of the money couldn’t be obtained from other sources.
‘Right thing to do’
“The grant situation obviously hit close to home because of my parents,” Premselaar said. “But it’s even more than that. It’s simply the right thing to do.”
Premselaar was unaware that the grant was in jeopardy until his wife, Judith, read the story in NJJN.
“We discussed it and agreed that making the funding offer was the right thing for us,” Premselaar told NJ Jewish News. “It would be a sin to let that grant slip away because of the funding gap. The Holocaust survivors are among the neediest who use the services offered by JF&CS.”
Had the grant portion not been matched, it would have been redistributed to other state agencies or to another community in the United States.
In recent years, approximately 70 percent of the grant money was used to provide home health assistance to members of the county’s aging Holocaust population, said Amy Dorfman, JF&CS director of geriatric services.
The overall grant money has helped pay for such survivor services as case management; counseling services; medical care that helps clients acquire walkers, wheelchairs, medical alert buttons, and prescription medicines; the maintenance of a kosher meals-on-wheels program; and direct transportation to medical appointments and consultations, Dorfman said.
If the funding hadn’t come through, JF&CS was prepared to begin service cutbacks in June. The agency had already begun to prioritize its services to smooth the transition.
“The last service to go would have been the home healthcare assistance,” said Freedman. “But it was going to be very hard to tell the Holocaust survivors that we could no longer provide some of the services that help and support their needs.”
And despite his having given the donation that will ensure the continuation of services for the survivors, Premselaar said, he feels that he is the lucky one.
“I am very fortunate to be in a position to do this,” said Premselaar, who is the owner of a toy manufacturer and distributor. “My wife and I realized that a need within the Jewish community had been identified, and we could do something about it. And those who will benefit are the people that survived genocide and proceeded to make new lives for themselves.”
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