IN BREAKTHROUGH, CLAIMS CONFERENCE SECURES $250 MILLION
FROM GERMANY FOR ADDITIONAL 6,000 HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS WORLDWIDE

In a breakthrough for Holocaust survivors, the Claims Conference has successfully obtained a major revision in its pension program that will result in an estimated $250 million in payments over the next 10 years to an additional 6,000 survivors worldwide. The shift came following months of negotiations with the German Ministry of Finance, which will provide the funding for payments to those who are eligible.

The additional payments will be from the Claims Conference Article 2 Fund pension program. At present, eligibility, as specified by German government criteria, is partially determined by income below US $16,000 or its equivalent in local currency after taxes. Due to Claims Conference negotiations, many benefits paid to elderly survivors will no longer count toward that income limit. With 51,000 survivors currently receiving Article 2 payments, this will lead to a more than 10 percent increase in the number of people who will now qualify for payments.

“This was, first and foremost, an issue of principle,” said Gideon Taylor, Claims Conference Executive Vice President. “Since its establishment, the Claims Conference has argued that Holocaust compensation payments are symbolic and should not be based on need.”

These negotiations established that as of October 1, 2007, all old age pensions — including governmental pensions, social security payments, occupational pensions and retirement plans – as well as pensions awarded for a reduction in earning capacity, industrial injury, occupational disease, and loss of life, or any comparable payments will not be counted towards calculation of the income limit, effectively granting payments to thousands more survivors. In addition, only the net income of the applicant will be considered, and not the income of his or her spouse, changing the previous rule.

These changes reflect the long-standing Claims Conference position that compensation payments, which recognize Nazi persecution and suffering, should not be based on income criteria and should be paid irrespective of financial need. In previous negotiations, the Claims Conference had obtained the exclusion of social security payments from the computation of income for persons age 70 and older who met all other fund criteria.

The Claims Conference is implementing an international outreach campaign to inform survivors of these major changes in the program.

Specific details (including which payments constitute comparable payments and limitations regarding assets of the applicant) are still being discussed with the German Ministry of Finance.

Eligibility for the Article 2 Fund is determined by the German government and is also based on a survivor’s persecution history, including incarceration in certain camps or ghettos, forced labor, and time in hiding or living under false identity. Full eligibility criteria are available on the Claims Conference website at www.claimscon.org.

For more information, email info {at} claimscon(.)org or call 646-536-9100.

Claims Conference Accomplishments

The Article 2 Fund has paid more than $2 billion to more than 73,000 Holocaust survivors since it was established in 1992 through negotiations with the German government. Monthly payments are ˆ270 (approximately $320).

When the Article 2 Fund was established, the German government agreed to pay only 25,000 Holocaust survivors. Due to Claims Conference annual negotiations with the Ministry of Finance to liberalize eligibility criteria, including the recognition of incarceration in additional camps and work battalions, more than 96,000 survivors have been approved to date for monthly pension payments from the Article 2 Fund and the related Central and Eastern European Fund.

Open Issues

Despite recent successes in liberalizing certain criteria for the Hardship, Article 2 and CEE Funds, open issues remain, and the Claims Conference continues to fight for inclusion of Holocaust survivors who, among others:
· Were in forced military labor battalions and in concentration camps not currently recognized as such by Germany;
· Were subjected to persecution for periods of time less than currently stipulated;
· Were confined in open ghettos;
· Have income in excess of the current income limit (for the Article 2 Fund);
· Were citizens of Western countries who received a small amount of previous compensation under the Global Agreements between Germany and their countries and are not covered by liberalizations.

In addition, the Claims Conference is pressing the issue of applicants to the Claims Conference Hardship Fund who had not been able to meet eligibility criteria at the time of application and wish to re-apply for payment, as well as the establishment of a parallel Hardship Fund for residents of Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union who did not emigrate to the West and are therefore not eligible for payments from the existing Hardship Fund.

The Claims Conference also continues to negotiate a series of other administrative issues relating to these programs.

Germany’s Central Council of Jews is considering pressing charges against Google-owned, video-sharing Web site YouTube for hosting videos that promote racial hatred and glorify war.

According to a news report to be aired Monday night by German public broadcaster ARD, right-wing extremists use the free video platform for sharing and viewing propaganda videos that incite to racial hatred.

“I expect the prosecutor’s office, other relevant authorities and, if necessary, the German government to take action against this,” Salomon Korn, the vice president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews told the TV program, Report Mainz.

Dieter Wiefelspütz, the domestic affairs expert for Germany’s Social Democrats in parliament, agreed.

MORE.

Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

LOS ANGELES — For more than half a century, Rachel Kane kept the memories at bay.

There were her daughters to think of, twins born in a displaced persons camp in the aftermath of World War II . Kane didn’t want to burden them with tales of the Holocaust, of a husband shot to death by the Nazis, a baby who starved to death in the forest, an extended family wiped out in a mass execution.

Kane didn’t explain the nightmares that woke her, screaming, in the cramped apartments the family called home after resettling in Detroit and then Los Angeles.

Instead, the university-educated Hebrew teacher who spoke seven languages regaled her daughters with stories about her “beautiful life” before Hitler’s armies stormed Poland, successfully locking away the war years — until 1998.

MORE.

By Anshel Pfeffer

The board of directors of the Claims Conference decided last month to make a major change in how they allocate funds intended for the welfare of Holocaust survivors and the education and commemoration of the Shoah.

Until this year, their was a clear division of funding, with 80 percent going to welfare and health purposes, and the remaining 20 percent for education and commemoration. Starting this year, it was decided by the conference that the amounts dedicated to education would be frozen and the health and welfare allocations would increase significantly.

Most of the Claims Conference, officially known as The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, funding is given directly to specific survivors who receive their stipends and compensation from Germany and other sources, such as the Swiss banks arrangements, via the conference.

In addition the conference allocates some $90 million a year to organizations for improving the social welfare of survivors. These are considered unrestricted funds and the conference can allocate them as it sees fit. Most of the money for these organizations has come in recently from sales of formerly Jewish property, primarily in the former East Germany.

In 2005, $44.5 million was given within Israel by the conference, most of which went to build and renovate geriatric wards in various Israeli hospitals.

Out of the 20 percent earmarked for education, the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial [received] $1.5 million, 5 percent of its operating budget. In the past Yad Vashem has received large sums from the Claims Conference to finance the building of the new museum that opened a year and a half ago.

There has been a lot of criticism in recent years that not enough of the money has been going to the actual survivors and too much went to education and… memorials.

Reuven Merhav, chairman of the Executive Committee, said that they had not changed the manner of allocation, but only added an ad-hoc budget due to special needs, just as they added NIS 13 million last year during the Second Lebanon War to help survivors in the North.

A group of former inmates of the DP camp Foehrenwald near Munich plan a
reunion 50 years after the campwas closed. The asked me for assistance
by finding as many as possible former “Foehrenwalders”. Do you know if
there are any mailinglists, websites etc. were announcements for this
reunion could be posted?

Jewish Museum Munich
St.-Jakobs-Platz 16
80331 Muenchen

Tel
+49-89-233-25388

Mobil
+49-152-01657213

Fax
+49-89-233-989 25388

E-mail
bernhard.purin {at} muenchen(.)de

Internet
www.juedisches-museum-muenchen.de

An Advocate of His People

Dr. Alex Grobman

Much will be written about Judah Nadich, rabbi emeritus of the Park Avenue Synagogue and founding board member and honorary trustee of the Abraham Joshua Heschel School who died last week. He was an icon in the Conservative movement.
During World War II, Rabbi Nadich was an American Jewish chaplain. After the liberation of Paris in August 1944, he served at the Office of the Theater Chaplain in the city. By virtue of his position, he became an unofficial spokesman on Jewish affairs for the foreign correspondents of the New York Times, The New York Herald Tribune and other members of the American press in the region.

He and other American Jewish chaplains alerted American Jewish organizations and leaders about the problems confronting the Jews of France: the need to return to the Jewish community the children who were placed in convents, on farms and elsewhere by parents who were no longer alive; the urgency of providing relief to a significant proportion of the Jews during the upcoming winter months; the importance of resolving legal issues of how to recover confiscated property and the legal status of foreign Jews in the country; and the difficulty of reuniting families.

After Earl G. Harrison, a former U.S. Commissioner of Immigration, visited Germany and Austria to assess the condition of the Jewish DPs, his negative report about the plight of the Jews in Europe created a great deal of criticism throughout the U.S. President Harry S Truman was disturbed that military government officers had not provided the Jewish displaced persons (DPs) with proper housing or treated them humanely.

As a result, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, then Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, reluctantly agreed to assign a chaplain as special advisor on Jewish affairs to the Theater Commander of the U.S. Forces in Europe, until a prominent civilian could be appointed.

The need to respond immediately to Truman prompted Eisenhower to find a Jewish chaplain. Chaplains were already in Europe, knew the issues facing the DPs and understood how the army functioned.

Jacob Trobe of the American Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC) recommended Nadich to the position. Nadich was picked over another chaplain because of his experience at the Office of the Theater Chaplain, and because he had impressed him.

In his role as advisor, Rabbi Nadich also became the liaison between the army and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRRA), the JDC, the Jewish Agency, the World Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Congress, and other Jewish organizations in the U.S., Great Britain and Palestine.

On August 27, 1945, Nadich began a tour of the Zeilsheim displaced persons camp outside Frankfurt. Two days later he began an extended tour of the camps in Bavaria, and then two days in Berlin. He also made an extensive inspection around Heidelberg under the command of the Seventh Army.

Upon his return to Frankfurt, Nadich met with General Walter Bedell Smith, Eisenhower’s chief of staff, highlighting the importance Eisenhower attached to Nadich’s mission.

Smith was disturbed to learn that in the Third Army area, under General George S. Patton, American soldiers stood guard at the gates of the DP camps, Jews had to obtain exit passes, only 10 percent of the camp population was permitted to leave at any one time, and the surrounding villages and towns were off limits to them.

Smith’s response was swift. He immediately called a number of the generals in the Third Army, including Patton, to demand that conditions be improved. On September 15, Smith conveyed the substance of Nadich’s report to Eisenhower.

After Eisenhower issued a memorandum to his commanders to provide the DPs with adequate housing, nourishing and sufficient food, allow them to guard the camps themselves, and make regular inspections to remove all incompetent personnel, Nadich explained why much more was needed, especially in the Third Army area.

Judge Simon Rifkind, U.S. district court judge, replaced Nadich after arriving in Frankfurt on October 22, 1945. Nadich remained for another three weeks to assist in the transition. He then returned to the U.S. where he was discharged from the army.

Rabbi Nadich later wrote about his experiences in his book Eisenhower and the Jews. The American Jewish chaplains played a vital role in helping the Shearith Hapletah, the remnant of the Shoah. Rabbi Nadich will be remembered for having been an advocate of the survivors at the highest level of the American military.

Tehey nafshoh tzerurah bitzror hachaim: May his soul be be bound in the bond of everlasting life.

Dr. Grobman wrote about Rabbi Nadich in his book Rekindling The Flame: American Jewish Chaplains and the Survivors of European Jewry 1944-1948.

Aug 26, 2007 22:25 | Updated Aug 26, 2007 22:25
Israel Museum launches site for works stolen in WWII
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

The Israel Museum has launched an on-line catalogue of works of art and Judaica looted during World War II and given to the museum after the war, the museum announced Sunday.

An anonymous tempera painting from the 19th century, of a girl in profile, somewhat reminiscent of Boticelli’s style, from a collection of paintings stolen by the Nazis. The piece is part of the Israel Museum’s collection today.

The Jerusalem museum houses several hundred works stolen during the Holocaust that either have no record of prior ownership or came from institutions that did not survive the war.

The property was originally given to the Bezalel National Museum, the Israel Museum’s predecessor, by the Jewish Restitution Successor Organization, which was charged with reclaiming stolen Jewish property and which transferred many works of art and Judaica to Jewish institutions in Israel and around the world.

The works were subsequently moved to the Israel Museum in 1965, when the museum was founded.

The on-line catalogue - accessible on the Israel Museum’s Web site, www.imj.org.il - provides information on paintings, drawings and Judaica objects, and includes images, titles of works, names of artists (if known), countries of origin (if known), dimensions and other identifying characteristics.

more.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 23 (UPI) — U.S. experts on Holocaust survivors say people who lived through the era genocide have a harder time coming to terms with the memories as they age.

Chaya Berci, executive director of nursing at the Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging, which houses 63 Holocaust survivors, says some survivors succumb to dementia and believe they are back in Nazi Germany, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Esther Kane Meyers, daughter of Holocaust survivor and former Jewish Home resident Rachel Kane, said her mother often thought she was seeing Nazis.

more.

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER | Washington Post
August 26, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt - Israel’s decision to close its doors to asylum-seekers from Darfur and all other non-Jewish refugees has Israelis and Jews around the world struggling with their distinct identities of Israel: a Jewish state with a Jewish people or, alternatively, a state born from the Holocaust with a determination to challenge future genocides and succor their victims.

Israeli refugee groups said that they would challenge in court Israel’s new policy of blocking Africans who enter the country from Egypt. International and Israeli rights groups maintain that returning the would-be refugees without assessing their claims for asylum violates international accords, including the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention, as well as Israeli law and government commitments.

MORE.

After a brief summer hiatus, 3GNY is looking forward to an eventful Fall of 2007. We’re planning a series of get-togethers where we hear members’ grandparents tell their stories. We’re also planning an Israeli/kosher wine tasting, our group’s fourth Shabbat Dinner, and we’re bringing back our discussion group. More details to come.

In two weeks, on September 9, 2007, 3GNY will be a part of “Jewzapalooza” for the third straight year. Jewza will include dozens of kosher food and wine stands and Jewish organizations’ info tables. 3GNY will be one of these tables. We will have members there to meet, greet and discuss how to get involved with the group. The tables will be to the north of the stage, alongside the river. We hope all our members can come out, enjoy the live music and eats and also show your support for our group.

Jewzapalooza 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007, Noon - 9pm
Riverside Park @ 72nd Street
FREE for all

For more info on the day-long event and the nearly two month Oyhoo Festival that follows, please visit www.oyhoo.com