News Brief

JRSO PRESIDENT TERMS WITHDRAWAL “INAPPROPRIATE”; CITES FACTS

The hope that the Council for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Jews from Germany will reconsider its decision to withdraw from the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization was expressed today by Monroe Goldwater, president of the JRSO, which is incorporated in New York.

In a letter addressed to Dr. Leo Baeck, president of the Council, Mr. Goldwater said that the action of the Council in withdrawing “is particularly inappropriate” in the light of the JRSO decision taken last month to set aside out of the first 20, 000,000 deutschemarks expected to accrue in Germany, the sum of 3,000, 000 deutschemarks against which projects originating with the Council could be considered. “It is distressing that the Council, in place of participating in the implementation of this decision, has chosen instead to make a public gesture of disunity, ” the JRSO president stated.

Mr. Goldwater recalled that on October 9, 1953, the JRSO granted the sum of $200,000 to “Help and Reconstruction, ” whose application for the care of aged persecutees in the vicinity of New York City the Council had sponsored. “Unhappily, these funds have not as yet been utilized, ” he added. He also emphasized the following facts:

1. The JRSO has returned to some 3, 000 individual German Jews assets valued at $3,452,000. These persons had failed to submit their claims before the filing deadline had passed. In every case the JRSO had filed a timely claim and hence it became the only claimant under the law entitled to recovery. The JRSO position would have rested on solid ground had it insisted that the funds be used for general Jewish relief.

2. JRSO funds have also enabled the United Restitution Office, an agency with close links to the Council and originally sponsored by it, to carry on its operations during the period under review. The URO was organized to provide legal assistance to needy Jewish victims for the recovery of their assets and satisfaction of other claims in Germany. The JRSO funds enabled the URO to assist more than 10, 000 Jews formerly from Germany in the recovery of assets exceeding 60, 000,000 marks in value.

Mr. Goldwater revealed that the Council has demanded special consideration in the form of a grant of 20 percent of all JRSO funds. The Council anchored itself upon the argument that the Jews from Germany possess a special and rightful claim to all heirless property that JRSO may be entitled to recover. In his letter to Dr. Baeck, Mr. Goldwater drew attention to the fact that the JRSO was called into life by twelve major organizations representing the principal segments of organized Jewish life.

“The United States Military Government in Germany appointed the JRSO as the proper successor organization to heirless Jewish property in recognition of the fact that the funds accruing would be used for the benefit of all Jewish victims of Nazi persecution without regard to national origin,” Mr. Goldwater stated. “From its earliest inception, our organization has pursued the policy of treating Nazi victims from the vantage point of urgent need and not of national origin.”

Mr. Goldwater emphasized that, notwithstanding the withdrawal of the Council from our organization, the JRSO is fully prepared to give serious consideration to any specific projects the Council may wish to submit. “The executive committee of the JRSO has made it clear that it will continue to honor its commitments on the 3,000,000 marks it had set aside, he said.