Currency mentioned in the terms of a will making a bequest to a charitable or communal institution is the point of dispute between the Sephardic community of Vienna and the Roumanian Academy of Sciences. The fight which just came up in the civil court here, was lost by the Sephardic community but will be taken to a higher court.
The question involves a bequest made in the will of the late Jewish philanthropist and millionaire, Elias, who appointed the Roumanian Academy of Sciences as executors of his will, which contained the provision that the executors pay to the Sephardic temple in Vienna an annual amount of 10,000 Kronen and to the Sephardic school an annual sum of 15,000 Kronen. The Academy offered to make payment at the value of the old Krone, which would be the value of one Asutrian schilling, the present currency. The Sephardic community instituted proceedings against the Roumanian Academy, asking for payment for the past three years, since the will became effective, an amount of 65,000 schillings.
The civil court rendered a decision rejecting the claim of the Sephardic community declaring that only a physical person and not a judicial person may claim payment at revaluation rates.
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.
