Foreign Minister: Jewish restitution issue must be addressed

  • 2008-10-21
  • TBT Staff in cooperation with BNS

The relationship between the Lithuanian Jewish community and the government has suffered from a number of disputes in recent months.

VILNIUS 'sLithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas has said that the governmentneeds to resolve the issue of Jewish property restitution.

The minister made this statement during his meeting with director of theinternational affairs department of the American Jewish Committee Rabbi AndrewBaker.

"We would hate to be tangled up in disputes overindividual properties for the benefit of attorneys," Vilius Kavaliauskas, theprime minister's aide, told the Baltic News Service.

The relationship between the Lithuanian Jewish Community andthe government has been strained lately, most notably following aninternational uproar over alleged construction on a Jewish cemetery outside Vilnius.

Lithuanian Jews owned huge swaths of land in the countrybefore WWII. Now a new bill is on the table that would provide restitution tothe Jewish community for land that was taken during the war.

"The public institution Lithuanian Jewish Heritage Foundation established by the Lithuanian Jewish community, the Lithuanian Jewish religious communityand the World Jewish Restitution Organization shall be recognized the successorof the Jewish communities' title to remaining real estate and shall have saidrights restored in its favor under this law," the bill reads.

"Remaining real estate of Jewish religious communitiestransferred to the foundation and compensations for Jewish communities'remaining real estate shall be used for religious, cultural, educational,science and charity purposes of LithuanianJews, with the exception of funds that will go to the victims of Holocaust,"it reads.

Currently, the list of Jewish property subject to restitution includes 108items with market value of 174 million litas (50 million euros). Realrights to another 30 buildings are yet to be proven.

The Jewish community has so far had 2 buildings returned to it in Vilnius,4 in Kaunas and 1 in Klaipeda.As there are virtually no more Jews residing in the province, there is no legalbeneficiary to receive the Jewish property that remains there.