Rabbis Go to Germany to Seek Payments for Destroyed Jewish Cemeteries

Three rabbis armed with a petition bearing one million signatures, left for West Germany yesterday to seek indemnification from the Bonn Government to restore 2,000 Jewish cemeteries all over Europe desecrated and destroyed by Nazis during World War II. The delegation representing the World Center of European Rabbis, with headquarters in Brooklyn, consisted of Rabbi Moses J. Rubin, president of the Center and head of the Union of Rabbis in Rumania during the second world war; Rabbi Pinchas M. Teitz, a member of the presidium of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada; and Rabbi David Hollander, president of the Board of Orthodox Rabbis of Metropolitan New York.

Rabbi Rubin, who will act as spokesman for the delegation, noted that the chairman of the reparations committee of the West German Bundestag (lower house of parliament), had approved in principal the Center’s claims for indemnification, and said the Bundestag would be asked to appropriate the necessary funds. Nevertheless, Rabbi Rubin said. “our many appeals to the West German Federal Republic continue to go unheeded, despite declarations of interest and concern on the part of responsible individuals.”