Some 3,500 ceremonial objects looted by Nazis from synagogues and Jewish homes in Europe between 1938 and 1945 are en route to this country for re-distribution to Jewish museums, synagogues and community centers in the Western Hemisphere, it was announced here today. They will be stored in the Jewish Museum of New York.
These treasures, of historic and artistic value, which include silverware and textiles, are only a part of the collection which was recovered by Allied military authorities after V-E Day. They were stored, together with hundreds of thousands of Jewish books, as unidentifiable Jewish property, in the depot of Offenbach, under the guardianship of the American authorities in Germany.
A great quantity of the ceremonial objects is now being shipped to the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which will arrange for its distribution in Israel with the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Several hundred Torah scrolls have been turned over to the American Joint Distribution Committee in Paris for the arduous task of examination, transfer, and distribution in Israel. Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., which handles the project, has also allocated a certain amount of these objects to the British Commonwealth countries and Western European Jewish communities.
Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc., a non-profit organization, whose membership consists of Jewish national and international organizations in this country and abroad, receives its operational funds from the American Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
