The resulting retrenchment in spending and reorganization of well established programs has been disrupted and unsettling to many Canadians. Moreover there is clear evidence that some of the most vulnerable members of our community have been harmed. Widowed women, aged 80 and above are among the most vulnerable groups in Canadian society. Women and much more likely to be widowed than men, usually because our marriage patterns encourage women to be younger than the men they marry but also because women live longer than men. Older women also much more likely to be low income compared to older men and compared to younger women.
Older women are also much more likely to be disabled in their old age.
In fact, older women typically spend a number of years usually from 6-7 suffering from one or more disabilities. In summary, older widowed women usually live alone, are low income and suffer from multiple health problems, especially those health problems which are chronic and progressively disabling. These are slightly higher poverty rates for both men and women than the total population in Toronto. We can assume that we have about 18,000 elderly Jewish women in the community, of whom 6,500 are poor. Among these low income women are many Holocaust survivors, whose basic living issues are compounded by the emotional residue of their wartime experiences.