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Thursday, March 28, 2024

CLAIMS CONFERENCE ‘CLAIMS’ TO SEE NO EVIL

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The Claims Conference reminds us of the classic three monkeys, who manage to ignore the calamities around them by making sure to “hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.”
The Claims Conference reminds us of the classic three monkeys, who manage to ignore the calamities around them by making sure to “hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.”
In the most recent issues of the Jewish Voice, we have both reported and editorialized about the shocking scandal that has unfolded at the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, more commonly known as the Claims Conference. To briefly recap, over a period of many years, a large group of individuals purposely enacted a scheme wherein false claims for Holocaust restitution were made, and massive amounts of money – $57 million, intended for those who had endured the most horrifying atrocities during World War II – were diverted to those who simply did not deserve the payments.

The guilty parties included Semen Domnitser, who served as director of two of the Claims Conference’s funds from 1999 to 2010; Oksana Romalis, who resigned from his post at the Claims Conference before the fraud was discovered; and Luba Kramrish, who was found guilty of mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud. The conspirators also included 65-year-old Zlata Blavatnik, who was convicted of defrauding the Claims Conference out of $550,000, a 63-year-old Russian immigrant from Brooklyn named Polina Anoshina who had recruited some 30 people for the scheme; Tatyana Grinman, who was given six months in prison and six months of home confinement for her role in the carefully organized thievery; and Rozaliya Brodetskaya, who was given two years’ probation.
In our editorial last week, we strongly called for the leadership of the Claims Conference to resign from their positions, given their abject failure at preventing such a gigantic communal ripoff from occurring. To be specific, we are talking about such leaders as Julius Berman, who has been most prominent as the organization’s director; as well as Uri Chanoch; Alla Gerber; Judge (Ret.) Yehoshua Gross; Rabbi Menachem Hacohen; Roman Kent; Joseph Melamed; and Yaacov Zitser, all of whom are listed on the Claims Conference’s website. There may of course be other officials and managers there of whom we are not aware. Every single one of these ‘higher-ups,’ who were responsible for providing professional supervision and management of the funds their organization took in, should abdicate their posts – just as they so clearly abdicated their fundamental responsibilities and accountability to the Jewish community.

We received a letter this week from a Claims Conference representative “responding” to our Editorial. We reprint it here:

Dear Jewish Voice Editor,

Since you ran an editorial last week stating that the Claims Conference had “failed Holocaust survivors,” we thought that you would like to see the announcement below about a multi-year agreement reached with Germany last week that will result in $1 BILLION for homecare funding over four years for survivors around the world. This unprecedented agreement with Germany means that aging survivors will be able to live out their final years with an added measure of dignity and comfort. Far from failing survivors, the Claims Conference has reached several historic agreements with Germany over the past two years that will enable tens of thousands of additional survivors to receive compensation payments and homecare assistance. My contact information is below – feel free to get in touch with any questions about those agreements and what they mean for survivors.

Hillary Kessler-Godin

Director of Communications

Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany

In response, we note our thoughts above, and we wish to add the following:

Dear Ms. Kessler-Godin:

We would like to comment on your response to our Editorial condemning your organization’s years of apparently serious malfeasance in the administration of restitution funds provided by the German government to Holocaust survivors, as evidenced by the spate of indictments of supervisory Claims Conference personnel for obtaining these funds under false pretenses on behalf of individuals who had not actually been victims of the Holocaust.

While it is always wonderful to hear about new agreements that promise new funding in this regard, we must point out that your comments here and the accompanying press release do not really address our concerns about the Claims Conference’s recent history.  Yes, it’s good to know that the German government  continues to be willing to face up to its despicable past and do its best to make amends to the survivors of that horrific period, by easing their financial burdens in their advanced years. BUT – is your organization the proper agent to facilitate this process? Based on your history of failed oversight – a history that has diverted critical funds from their rightful recipients, and brought humiliation to the organized Jewish community in the eyes of the world – should the Claims Conference continue to be entrusted to carry out the sacred task of Holocaust restitution?

In the opinion of the Jewish Voice, as well as numerous informed observers, the answer is unfortunately “no.” Just like the classic “three monkeys,” your organization’s leaders claimed for years to “hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil,” while their ostensibly perfectly constructed façade of probity was crumbling all around them. How can the Jewish community continue to have faith that such leaders will ensure proper conduct in the processing and distribution of future restitution funds?

The Claims Conference’s deep-seated neglect of its mission – which has been amply proved by the courts – makes it clear that the organization must admit to its failure and relinquish this task to another entity…one that will handle the restitution for Holocaust victims with the utmost sense of responsibility and unquestioned integrity.

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