Online Campaign: Return Stolen Jewish Property

A new campaign launched today (Monday) on the internet. As part of the campaign, public figures from Israel and around the world are calling on European governments to return the property stolen from Jews during the Holocaust.

These are hundreds of thousands of real estate properties, both private and communal, that belonged to Eastern European Jews before the outbreak of World War II.

The number of Holocaust survivors living today is estimated at about 500,000 worldwide, and a significant number live in poverty. The campaign's goal is to pressure European governments to expedite the process of returning the property, allowing Holocaust survivors to live their lives with dignity.

(Photo: shutterstock)

The campaign was initiated by ILR - "The World Jewish Organization for Restitution of Property." "Seven decades after the Holocaust, it's time to do justice by the survivors and their families and return them their stolen property," said the secretary-general of ILR. The chairman of ILR's operations committee noted that, "This effort aims to bring the campaign for historical justice to social networks. We are asking the younger generation to post on Facebook and tweet on Twitter to urge their friends to sign the petition to help Holocaust survivors."

The campaign is supported by more than 30 large Jewish organizations worldwide, registered on the ILR website. It was distributed on Facebook and Twitter (under the hashtag #HolocaustJustice), and many of its signatories have shared it. You can join and sign at change.org