World Jewish Congress Urges Lithuanian Progress on Property Restitution
The World Jewish Congress has called on the Lithuanian government to urgently address the negative
climate in the country vis-a-vis members of its Jewish community and to speedily enact legislation allowing for the restitution of properties seized during the Nazi occupation. At a meeting in New York attended by leaders of several Jewish organizations, WJC Secretary General Michael Schneider told Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas: “The World Jewish Restitution Organization began its negotiations with your government six years ago. Until today, not a single piece of legislation has even been sent to the Lithuanian parliament for deliberation.”
Schneider said other central and eastern European countries had successfully enacted laws allowing for the restitution of seized properties, or compensation. “There has been some encouraging progress in local negotiations with Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Macedonia and Bulgaria. Lithuania stands alone among these European countries.” Every effort had to be made to achieve adoption of the required legislation, the Jewish leaders urged Kirkilas.
The meeting, hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in New York, also focused on Yitzhak Arad, who during World War II fought as a Lithuanian Jewish partisan against the Nazis and is now being investigated by the Lithuanian prosecutor-general for alleged war crimes. The Jewish leaders reminded the prime minister’s delegation that the charges against Arad were baseless, and they urged the Lithuanian government to desist from the harassment of Holocaust-era heroes such as Arad and others. Prime Minister Kirkilas was urged to improve Lithuania’s poor record regarding its Jewish heritage, the preservation of Jewish cemeteries and the fight against anti-Semitism, “especially at a time when Vilnius is being honored by the European Union by serving as the European cultural capital in 2009.”
The meeting was convened by David Harris, Executive Director of the AJC. Also attending were Rabbi Andrew Baker (AJC), Daniel Mariaschin of B’nai B’rith International; Mark Levin of the NCSJ and Gideon Taylor of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The World Jewish Congress is the international organization representing Jewish communities in over 80 countries around the world. The WJC serves as the diplomatic arm of the Jewish people to governments and international organizations.
