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During the Communist era, JDC often went underground in Eastern Bloc countries, providing aid to survivors through third party mechanisms. The collapse of Communism ushered in a new era of freedom for the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe.
Over the last decade, JDC has played a central role in providing Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe with the tools they need to rebuild Jewish life. It is our mandate to ensure the physical and spiritual welfare of elderly Holocaust survivors, to support Jewish education and religious activities, and – most importantly – to provide communities with the know-how and the tools they need to become self-sufficient.
Holocaust-Era Restitution and the Return of Jewish Communal Property
For many years, JDC has been playing a significant role in two aspects of
the process of Holocaust-era restitution: a). the provision of welfare
services to Jewish victims of Nazi persecution and b). the return of Jewish
communal property.
Welfare Services
JDC was a founding member in 1952 of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims
Against Germany ("Claims Conference"), and for many years the organizations
have worked together to provide humanitarian relief to needy survivors of
the Holocaust. Today, the Claims Conference is JDC’s major partner in providing
welfare services to needy elderly Jewish victims of Nazi persecution in the
former Soviet republics as well as in Central and Eastern Europe. The Claims Conference
beneficiaries have often been called "double victims," for they have suffered
the horrors of the Holocaust as well as decades of repression under Communist
regimes. Until the fall of the Iron Curtain, these Jews received no humanitarian
relief or compensation for their suffering during the Shoah. Significant
funds for welfare services for Jewish victims of Nazi persecution are also
channeled through JDC from the Swiss Banks Settlement as well as from the
contributions made by various countries to the international Nazi Persecutee
Relief Fund.
Communal Property
The communal
property restitution process in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union
began with the fall of the Iron Curtain, when pressure was brought to bear on
former Communist bloc countries to return wrongfully appropriated Jewish
assets. Either as a venue for community programs and activities or as a source
of income, Jewish communal property has the potential to put communities on the
road to self-sufficiency. But the communities in these regions are only a
fraction of their original size, making the question of who is the moral heir
to these properties an ongoing point of contention.
Although often difficult to achieve in practice, a balance was struck by the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO). Through the creation of foundations established as partnerships between the local Jewish communities and world Jewry, income earned from returned property would first be allocated to cover local costs, with any excess going toward meeting global Jewish needs. As a founding member of the WJRO, which was established in 1992, JDC funds the organization’s efforts to reclaim property while acting as a bridge between Jewish communities and international Jewish groups. JDC also supports research, documentation, and legal services in countries where WJRO is not active, and it provides advice to the U.S. Government on restitution issues.
"Communal property" includes any existing or destroyed land or building, such as synagogues, schools, ritual baths, hospitals and cemeteries, once owned by a Jewish community, congregation, or organization. Most often, the properties were confiscated by the Nazis during World War II or seized by the various Communist regimes, a fate that also befell other faiths now pursuing similar property claims.
For Central and Eastern Europe’s Jewish communities, the reclamation of confiscated property is key to a future of fiscal autonomy. The parking lot now occupying the site where the Great Synagogue of Zagreb, Croatia once stood and several major buildings in the center of Prague, the Czech capital, are already providing these two communities with enough income to meet their own welfare needs. But in other countries, such as Yugoslavia and Poland, the return of property has just begun and the financial benefits that may accrue are still on the distant horizon.
Because properties are often returned in poor condition, JDC has been helping the local communities devise creative arrangements to fund their renovation or repair. In Romania, a joint venture established by the community and a private business firm is financing the capital improvements that needed to be made in a centrally located Bucharest property that will subsequently be shared.
JDC has created the Strategic European Loan Fund (SELF) to provide loans to Jewish communities (with no-interest charged) in order to enable them to develop, renovate or improve the condition of properties which can then yield additional income to the local Jewish community. The SELF Guidelines and Application are available at the link below in PDF and Word formats:
Click here for The SELF Guidelines, Application and recent success stories.
But even as properties are gradually returned, the process does not end there. JDC has organized training seminars for community leaders throughout Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltics, and the former Soviet Union to help them move property management to a more professional level. This should enable them to maximize their community’s potential income and ensure that returned properties do not become a financial burden. The restitution process, therefore, is a process not only of reclaiming the past, but also a sound investment in the future.
It is JDC’s mission to help put the Jewish communities of Central and Eastern Europe – where so much of world Jewry has its roots – back on the Jewish map, and to ensure the sustainability of Jewish life wherever Jews remain. We invite you to learn more about JDC’s work throughout this region.
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