Israel, local survivors seek control of Holocaust Claims Conference

By Amiram Barkat

Israel is trying to gain control over one of the world’s richest Jewish organizations, in the name of promoting the welfare of Holocaust survivors.

A group of Israeli organizations headed by Minister Rafi Eitan (Pensioners), who holds the Diaspora affairs portfolio, announced this week that Israel wants the right to appoint half the members of the executive of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a U.S.-based organization that represents world Jewry and Holocaust survivors in their negotiations over reparations from Germany.

Eitan estimates the Claims Conference’s financial reserves at some $1.7 billion. Every year, the conference gives grants totaling about $90 million to organizations worldwide that help Holocaust survivors or are involved in Holocaust education and memorialization. About half of this money goes to Israeli organizations.

MORE.

ORATORIO TEREZÍN – A POWERFUL WORK FOR LARGE ORCHESTRA, CHORUS AND SOLOISTS BY RUTH FAZAL –
TO BE GIVEN ITS U.S. PREMIERE WEDNESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2007,
8 P.M., AT THE TILLES CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS,
AND THURSDAY, 8 FEBRUARY, 8 P.M., IN CARNEGIE HALL

PERFORMERS TO INCLUDE YOUNG PEOPLE’S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY, SINGERS FROM TORONTO’S NEW STREAMS CHILDREN’S CHOIR AND BRATISLAVA BOYS CHOIR, TORONTO MENDELSSOHN SINGERS, CONDUCTOR KIRK TREVOR,
AND SOLOISTS TERESA MARIA GOMEZ, HUW PRIDAY,
AND NATHANIEL WATSON

The U.S. premiere of Oratorio Terezín, a powerful work for large orchestra, chorus and soloists by British-Canadian composer Ruth Fazal, will be performed on Wednesday, 7 February 2007, at 8 p.m. at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts (on the C. W. Post campus of Long Island University in Brookville, New York) and in Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium (57th Street and Seventh Avenue) on Thursday, 8 February 2007, at 8 p.m.

Inspired by the book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, the work sets poetry by children in the Terezín concentration camp and text from the Hebrew scriptures. Oratorio Terezín is scored for orchestra, children’s chorus, mixed adult choir and three vocal soloists, juxtaposing the children’s and adults’ voices, along with those of the Voice of the Prophet, the Voice of God, and the Voice of Suffering. The young singers’ preparation for the concerts is not only musical, but also includes Holocaust education and cultural awareness and exchange.

The work will be led by conductor Kirk Trevor, and will feature the Young People’s Chorus of New York City joined by singers from Toronto’s New Streams Children’s Choir and the Bratislava Boys Choir. The performances will also feature the adult choir Toronto Mendelssohn Singers and soloists including the soprano Teresa Maria Gomez, tenor Huw Priday and baritone Nathaniel Watson.

Tickets for the Tilles Center performance range from $20 to $45, and are available at the Tilles Box Office, or by calling TillesCharge at 516-299-3100 or online at www.tillescenter.org. Tickets for the Carnegie Hall performance range from $25 to $55 and are available at the Carnegie Hall box office beginning December 8th or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800; or
online at www.carnegiehall.org. Discounted tickets for students and seniors are available for both performances.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION THE ORATORIO
“In the summer of 1998,” says composer Ruth Fazal, “I was given a book called I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of poetry and art by children from the Terezín concentration camp from 1941 to 1943. Inspired by the book, I was compelled to memorialize the children’s naiveté and hope, beautiful in contrast to the awful suffering. I created Oratorio Terezín as a love song of hope, in the midst of darkness.” Survivors from Terezín whose poetry was published in I Never Saw Another Butterfly are expected to attend the New York performances, as well as the survivor and Holocaust spokesperson Elie Wiesel.

ORATORIO TEREZÍN – A POWERFUL WORK FOR LARGE ORCHESTRA, CHORUS AND SOLOISTS BY RUTH FAZAL –
TO BE GIVEN ITS U.S. PREMIERE WEDNESDAY, 7 FEBRUARY 2007,
8 P.M., AT THE TILLES CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS,
AND THURSDAY, 8 FEBRUARY, 8 P.M., IN CARNEGIE HALL

PERFORMERS TO INCLUDE YOUNG PEOPLE’S CHORUS OF NEW YORK CITY, SINGERS FROM TORONTO’S NEW STREAMS CHILDREN’S CHOIR AND BRATISLAVA BOYS CHOIR, TORONTO MENDELSSOHN SINGERS, CONDUCTOR KIRK TREVOR,
AND SOLOISTS TERESA MARIA GOMEZ, HUW PRIDAY,
AND NATHANIEL WATSON

The U.S. premiere of Oratorio Terezín, a powerful work for large orchestra, chorus and soloists by British-Canadian composer Ruth Fazal, will be performed on Wednesday, 7 February 2007, at 8 p.m. at Tilles Center for the Performing Arts (on the C. W. Post campus of Long Island University in Brookville, New York) and in Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium (57th Street and Seventh Avenue) on Thursday, 8 February 2007, at 8 p.m.

Inspired by the book, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, the work sets poetry by children in the Terezín concentration camp and text from the Hebrew scriptures. Oratorio Terezín is scored for orchestra, children’s chorus, mixed adult choir and three vocal soloists, juxtaposing the children’s and adults’ voices, along with those of the Voice of the Prophet, the Voice of God, and the Voice of Suffering. The young singers’ preparation for the concerts is not only musical, but also includes Holocaust education and cultural awareness and exchange.

The work will be led by conductor Kirk Trevor, and will feature the Young People’s Chorus of New York City joined by singers from Toronto’s New Streams Children’s Choir and the Bratislava Boys Choir. The performances will also feature the adult choir Toronto Mendelssohn Singers and soloists including the soprano Teresa Maria Gomez, tenor Huw Priday and baritone Nathaniel Watson.

Tickets for the Tilles Center performance range from $20 to $45, and are available at the Tilles Box Office, or by calling TillesCharge at 516-299-3100 or online at www.tillescenter.org. Tickets for the Carnegie Hall performance range from $25 to $55 and are available at the Carnegie Hall box office beginning December 8th or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212/247-7800; or
online at www.carnegiehall.org. Discounted tickets for students and seniors are available for both performances.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION THE ORATORIO
“In the summer of 1998,” says composer Ruth Fazal, “I was given a book called I Never Saw Another Butterfly, a collection of poetry and art by children from the Terezín concentration camp from 1941 to 1943. Inspired by the book, I was compelled to memorialize the children’s naiveté and hope, beautiful in contrast to the awful suffering. I created Oratorio Terezín as a love song of hope, in the midst of darkness.” Survivors from Terezín whose poetry was published in I Never Saw Another Butterfly are expected to attend the New York performances, as well as the survivor and Holocaust spokesperson Elie Wiesel.

Government, Jewish Agency recruit attorneys, private investigators in bid to locate assets of Holocaust victims. Israel demands increased share of Claims Conference’s payments

Zvi Zinger Published: 11.28.06, 09:38

The Office for Location and Restitution of Assets of Holocaust Victims has decided to launch a large investigation campaign and has begun recruiting layers, accountants and private investigators for this purpose.

In advertisements published this week, the office demands that banks, real estate firms, and other bodies that are in possession of Holocaust survivors’ assets, report about the properties that are in their hands.

Those who fail to report, stand to face an arrest.

The office has been founded following the findings of a parliamentary inquiry committee, which probed the issue of Holocaust survivors’ bank accounts.

According to the office’s attorney, Nadav Haetzni, the office has gathered plenty of information about the bodies through which Jews have conducted their investments in Israel prior to World War 2. This information will provide investigators with leads that will help locate the lost assets.

“We will leave no stone unturned until we locate the property of Holocaust victims,” Haetzni said.

Israel wants greater representation

For the first time since the establishment of the Claims Conference in the 1950s, the government
of Israel, the Jewish Agency and Holocaust survivors’ institutions are launching a struggle against the policy of the distribution of restitution, in a bid to increase Israel’s representation in the conference’s bodies.

The Claims Conference, which is based in New York, works to secure compensation and restitution for survivors of the Holocaust and heirs of victims. The Conference has distributed payments of some USD 90 million annually in the last several years as restitution and for organizations meeting the social service needs of Holocaust survivors, and engaging in education, research, and documentation of the Shoah.

However, the government, the Jewish Agency and the survivors’ organizations claim that the key used for the allocation of the funds fails to reflect reality.

Minister for Pensioners Affairs Rafi Eitan said Monday that “the survivors should be granted the money they deserve while they are still alive.”

Eitan called to increase Israel’s representation in the Conference’s bodies to at least 50 percent. “It’s unacceptable that a small group of people sitting in New York independently determine in matters that are so traumatic for the Jewish people,” Eitan stated.

The Claim Conference said in response that issues concerning the organization’s structure and management can be brought before the Conference’s board, which will convene in July. It further stated that 55 percent of its payments have been allocated to Israeli groups or survivors.

We’d like to invite you to the Second Generation group, a monthly group
for children of Holocaust survivors, sponsored by The Living Room at
Jewish Family Service of Bergen County in Teaneck. This month’s topic
is “Exploring our Legacy: Looking at the World Through the Lens of a
Child of Holocaust Survivors.” Carol H. King, LCSW, Senior Staff
Clinician at Jewish Family Service of Rockland County and Senior
Counselor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, will present and
facilitate a discussion. Join us Thursday evening December 14, 7-8:30
pm, at Jewish Family Service, 1485 Teaneck Road, Teaneck.

Open to all, free of charge. For questions or to RSVP, please call
Laura at 201-837-9090, or send us an e-mail at
thelivingroom@jfsbergen.org .