The American Court of Restitution’s Appeals, highest tribunal in matters affecting the restoration of Jewish property .in the United States zone of Germany, has awarded to the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization (JRSO) the disputed property of the pre-Hitler congregation in the Bavarian city of Augsburg.
This decision/handed down after almost a year’s deliberation, reverses the findings of three German bodies – the Bavarian Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Augsburg Restitution Chamber and the Munich Superior Court – that the small contemporary Augsburg Jewish community is identical with the pre-Hitler congregation of that city and therefore entitled to its assets. At stake is revenue-producing real estate worth $200, 000, but the controversy is considered a test case with far-reaching ramifications.
The JRSO is incorporated in New York and was set up in 1948 by 12 major international Jewish bodies, with the sanction and support of the U. S. Military Government, for the specific purpose of acquiring title to the assets of dissolved Jewish organizations. It holds that the few score Jews living in Augsburg today, only some 15 of whom are old-time Augsburgers, have less of a moral claim to the resources accumulated by the pre-Hitler congregation, with its 1,100 members, than does the JRSO, which serves as trustee for the Jewish people as a whole. Funds accruing to the JRSO are allocated mainly to the Jewish Agency and to the Joint Distribution Committee for purposes of relief and rehabilitation.
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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.
