A new international coalition of Jewish groups has been formed in Jerusalem to seek restitution for Jewish individual and communal assets seized by Nazi and communist governments in Eastern Europe.
The formation of the Jewish Restitution Organization, which united eight established Jewish groups, marks the first effort to address reparations from Eastern European nations, rather than just Germany.
The decision to launch this project was made in June in Madrid during a meeting of the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is a member of the new group.
Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, which is a constituent of the new group, will serve as chairman.
Benjamin Meed, president of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, also a member, said the group’s mandate “is to try to locate the unclaimed properties and belongings which were left over in Europe of millions of people. There are individual claims but there are also communal claims for which the group will have to apply.”
“I think it is an important undertaking which will, if managed right, probably do a little bit of justice for those who left behind them beautiful institutions — although they will never be returned the way they were,” said Meed.
The seized assets are said to be worth billions of dollars.
The organization has already begun analyzing legislation in the once-Communist countries providing for the return of property from the state, said Israel Singer, secretary-general of the WJC.
The Eastern European Jewish communities affected by these efforts will be represented by the WJC and will take part in the negotiations, said Elan Steinberg, WJC executive director.
ADDITIONAL MONEY FOR VICTIMS
The new coalition’s agenda includes not only individual monetary compensation but restitution of confiscated property.
In addition, the Claims Conference, acting independently, has decided to embark on a determined effort to obtain additional money from Germany for victims of the Nazis who have until now been unable to be compensated.
Many of those are survivors who have been living in the Soviet Union and other Eastern European countries.
Dr. Israel Miller, president of the conference, said the Claims Conference Hardship Fund, a special endowment created to compensate Jewish Nazi victims who left Eastern Europe after 1965, has paid out about $300,000 in the past 10 years.
“Two-thirds of the beneficiaries are Nazi victims from the former Soviet Union,” Miller said.
About 60 percent of these live in Israel and some 30 percent live in the United States, according to Saul Kagan, executive director of the conference.
Kagan said the conference continues to receive large numbers of applications from Nazi victims among recent emigres from the former Soviet Union. In 1991 alone, the conference received 31,000 applications.
Members of the new Jewish Restitution Organization include the Claims Conference, the WJC, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, B’nai B’rith International, the Jewish Agency, the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel and the World Zionist Organization.
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