Page 8-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday. January 7, 1993
World
M-T,
GIFT OF TORAH
Mikhail Gorbachev (left), ex-president of the former Soviet Union was presented with a Torah scroll in Sao Paulo by Rabbi Henry I. Sobel, who is the senior rabbi at Congrega9aco Israelita Paulista in Sao Paulo. Sobel told Gorbachev and some 1,000 Jewish community leaders and members, that he was presenting v'the most precioussymbolof our faith" because Gorbachev had "reistored to our Soviet brothers and sisters the right to study it and practice its teachings" and had given "our brothers and sisters in the former Soviet Union the freedom to take the Torah with them to any country in which thev choose to live."
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Holocaust survivors now able to get
NEW YORK (JTA) -
Holocaust survivors who have been unable so far to collect reparations from the German government can now apply for: funds, it was announced by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
This notification follows the announcement in early November that the Claims Conference and the German government had signed a compensation accord on additional reparations payments.
Thousands of Nazi victims who resided behind the Iron Curtain never received indeminification because they were unable to file applications by the 1965 deadline stipulated in the .1952 reparations agreement; according: to Israel Miller, president of the Claims Conference.
Under, the new agreement. Holocaust survivors who can prove they spent at least six moriths in con-centratiori camps, or 18 months iii ghettos, or 18 months in hiding under inhumane conditions, are eligible to receive reparations.
Such victims are eligible even if they previously received one-time payments of up to 5.000 rnarks about S3.200 — under the German Federal Indemnification Law or from ■ the Claims Conference ' Hardship Fund, or payrrients greater than 5.000 marks for extended incarceration.
Individuals who currently receive pensions under the German Federal Indemnification Lavi' or the Israeli Law for Invalids of Nazi Persecution • are ineligible, as are Nazi victims who never left.their original countries of residence or subsequently returned to those: couritrieis. ...
Approved claimants will receive [ . monthly payments of 500 marks.— about S320 (U.S.) — beginning Au-susii 1. 1995. and a limited ihterim ,
payment, according to the conference.
No deadline has been announced for the filing of applications;
The November accord was reached under Article 2 of the implementation agreement to the German Unification Treaty reuniting East and West Germany, in which the German government agreed to negotiate with the Claims Conference for hardship payments to Nazi victims whohad previously received no compensation or onlv minimal indemnification.
Grants
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The agreement also makes available German government funds for grants to Jewish institutions and organizations throughout the world which provide shelter or social care to substantial numbers of elderly Jewish Nazi victims, according to the Clairiis Conference.
'"The recent agreement between the German government and the Claims ConferencewiH make it possible to expand and improve facilities! and.ser\icesto.elderly Holocaust survivors, many of whom arefrail and needy." said Miller.
Applications for such grants must be filed with the Claims Conference by March .1.. 1993.       . :
In separate but. related restitution
news. Dec. 31, 1992 is the application deadline for property claims in the former East Germany,
Those whose East German property was confiscated or otherwise lost during and immediately after World War 11 can apply for the return of or monetary compensation for their land.
About 20 percent of the total applications received so far — approximately 400.000 — are by tho.se whose property was confiscated by the Nazis, according to Deuteron. a Hamburg-based property group.
Most of the remaining claims were 'filed by victims of the Communist regime in East Germany.
German legal experts note that many Jewish victims of the Holocau-si were never informed about their rights concerning property loss in the area of former East Germany.
The Claims Conference has submitted property applications on behalf of some of those Jews victimized by the'Naz'S.
For more information, contact the United Restitution Organizauon. 5253 Decarie Blvd.. .suite 325, Montreal H3W 3C3.481 -7933. In Toronto, the address is 4600 Bathurst St.. suite 121. 630-2920. ; Applications for property restitution, which must be received by Dec. 31. 1992. should be sent by registered. mail to: Bundesministerium der Justiz (Ministr}' of Justice). Heinemann-strasse 6. 5300 Bonn 2, German).
Claims Conference — Article 2 Fund Wiessenau 53. 6000 Frankfurt am Main. 1. Germany (for residents in all other countries). . ;
.Applications for inslitutionargranls should beniailed in duplicate to:
Conference on Jewish .Material Claims Against Germany 15 East 26 Street. Room 1355: New "icirk. NY ■10010.   . ■ "
to inten
ROME (JTA) -
The Vatican, which has refused so far to establish diplomatic relations with IsratM. says it is planning to step up its contacts with Palestinians...
The Holy See said it would establish a ' 'joint bilateral commission"' with Palestinians and intensify contacts with Palestinians living in the Israeli-administered territories as well as those'"in the diaspora."
The announcement was made atter, Farouk Kaddoumi. ihe Palestine Liberation Organization's "foreign minister," met here Dec. 23 with the Vatican secretary of state. Monsig-nor Louis Touran.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro Walls said that during talks between Kaddoumi .and Touran. ".'concern was expressed for the lack of movement in the peace process and
for the increase in violence." . The day before the meeting, the, Vatican used a front-page article in its official newspaper. Ossen'aiorc Romand, 10 call up<.iri Israel to reconsider its decision to expel 415 Pales-, tinian fundamentalists to Lebanon.
The article urged both sides of the dispute to have a "sense of proportion, both in applying the law and in claiming your rights."
Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Kaddoumi said he appreciated the Vatican's position. . "The Vatican also feels without a doubt that the. peace processis important, not only because Palestine is the Holy Land, but also because among those who are suffering are Christian Palestinians." he said.
"We think that the moral role of the Vatican and the role of Italv in
Europe are particiilarly imponani;" • While in.Italy. Kaddounii also met with Italian Foreign Minister Eiiiilio Colombo and other Italian officials. He spoke to Colombo of the need to "pull the peace process out of the stagnation.'" ^
Kaddoumi said the purpose of his visit to Italy was "to explain our current fKJsitions. our commitment, and to see how we can together find a solution and how our interlocutors can help us unblock this critical situation."
Colombo said Italy considers the expulsionof the 415 Palestinians an "exaggerated" reaction, but he also sharply condemned the brutal.killing by Palestinian fundameritalists of an Israeli bcirder policeman, which he temied a danger to the peace process.
JERUSALEM (JPFS)-
Most IcKal Christian leaders blame Israel for the continuing'emigration of Arab Christians, from the Holy Land, but one local Roman Catholic priest says the emigration is the result of pressure from Muslims-Father Georges Abou-khazan. a parish priest in Bethlehem, writing in the November-December issue of Terra Sania, an Italian-language magazine published by the Francis-, can order, says that sonie experts predict that in 30 years thei-e willno longer be any Christians in the Middle Ea.st. But rather tha.n blame the Israeli occupation, he said it is the result of Muslim exclusivism.
Many local Christians have said this privately. but none has ever said
so publicly for fear of retribution.
Unable to have a .solely Miislim society demographically. socially or legally .the Muslim seek instead, to "Islamicize" the land. To this end. ^ he says, considerable sums have been contributed by the Muslim stales for the past few decades.
In the 1970s and 1980s there was an. organized Campaign to buy the shops in the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem, he says. When St. John's Hospice, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, was occupied by Israelis dliring Easter of 1980. the Muslims organized a popular reaction, but aslong as Christian pix)perty was being'sold to Muslims, "the peo^ pie" did not react, he says.
: In Bethlehem, Muslims are paying, astronomical prices, he .said. In his own parish, a Christian family wishing to selltheif property told pro.spec-tive buyers the\' would rather sell to Christians. Soon alter, their home : was set oh fire, apparentls' the\vork of the shebab. . y"'
Fortunately, he adds, in that case the fire was soon put out. but two shops owned"by-C:hristians-in Jerusalem were completely gtrttedr-
Asa result of the "Islaniification" of the-|and, the living space of the : Christians-is steadily being reduced, he says..
"In the Muslim worid there cannot be, in the neair future, a pluralistic or democratic so<:iety." he says.