Restitution group to give NIS 100m. to needy survivors

One-time payments of NIS 6,000 will be paid in April to around 12,000 elderly survivors.

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
holocaust survivors 248 88 aj (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
holocaust survivors 248 88 aj
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
The Israeli Organization for the Restitution of Assets for Holocaust Victims will distribute NIS 100 million to needy survivors, the group said this week. The organization, which was established by the Knesset in 2006 to identify and return the assets of Holocaust victims to their rightful heirs, will allocate NIS 75m. in unclaimed assets to impoverished survivors, and pay NIS 25m. to groups that help them. One-time payments of NIS 6,000 will be paid in April to around 12,000 elderly survivors, said Ishai Amrami, director-general of the restitution organization. "On a personal level as a Holocaust survivor, I feel that transferring this funding to needy survivors is closing a circle and righting a historic injustice," said Avraham Roet, the head of the organization. The organization, which has faced criticism for delays and bureaucracy, made the decision last week following a recent High Court of Justice petition by survivors demanding that the group use some of its assets to immediately help elderly survivors instead of waiting to find heirs to the property. The group has about NIS 700m. in assets, but more than half consists of property belonging to Holocaust victims previously held by the state that cannot be sold for up to seven years to give heirs a chance to claim them, Amrami said. Last year, the group published the first list of assets of Holocaust victims located in Israel. Assets of Holocaust victims valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars have been held by various Israeli state institutions for dozens of years, and have only recently begun to been transferred to heirs. To date, the restitution organization has transferred NIS 2.5m. to 15 heirs whose assets were previously held by the state. By law, unclaimed property will be used to help elderly Holocaust survivors. About 250,000 Holocaust survivors live in Israel, nearly one-third in poverty, according to social welfare reports.