New fund created for Romanian Holocaust survivors in the Diaspora
Just under £1 million will be distributed to survivors from Romania, with approximately 4,000 recipients on low incomes eligible
A new fund for Holocaust survivors from Romania will distribute £970,000 ($1.3) million among approximately 4,000 potential recipients with low incomes.
The World Jewish Restitution Organisation, or WJRO, this week announced the Romanian Survivor Relief Program fund, which comes from the restitution of communal properties wrongfully taken from Jewish communities of Romania during and after World War II.
Applications are being mailed to 4,000 potentially eligible needy Holocaust survivors of Romanian origin living outside of Romania and Israel, WJRO said in a statement.
Applicants must be Jewish victims of Nazi persecution who had resided sometime between 1937 and 1944 in Northern Bukovina or Bessarabia; in Southern Dobruja or in Transnistria. Eligibility is reserved to applicants with an income below a specified level. Heirs are not eligible to apply.
Applications will be available through a network of social service agencies worldwide. The deadline for applying is November 30, 2018. Additional funds for the same program are expected to become available in the near future, WJRO added.
The funds have been made available by the Caritatea Foundation, which is a partnership of the WJRO and the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania. The Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany is implementing the program on behalf of the Caritatea Foundation.
Gideon Taylor, WJRO chair of operations, called the new fund “an important symbolic step” in a statement. But WJRO will continue negotiations with the Romanian government “to ensure that remaining Jewish communal properties are returned and can be used to help more Holocaust victims,” he said.
Payments funded by Caritatea totalling £2.1m ($2.9m) were made to Holocaust survivors of Romanian origin in Israel in March 2018 and social welfare programs for Holocaust survivors in Romania are also being supported by funds generated from the restitution of former Jewish communal property in Romania. The new international Romanian Survivor Relief Program will provide funds for survivors outside of Romania and Israel.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
