The Bank of America this week presented a check for $17,726 to the San Jose chapter of Hadassah, and thereby discharged the testamentary wish of the late Alter Kahn that the residue of his estate be used “to help the Jewish people.”
Mr. Kahn, a retired chicken rancher, died in 1949 at Los Gatos at the age of 67. Forty percent of his estate went to relatives in this area. Bequests to a sister and her two children in Russia, all of whom were killed during the war, were claimed by the Soviet authorities but their claim was dismissed by the court which approved the bank’s recommendation, as trustee, to turn the residue of the estate over to Hadassah.
The court ruled that because of the lack of reciprocity between this country and the Soviet Union, claimants to the bequest forfeited their claims.
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