The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) has opened an expanded Hebrew website at www.claimscon.org. The website has extensive information on compensation and restitution of interest to Holocaust survivors and their families and has the latest developments on compensation programs administered both by the Claims Conference and other entities such as governments and other organizations.
Topics on the Claims Conference website include information on eligibility and applying for various individual compensation programs, both those administered by the Claims Conference and by other entities; detailed information on Claims Conference grants to organizations and institutions caring for Jewish victims of Nazism, of which Israel receives the majority of funds; detailed financial information about the Claims Conference, including its annual audit by the major accounting firm of Ernst & Young; and other information about the history and mission of the Claims Conference.
Although Holocaust survivors are elderly, the Claims Conference website and related emails have attracted enormous interest from survivors and their children. More than 10,000 people visit the English website every month. The number rises to 15,000 or higher when there are new developments.
In addition, the Claims Conference sends out periodic e-mail news bulletins on developments in Holocaust compensation and restitution. This email is sent to more than 15,000 people around the world and is available in Hebrew and English. Many of the responses the Claims Conference receives from these e-mails are directly from survivors, demonstrating this population’s wide use of the Internet. People may subscribe to this e-mail bulletin on the Claims Conference website.
“The Claims Conference expanded its Hebrew website out of its commitment to communicating with survivors and their families as widely as possible. All information about the Claims Conference and its programs are on the site for all to see,” said Claims Conference executive vice president Gideon Taylor. “We are finding that a large number of survivors are quite adept at using the Internet. The Claims Conference receives 1,000 emails per week from survivors, all of which are personally answered.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on Wednesday, May 04, 2005