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NEWS
UPDATE
"Battle for Holocaust Assets
Roils Israel"
November 12, 2008 -- 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.

ISSUE
UPDATE
HSF Opposes Proposal to
Subsidize European Insurers with Financial Bailout Funds
Companies with unresolved
Holocaust claims now seeking piece of the $700 Billion pie
October 28, 2008 -- 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).

ISSUE
UPDATE

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.

NEWS
UPDATE
"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.

NEWS
UPDATE
110th Congress Winds Down
with Action on H.R. 1746 Unlikely
September 22, 2008 -- Latest
news in Roll Call
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Background and additional archived news coverage
here.

NEWS
UPDATE

Nazi-linked German Insurer
Abandons Bid for New York Stadium-naming Rights
September 13, 2008 --
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.

ISSUE
UPDATE
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.

NEWS
UPDATE

Der Spiegel: "Huge
Profits Casts Shadow over Holocaust Survivors Organization"
One of Europe's leading
newsmagazines features an
exposé on the Claims Conference in its June 2nd edition. The
story in Der Spiegel highlights many concerns voiced in the
past by HSF, noting that
"criticism of the powerful organization is growing in Israel and
many are calling for greater transparency."
In related news, an Israeli court
ruled on June 1 that the Claims Conference, which controls the
distribution of millions in restitution funds allocated by the
German government, "misled" and improperly denied claimants seeking
to apply for one-time grants. The Court has ordered that the
organization pay 1,365 eligible claimants living in Israel their
due. See coverage in
Yediot Ahronot (Ynet News)
and
Ha'aretz.
The Court's published
ruling is available in Hebrew only.

ISSUE
UPDATE
"Holocaust Remembrance is
About Honoring the Living Too"
Anita Friedman, executive
director of
Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco,
writes in the May 3rd edition of j. - The Jewish News Weekly of
Northern California, "What would entitle us to call ourselves a
community if we allow our most vulnerable members to live in
loneliness and poverty?" See her column
here.

NEWS
UPDATE
"Marking Annual Holocaust
Memorial Day, Survivors Turn Anger Inward" - Claims Conference
the Target of Wide Criticism
An Associated Press story highlights opposition among survivors
to the policies, priorities and secretiveness of the Claims
Conference, the main source of funding for survivor programs &
services. Jack Rubin, a survivor and HSF leader, states, "There is
nothing more important than the Holocaust survivors, and in the few
years they have left they should live in dignity. That is all I ask
of the Claims Conference."
A
new documentary by journalists Guy Meroz & Orli Vilnai-Federbush
has been broadcast on Israeli television. The film, "The Morality of
Payments - the Battle Continues," which aired in conjunction with
the annual observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, is critical of
the Claims Conference's allocations and raises charges that its
constituent organizations are engaged in 'self-dealing.'
Israeli parliamentarians are calling for an investigation.
More coverage in
JTA,
Ha'aretz
and the UK-based
Jewish Chronicle.
Earlier, the Claims Conference unsuccessfully
attempted to block the film's broadcast.
Under growing public pressure, the
Claims Conference has announced it will for the first time
publish data on former Jewish properties in eastern Germany it has
acquired and sold since the early 1990s.

SURVIVORS'
VOICES

"Why Won't Those SOBs Give Me
My Money?"
Holocaust Survivor Si Frumkin
speaks out on Holocaust restitution in the Spring 2008 issue of
Reform Judaism Magazine.
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