Goldmann Gives One-week Warning to Austria on Jewish Claims

Unless the Austrian Government makes an adequate offer to the Committee on Jewish Claims on Austria in settlement of world Jewish restitution demands before the February 7th meeting of the Jewish claims conference here, Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the conference, will recommend that the Austro-Jewish talks be broken off by the Jews.

Dr. Goldmann, who is also president of the World Jewish Congress, told this to the three-day meeting here this week-end of the WJC executive. “We have reached the stage,” he continued, “where we may very soon consider it undignified to continue negotiations with the Austrian Government. These negotiations up to now have not been among the most successful efforts of the Jewish people after the tragedy of World War II. When they are discontinued, however, they will no doubt, bring to a close one of the most deplorable chapters in the history of postwar Austria.

Dr. Noah Baron, chairman of the WJC European executive, suggested that the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, which is receiving the Germany reparations payments on behalf of world Jewry, establish a set of principles to determine future allocations by the conference and the preparation of suitable work not necessarily covered in fund applications to the conference. He suggested that planning for work outside of that which was suggested by applicant organizations might be particularly suitable in the cultural field.

This suggestion was followed by a lengthy debate on the allocation of conference funds for long-range projects verses short term relief, on the development of a system of priority among Jewish organizations operating in the cultural, relief, rehabilitation and social fields, as well as on the problems of centralized fund distribution involving national and international bodies.

At last night’s session of the Congress executive, the body unanimously adopted a resolution opposing the scheme for reforming the calendar by un-fixing the Sabbath, as proposed to the United Nations by India. The resolution, referring to the Sabbath as a “fundamental institution of Judaism,” instructed the WJC representatives at the UN to oppose any calendar reform proposal which interrupts the sequence of the seven-day week.