The Choral Synagogue of Vilna is the only Jewish place of worship in Vilnius, which once had such a thriving Jewish community it was called the "Jerusalem of the North," to survive WWII. Photo by Edmundas Pilvelis.

VILNIUS — An on-going dispute over property restoration for Jewish families who lost their land and homes during the Holocaust has come up again with U.S. politicians urging Lithuania to move faster on the issue.

Property restoration is one of the key Jewish issues in Lithuania. Many Jewish people were either killed or pushed out of Lithuania and their land was confiscated and/or nationalized during the Nazi occupation during World War II and the following Soviet occupation. Since the establishment of independence, Jewish families with roots in Lithuania have been fighting to get their forebears’ property back, but so far little progress has been made.

Stuart Eizenstat, the U.S. government’s adviser on Holocaust issues said that Lithuania along with Romania and Poland were dragging their feet on the issue of property restoration.

“Corruption, administrative delays, difficulties in obtaining essential documents and inadequate information about treatment (upon return) hinder the process of property restitution in many countries. In some cases, there is a lack of basic laws,” Eisenstadt said.

Head of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin, said that property such as schools and places of worship must be returned to the Jewish community.

“In Lithuania in 1995 the property law had unnecessary restrictions. I hope that the government will fulfill their promised amendments to the law and ensure that community property, including schools and worship places, will be returned to beneficial owners,” Cardin said.

The Lithuanian Jewish community is keen to get buildings back into their possession such as schools and hospitals, which they say they would use for community purposes. Detractors have suggested that they want to have their buildings restored, particularly in Vilnius for monetary reasons.

When Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs at the American Jewish Committee visited Vilnius in October 2008, local tabloids showed pictures of him on their front page with him hugging superimposed stacks of cartoon coins.

The Ministry of Justice has prepared a bill that outlines a 30 percent reimbursement to families for property that was seized during the Nazi and Soviet regimes. It does not, however, allow responsibility to be placed on the state.

The bill was supposed to be voted on in autumn last year, but debate over whether it violated the constitution delayed the issue.

Notes on the bill suggest that if passed it may cause anti-Semitism in Lithuania, but there would also be better relations between the Jewish community and the Lithuanian state.

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