Senior citizens enjoy a meal for the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover, organized by the “Keren Leyedidut”(International Fellowship of Christians and Jews) organization, in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. April 10, 2014. Photo: Edi Israel/Flash90.

JNS.org – The Israeli government is working to ensure that no senior citizen or Holocaust survivor enter the upcoming holiday season alone, opening up a hotline for eligible participants to receive free holiday accommodations and inclusion in holiday activities.

Welfare and Social Services Minister Haim Katz urged all those elderly Israelis who would otherwise remain alone during Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot to dial *118, and be treated to a three- or four-day stay at guesthouses in retirement and vacation homes throughout Israel, where they will be housed, fed and treated to social activities tied to the holiday celebrations.

“Our goal is to ensure that no senior citizen will remain alone during the holidays,” said Katz, “and I ask all senior citizens who live alone to register and join the activities.”