|
July 1, 2009
GSI Leader Esther Finder Speaks at Prague Conference
June 29, 2009
HSF leader Alex Moskovic reacts to conference
HSF Board
member Alex Moskovic, a survivor living in Florida and
member of the U.S. delegation to the Prague Conference,
is quoted in an
Associated Press story as seeing "no forward motion"
coming out of the conference.
June 26, 2009
Prague Conference Gets Under Way
Wire
coverage by Associated Press cites HSF concerns
about lack of survivor voices.
June 22, 2009
HSF confers with Eizenstat, offers support
Following
direct discussions with Ambassador Stuart Eizenstat on
issues related to the Prague
Conference
on Holocaust Era Assets, HSF has informed Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton that it no longer is asking
that Eizenstat be
replaced as head of the U.S. delegation to the
conference.
HSF looks forward to working
with Eizenstat on matters
affecting Holocaust survivors’ rights and interests.
UPDATE: More
background
here and
here.
June
19, 2009
Rep. Robert
Wexler, HSF leader Alex Moskovic named to U.S.
delegation to Prague conference
Announcement from
Rep. Wexler's office
here.
UPDATE:
Complete U.S. delegation listed
here. Of 24 total delegates, five are Holocaust
survivors.
June
14, 2009
Israel shakes up
delegation to Holocaust Assets conference after survivor
criticism
The Israeli
government
plans to replace Reuven Merhav, a private citizen
and top officer of the Claims Conference, as head of the
official Israeli delegation to the international
Conference on Holocaust Era Assets set for late June.
The move came after survivors and others
expressed opposition to Merhav's appointment over
conflict of interest concerns.
UPDATE:
Information and
Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein has been
appointed to head the Israeli delegation to the
conference.
June 3, 2009
HSF urges Obama to address
needs of living survivors
Statement coincides with
President's visit to Buchenwald
HSF has issued a
public statement
on the occasion of President Obama's visit to the Buchenwald
memorial in Germany. In it, the President is asked "to pay
greater heed to the plight of so many thousands of survivors in
our communities who are living in poverty." The statement also
urges the administration to "take the lead in insisting that the
international community address the needs of living survivors as
a moral imperative."
UPDATE:
See
coverage in Ha'aretz newspaper:
"U.S. Holocaust
Survivors: Pres. Should Address Needs"
May 26, 2009
HSF publishes blog page
HSF has started its own
blog page to serve as
a grassroots forum for Survivors, the Second & Third
Generations, and those who support justice & dignity for
survivors. Read and join the conversation
here.
May 24, 2009
Israelis alarmed about
Prague Conference lineup
"Conflict of interest"
concerns
Ha'aretz reports
on the controversy that has
erupted over the appointment
of a top Claims Conference
official to head the Israeli
government delegation to the
Prague Conference on
Holocaust Era Assets
scheduled for June.
May 18, 2009
Si Frumkin
Si Frumkin, Holocaust
survivor and tireless activist on behalf of Soviet
 Jewry and his
fellow survivors, died in California on May 15th. His obituary
in the Los Angeles Times is
here. HSF previously posted a link to his 2008
essay on restitution in
Reform Judaism Magazine. In the past year,
Frumkin threw his support behind passage of the Holocaust
Insurance Accountability Act in the U.S. Congress. Read his
appeals to Rep. Howard Berman, Chairman of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, at this
link.
May
10, 2009
Claims Conference's hardball
tactics exposed
"Criticize us and lose aid"
The Ha'aretz
newspaper
reports on how the Claims Conference uses
Holocaust-related grant funds under its control to
squelch criticism and apply political pressure on social
welfare agencies serving needy survivors.
May 6, 2009
Agenda for Prague Conference
broadened
Discussion of survivor
welfare added after concerns voiced
The agenda of the upcoming
Holocaust Era Assets Conference in Prague, which originally
excluded any formal discussion of survivor welfare issues, has
been expanded after HSF and others expressed criticism. A
special session on "Caring for Victims of Nazism & Their
Legacy" has been added to the conference program |
Conference homepage
April 28,
2009
Holocaust Assets Conference
planned for June
Organizers lay out limited agenda
/
HSF leaders press
for more attention to issue of survivor needs
The European Union,
under the presidency of the Czech Republic, is hosting
an international
Conference
on Holocaust Era Assets set for June 26-30, 2009 in
Prague.
The Conference is
described as a follow up to an international gathering
held over ten years ago in
Washington. Organizers have chosen to focus on two
"unresolved" Holocaust issues, looted art and real (or
"immovable") property. The narrowness
of this agenda, and the absence of any sessions devoted
to the economic, social, housing, and health care needs
of survivors, quickly become the target of criticism.
UPDATE: At the
request of Florida Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Member of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, a special public meeting to discuss
the Prague Conference and how the U.S. government can
influence the outcome was held in Miami on May 1st. At
the session, HSF leaders, local survivors, social
service professionals and elected officials shared
concerns over the Prague agenda with the State
Department's Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues.
On May 4th and 5th
the State Department held what was billed as a
"Town Hall" meeting in Washington, DC to solicit
information from interested individuals or organizations
regarding the planned conference. Representatives of HSF
were in attendance and submitted documents for the
official record. These included a formal
request by HSF
President David Schaecter to address the Prague session,
HSF's letter to Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton,
statement by HSF Counsel Samuel J. Dubbin, and a
summary of the Holocaust insurance issue.
April
30, 2009
Survivors suffering from
Post-Traumatic Stress have special needs
The Tampa Tribune
reports on the high incidence of Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder among Holocaust survivors and the
special care they require.
April 7, 2009
"Unlike Madoff, European
Insurers Remain At Large"
Novelist,
Essayist, Law Professor and Son
of Holocaust Survivors Thane
Rosenbaum has posted a
provocative essay on the Huffington
Post site. Click
here to read.
April 2, 2009
 Rep. Robert Wexler urges
Pres. Obama to support
justice for Holocaust
insurance claims
In a
letter to the
administration, the Florida
Democrat presses the case
for Holocaust insurance
legislation and just & fair
treatment of the claims of
survivors and heirs of
Holocaust victims.
March 19,
2009
Benefits extended to
survivors previously shut out
The Claims
Conference has announced a new agreement with the German
government that allows
needy survivors from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who had been
unfairly rejected for benefits in the past to reapply. Although
no mention is made in the
official press release, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz
reports
that the agreement to allow FSU survivors
to reapply to the
Hardship Fund is actually designed to settle a lawsuit
brought against the Claims Conference. An Israeli court
ruled in June 2008 that the group improperly
misled thousands of claimants and denied them of their benefits.
See HSF post from June 2008
.
March 1, 2009
Editorial: "The survivors'
cause is more than just -- it is a grievous wrong that must be
righted."
In its lead Sunday March 1,
2009
editorial, the
Miami Herald calls for renewed effort
to pass the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act.
February 24,
2009
HSF and State of Israel file
objections to Swiss settlement plan
Both HSF and the
government of Israel have raised objections to a
proposal to recalculate the value of compensation and
award additional compensation to some claimants who have
already received payments from the Holocaust settlement
involving Swiss banks.
The plan is under
consideration by U.S. District Court Judge Edward Korman,
who oversees hundreds of millions of dollars still not
distributed from the 10 year old Swiss Bank Settlement.
The Court has been criticized for not channeling the
funds more quickly to needy survivors around the world.
The HSF objections
are
here, the Israeli objections
here. The original proposal and related court
documents are found
here.
February 10,
2009
German Ambassador disavows
threat to cut off survivor funding
Jewish
Organizations Raised False Red Flag to Oppose H.R. 1746
German Ambassador to the U.S.
Klaus Scharioth
has written to
HSF stating unequivocally that Germany has no intention to
reduce welfare allocations or renege on commitments to survivors
if the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act passes into law.
The February 10th letter puts to rest the
scare tactics used by the Claims Conference, its
Treasurer Roman Kent, and other organizations that opposed the
legislation in 2008.
January 30,
2009
HSF seeks President Obama's support
President David Schaecter and
HSF Executive Board members have written
this letter to President Barack
Obama on January 30th asking his support for efforts to achieve
justice on Holocaust-era insurance claims.
January 13,
2009
 "Record
Time"
Is the Holocaust museum
helping survivors research their families' fates? Yes, but not
fast enough for Leo Rechter.
HSF Board member Leo Rechter
is featured in Washington City Paper's January 7, 2009
cover story on the U.S.
Holocaust Memorial Museum and it's handling of Holocaust records
from the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, Germany.
More information
here.
November 26,
2008
"Justice for Holocaust
Survivors"
"[M]aybe at long last, all
survivors will be afforded the dignity they deserve in their
last years"
Holocaust Survivor Herb
Karliner published an op-ed in the November 26th edition of the
Miami Herald.
November 12,
2008
"Battle for Holocaust Assets
Roils Israel"
A
front page feature in the
Wall Street Journal
describes the bureaucratic resistance & legal hurdles faced by
survivors and heirs in Israel trying to claim land investments,
bank accounts and other assets owned by their families in
pre-war Palestine. Unclaimed assets absorbed by the State and
private institutions have not been fully accounted for.
More details are found in
Ha'aretz, including
this
tough editorial calling for justice and transparency.
October 28, 2008
HSF opposes proposal to
subsidize European insurers with financial bailout funds
Companies with unresolved
Holocaust claims now seeking piece of the $700 Billion pie
HSF has
submitted a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department in response
to
news reports that European-based insurers are seeking to
benefit
from the largest government rescue in U.S. history,
part of the
"the hottest lobbying game in town."
The Financial
Services Roundtable, an industry lobbying group whose
members include European insurers Allianz, AEGON, ING, AXA &
Zurich, has
urged the Treasury Dept. to expand the size of the
government's planned stock purchase program designed to provide
emergency financial support for banks, and to broaden
eligibility to include foreign-based insurance
companies and banks.
In the letter, HSF states
that "[u]ntil the culpable insurance companies all disgorge
their records and their unjust profits from the Holocaust, we
believe it would offend basic notions of justice and integrity
for Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars to subsidize their
rapacious and immoral behavior." |
Full Letter here
The Treasury Dept. collected
public comments in October on a proposed
Guaranty
Program for Troubled Assets, part of the recently-passed
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA).
October 20,
2008
Vast sums devoted to
defeat H.R. 1746
Several Jewish Organizations, German
Embassy join effort
Through September 30, 2008, the
insurance industry -- led by Italian insurer Generali, Swiss
Reinsurance, and the
Association of Dutch Insurers -- spent over ONE MILLION DOLLARS on
lobbyists opposing H.R. 1746. See the detailed and up-to-date breakdown
here. This figure does not include the
unidentified portion of time and resources expended by European-based
insurance giants Allianz, Zurich, AEGON and ING, along with two
leading U.S. insurance trade associations in opposition to H.R. 1746
as part of their ongoing multi-million dollar lobbying programs.
The industry trade group, the
American Insurance Association, hired
Mara
Rudman, the former Chief Operating Officer of the International
Commission on Holocaust-Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), to represent their
interests on the matter in Congress. See filing for
1st Quarter 2008
and 2nd Quarter
2008.
Three Jewish organizations also
spent lobbying resources to oppose the bill:
American Jewish Committee,
World Jewish Congress, and
the Anti-Defamation League.
Unreported lobbying expenses
were also incurred by German Embassy officials, and officers and
employees of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against
Germany, opposing the legislation.
September 22,
2008
"Upstart" HSF among activists
challenging the establishment
In its
year-end review, the JTA news service highlights HSF's
leadership in battle to pass Holocaust insurance legislation.
September 22,
2008
110th Congress winds down
with action on H.R. 1746 unlikely
Latest
news in Roll Call
|
Background and additional archived news coverage
here.
September 13,
2008
Nazi-linked German insurer
abandons bid for New York stadium-naming rights
Germany's leading insurance conglomerate, Allianz AG, has
abruptly dropped its efforts to negotiate naming rights for a
planned New York-area football stadium after a spontaneous
public outcry led by local Holocaust survivors. HSF Executive
Board member Leo
Rechter was quoted in the New York Times citing
Allianz as one of the insurers "still preventing ...survivors
from fully collecting on valid policies — or from finding them
at all." See full
coverage
here.
August 12,
2008
Ten years after the
historic agreement, only 60% of the deposited assets
settlement, about $489 million, has been paid out.
Detailed distribution statistics as of June 30, 2008 here.
The fate of the remaining hundreds of millions remains
undecided. The decision rests with Federal Judge Edward
Korman of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District
of New York, who oversees the settlement.
UPDATE: $21
million in additional payments to 27 claimants were made
during the three month period July 1-September 30, 2008,
bringing the total payouts to date to $510 million, about
64% of the amount originally earmarked for the Deposited
Assets category.
Details here.
|
Ten
year anniversary of Swiss Bank Settlement