JNS.org – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that the White House is appointing a special envoy to support Holocaust survivors during a luncheon hosted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee on Tuesday.

“This will make the government more responsive to a Hungarian survivor in the Bronx who needs a wheelchair or the elderly woman with memories of the Warsaw Ghetto who needs a ride to the doctor,” Biden said during the luncheon, according to the Los Angeles Jewish Journal.

Biden also pledged to help organizations already working to provide aid to poverty-stricken survivors. According to the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), two-thirds of the 120,000 Holocaust survivors living in the U.S. lead solitary lives and struggle to make ends meet.

“Today our country took a major step forward toward addressing the needs of many Holocaust survivors,” said Michael Siegal, who heads the JFNA Board of Trustees.