Restitution
in the CIS proceeded parallelly with global efforts of international
Jewish organizations to coordinate their activity in regard
to the restitution of East European and Central European
property (that was confiscated by Nazi and Communist governments)
to Jewish communities, organizations, and individuals. To
improve this coordination the World Jewish Restitution Organization
(WJRO) was established on July 29, 1992. It includes representatives
of the World Jewish Congress, the JDC, the Jewish Agency,
the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany,
B’nai Brith International, the American Gathering
of Holocaust Survivors, and the Center of Organizations
of Holocaust Survivors in Israel. The Agudath Israel and
the EJC (European Jewish Congress) / ECJC (European Council
of Jewish Communities) Joint European Delegation joined
WJRO later on. In February 1993, in the name of WJRO and
the World Jewish Congress, Edgar Bronfman signed an agreement
with the government of Israel about cooperation in dealing
with matters of restitution. The heads of WJRO encouraged
leaders of East European countries to adopt more or less
comprehensive laws on restitution of Jewish property. This
international activity succeeded in influencing the policy
of CIS states even though the laws adopted did not affect
private property.
Not
all claimants to the synagogues agreed that they be returned
only to Jews remaining in the CIS. This position reflected
two major considerations - that a large proportion of the
descendants of those who built the synagogues now live in
the United States, Israel, and other countries, and that
even more of them perished in the Holocaust. The question
that was being raised was whether only those small, newly
organized communities in the CIS should be considered heirs
to the synagogues.
On the basis of this perspective, the WJRO decided to compile
a list of all confiscated Jewish community property and,
after presenting it to the CIS governments, to request both
the return of existing property and compensation for what
no longer exists. In 1996 the member organizations of WJRO
agreed that any compensation received would be divided between
Jews in the CIS and international Jewish organizations.
Some Jewish leaders in the CIS (for example, the heads of
the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities
of Ukraine) supported the WJRO on the assumption that they
would be the recipients of the CIS share and, thus, increase
their influence over local communities in their country.
In Kiev the Institute of Jewish Material Culture and Architecture,
which collected information about both surviving and lost
Jewish communal property, started operating with funds from
the WJRO. (The Institute also attempted to create a registry
of Jewish cemeteries.) Eventually, the Institute provided
the WJRO with a list of 2,000 sites, including ca. 300 synagogues
and other religious institutions with their precise present
addresses.
The author is not aware of any comparable list for the Russian
Federation. In Belarus, the Jewish Religious Association
of the Republic is collecting information about synagogues
that have not been returned. However, it is doing so not
for the WJRO but with the aim of obtaining these buildings
for itself. Meanwhile, negotiations between the WJRO and
the Ukrainian and other CIS governments in regard to compensation
have not yet led to any significant results.