The Polish Jewish community and World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO) reached understandings at the end of last week on the joint handling of Jewish community property nationalized by the Communist regime after World War II.
The understandings were signed a year after the agreement to establish a joint fund to handle the property was signed in June 2000. Following that agreement, it was decided that Poland would restore Jewish community property in 19 districts (eight communities would also receive property in adjacent towns, in addition to the compensation received by the communities association), and 30 districts would transfer properties to the fund jointly controlled by WJRO and the Polish Jewish community.
However, sharp disputes arose over operational details, including the appointment of a director for the fund, management of the fund's business, and its business plan. Consequently, the fund was not registered in accordance with Polish law, and it did not begin operations. As a result, the community association announced the agreement was annulled and it would operate independently to seek the restitution of Jewish community property.
Polish law stipulates that claims for community property may be submitted up to May 2002. Claims on 700 properties have been submitted to date, out of 6,000 properties that were owned by hundreds of Jewish communities active in Poland before the Holocaust. Only 120 properties have so far been returned.
In recent months, efforts have been made to reach a compromise between WJRO and the Jewish community. Most of the efforts have been mediated by American Joint Distribution Committee president Michael Schneider. The community demanded the agreement be reopened, which WJRO rejected, agreeing only to discuss allocating districts between the community and the joint fund.
Last week, a WJRO delegation, headed by Jewish Agency Treasurer Haim Chessler, went to Warsaw to meet the heads of the community association. The community association demanded that the property in 28 districts be transferred to the local communities, and that the joint committee receive the properties in the 21 remaining districts.
Ultimately, it was agreed that the local communities and the joint fund would receive the properties in 22 and 27 districts, respectively. It was also agreed that four districts that it was originally agreed would fall under the responsibility of the communities, would be transferred to the fund, and four other districts would be transferred in the other direction. According to the agreement, WJRO will immediately transfer $800,000 to the fund for archival research to locate properties, and the two parties will immediately submit the necessary registration documents for the fund to the Polish courts.
WJRO announced it agrees that the proceeds from the sale of the properties should be mostly used to meet local community needs in order to help them reach economic independence and end their need for financial support from organizations such as the Joint. The communities association agreed that international organizations should participate in the handling of properties, as representatives of Holocaust survivors and their heirs who live outside of Poland.
However, some of the disputes that torpedoed the fund's activities in the past year have not been resolved, starting with the appointment of a director and determining the identity of the group that will prepare the business plan.
A senior Jewish Agency source told "Globes" that there is a possibility that the Polish government would agree to extend the deadline for the submission of claims. A decision on the matter will be made after the September elections, in which the Socialist Party expects to win a decisive victory.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 29 July 2001