New discretionary spending allocations for Claims Conference

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The Claims Conference board approved $272 million in new allocations for the next two fiscal years.

The bulk of the spending approved at Wednesday’s meeting in Washington will go to programs that aid survivors, including home care, soup kitchens, meals on wheels and medical assistance programs. Slightly less than $36 million will go to support Holocaust education.

The funding comes from the Claims Conference’s so-called Successor Organization, which derives from the sale of Jewish-owned properties in the former East Germany for which no heirs have come forward.

Also Wednesday, the Claims Conference voted to create a Goodwill Fund of approximately $61 million for heirs of former East German properties who missed previous deadlines for making claims on the properties.

This discretionary spending by the Claims Conference is in addition to the funding Germany provides to survivors via the Claims Conference in the form of pension programs, one-time payouts and home care.

On Monday, the Claims Conference announced that Germany had agreed to increase its funding to survivors by about $300 million, covering some 80,000 Nazi victims who until now have not been eligible for German funding.