Compensation from the Polish Government for the $2,500,000 building of the famous rabbinical college, “Yeshivat Chachmay Lublin,” built on funds contributed by American Orthodox Jews, is being requested by Rabbi Abraham M. Hershberg, president of the Federated Rabbinical Colleges of Lublin, who is now residing in Chicago, it was learned here today.
In a communication addressed to the Polish Government–copies of which have been transmitted to the Department of State in Washington and to the Israel Government–Rabbi Hershberg asked for a refund of the building’s value, to be assessed by an international commission, or by turning over for the use of the rabbinical college a building of similar value owned by the Polish Government in Israel.
Rabbi Hershberg pointed out that hundreds of Yeshiva students of Polish origin, now residents of Israel, are in dire need of quarters for living and study. He emphasized that the building in Lublin was built in 1930 from funds received by its dean from Jewish philanthropists in the United States, and said that Jews in the United States and in Israel “will never recognize the confiscation of a sacred building donated to the rabbinical college in Lublin by American citizens.”
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.
