The Jewish Claims Conference and German government agreed Wednesday to
increase pensions for Eastern European Holocaust survivors and include
some 1,500 more Western Europeans in the payment scheme, the Claims
Conference said.

Under the agreement, the 1,500 new claimants will be paid a total of
US$65 million (euro48.37 million) over the next decade, the Claims
Conference said in a statement.

Additionally, the Claims Conference successfully argued that the cost of
living in Eastern Europe has gone up, and secured an increase for
Holocaust survivors there. Payments for people in Eastern European EU
countries will go from euro175 (US$235) to euro200 (US$269) monthly, and
in non-EU countries from euro135 (US$181) to euro165 (US$222) as of Oct.
1.

“These breakthroughs will help survivors in many countries,” said Gideon
Taylor, Claims Conference Executive Vice President, in a statement.
“They are important both financially and morally. Particularly
significant are the increases in pensions for survivors in the countries
of the former Eastern bloc, who are facing steep rises in the cost of
living.”

Phantom Rule’ May Have Limited Holocaust-Era Awards To Claimants
Former arbitrator says policy that should have favored survivors and heirs was not applied in many cases.
Stewart Ain – Staff Writer

When a commission investigating Holocaust-era life insurance policies ended its work in March after nine years, it boasted that it had awarded more than $300 million to survivors and their heirs.

Now, a former commission arbitrator is criticizing the group’s work, alleging that a “phantom rule” was used by some of the dozens of arbitrators, accounting in part for the denial of 84 percent of all claims filed.

The arbitrator, Albert B. Lewis, who is also a former New York State insurance superintendent, is calling for a reopening of these cases.

The “phantom rule,” as Lewis described it, was that without an actual insurance policy in hand, either from the company or the claimant, the onus was on the claimant in seeking financial redress.

In fact, though, when the commission was established, the actual rules called for a more sympathetic stance toward the survivors and their heirs, specifying that there would be “relaxed standards of proof” favoring the claimant in determining the awards.

MORE.

The Claims Conference is approaching its annual meeting in July, during
which the board of directors explores the search for additional
restitution assets to alleviate the physical and emotional problems of
aging Holocaust survivors. The board also determines policies concerning
the allocation and distribution of available funds, among other items.

Recently, the Claims Conference has been subject to some criticism in
the media, most of it based upon myths that persist about this
organization despite all evidence to the contrary. The topic of
Holocaust restitution and the distribution of compensation funds is an
understandably emotional issue, but that does not excuse statements
about the Claims Conference that are simply wrong and that can be easily
disproved by a look at the facts.

The Claims Conference goes to extraordinary lengths to be open and
transparent, more so than virtually any other major Jewish organization.
We take our fiduciary and moral responsibility seriously. Accountability
and oversight are central to who we are and what we do.

The Claims Conference posts on its Web site every year, the full
financial statements resulting from its yearly audit by Ernst & Young,
www.claimscon.org/audit. Accompanying the financial statements are
summary charts, www.claimscon.org/financials, of Claims Conference
revenue, expenses, and liabilities and net assets as of Dec. 31 of the
preceding year. As soon as the independent auditors sign off on the
financial statements for 2006, they, too, will be posted on our Web
site.

Also on the Claims Conference Web site you will find the following:
A complete list of allocations made by the Claims Conference:
www.claimscon.org/grants
A description of the allocations process:
www.claimscon.org/allocations-process

* The guidelines for allocations: www.claimscon.org/guidelines

* Data on needs and demographics regarding Jewish victims of Nazi
persecution, including reports regarding current and projected needs of
Nazi victims, a significant basis for allocations decisions:
www.claimscon.org/demographics.

* An overview of the Successor Organization, which recovers unclaimed
property in the former East Germany: www.claimscon.org/successor

* A description of the Successor Organization process:
www.claimscon.org/successor-process

* A report on current assets and pending claims:
www.claimscon.org/sucessor-assets

* A chart showing revenue 1993-2005: www.claimscon.org/successor-revenue

Information on the Independent Review Authority for individual survivors
regarding compensation programs: www.claimscon.org/appeals

This is just some of the information available to the public concerning
the Claims Conference. There is plenty more to be found on the Web site.

All kinds of numbers have appeared in the media regarding the assets of
the Claims Conference. The following is the reality. As detailed in the
2005 financial statements, the Claims Conference had $900 million in
total assets at the end of the year. This amount falls into two
categories, funds that are committed for specific payments and those
that are not, all of which is detailed in the audit:

A. Funds with commitment: $587 million

* $253 million for payments to identified heirs of property in the
former East Germany that the Claims Conference has recovered under
German law.

* $47 million in reserve generally for specific heirs of property in the
former East Germany who are in the process of producing documentation
and/or may be eligible for such payments.

* $238 million in grants payable, which are funds already allocated to
programs for survivors but not yet disbursed by the Claims Conference to
the agency that is implementing the program.

* $20 million designated for contractual obligations: funds exclusively
for distribution to designated survivors and heirs (which was done in
2006).

* $29 million is designated as “other,” which are 2005 accrued expenses
that were paid in 2006.

B. Funds Not Yet Committed: $313 million

* Of this $313 million, $38 million was designated for allocations to be
made in 2006.

* The remaining $275 million is set aside for the long-term needs of
Nazi victims as they age.

Additionally, East German properties that the Claims Conference has
recovered but not yet sold are described in the financial statements.
While we have estimated a value of $50 million for these properties, we
recognize that they are the remainder of the properties we have put up
for sale and, as expected, will be the most difficult to sell. The
number of pending claims is available on our Web site.

The Claims Conference allocates approximately $100 million of Successor
Organization funds every year. Demographic studies (available on the
Claims Conference Web site) show that there will be extensive needs on
the part of survivors over the next 10 to 15 years. As survivors who are
currently around age 75 get older, their needs will become greater. Yet
the sources of restitution funding that are supporting current Claims
Conference allocations for social services will not last nearly that
long.

Those who know the Claims Conference know what we have accomplished and,
more importantly, our devotion to what still needs to be done. The time
is short and work monumental. Read our Web site to see what we do and
why. Together, let’s help those who suffered so much while we can.

Julius Berman is chairman of the Conference on Material Claims Against
Germany.

Groundbreaking set for tomorrow
By Vanessa Gera, Associated Press | June 25, 2007

WARSAW — An empty lawn in the heart of what was once the Warsaw Ghetto will soon become a place not only of mourning, but of celebrating the Jewish life that flourished in Poland before it was destroyed in the Holocaust.

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NIS 240 million in Bank Leumi shares belong to Holocaust victims

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent

One percent of the shares of Bank Leumi, equal to NIS 240 million, are still in the name of tens of thousands of Jews who were killed during the Holocaust, according to a report submitted last week to the Custodian General. It had previously been estimated that thousands of Jewish Holocaust victims held accounts in Leumi, but it is now apparent that about 20 percent of the shares of the Jewish Colonial Trust (JCT), Bank Leumi’s parent company, are in the name of Holocaust victims.

A law passed last year stipulates that stocks in the name of Holocaust victims are to be transferred to a state company, the Organization for the Restitution of Assets of Holocaust Victims, which is to transfer it to the heirs. The chairman of the company’s board of directors, Avraham Roth, proposes selling the shares and using two-thirds of the proceeds for immediate aid to needy Holocaust survivors. He proposes keeping the remaining third for heirs, since he believes heirs will not be found for more than one-third of the shares. He proposes the company and the state seek out the living and deceased owners of the stock, and at the same time sell the shares on the open market; two-thirds of the JCT stock is now worth more than NIS 300 million.

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