Holocaust restitution deals fail to engross Jewish state

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ELECTION '98
     GOP gubernatorial candidates discuss ways to strengthen families
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     U.S. adopts Israeli stance against terror
WORLD
     European insurers agree to pay Holocaust claims
     Recent upheavals in Russia heighten concerns among Jews
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     Holocaust restitution deals fail to engross Jewish state
     Tensions in Hebron escalate after murder of rabbi
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     Editorial - Comrades at arms
     Letters to the Editor - In the Mail - August 28, 1998
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Holocaust restitution deals fail to engross Jewish state

AVI MACHLIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM - When Switzerland's two leading private banks reached a $1.25 billion settlement with representatives of Holocaust survivors earlier this month, the news sent shock waves throughout the Jewish world. But not in Israel.

The situation was similar when Italy's largest insurer, Assicurazioni Generali, agreed last week to pay $100 million as part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed by survivors. The main details of the stories were reported in the Israeli news media. But there have been no editorials or op-ed pieces published, and little, if any, discussion of the developments on talk shows, which are considered a staple of Israeli public discourse.

Indeed, during the past year or so, as Jewish groups wrangled with Switzerland to come to terms with its wartime past, the restitution issue appears to have eluded the attention of Israelis, who usually miss no opportunity to transform every minute political development into endless debate and commentary.

Israeli observers of Jewish groups' ongoing attempts to reach settlements with European banks and insurers were not surprised by the general lack of interest among the public here. While no studies or polls have been conducted to confirm or explain their impressions, those involved in the restitution issue offer a range of theories, some stemming from the very different roles that memories of the Holocaust play in Israel and the Diaspora.

Likud Knesset member Avraham Herschson, who heads the parliamentary subcommittee on restitution, says the explanation lies with the Israeli media. "The public is extremely interested in knowing about these issues," says Herschson. "But even though it is getting tremendous coverage throughout the world, it seems to be passing by the Israeli media as if it has no relevance to us."

But some observers say that it is the average Israeli who is indifferent to the issue and that the Israeli media are merely reflecting that indifference. Moshe Sanbar, chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors in Israel - an umbrella organization for 29 groups and 300,000 survivors - links the lack of interest to the survivors themselves.

"Israeli survivors did not want to have anything to do with these issues," he says. "They wanted to close the book on the Holocaust."

Sanbar traces this attitude to survivors' experiences just after their liberation from the death camps and arrival in the nascent Jewish state. "They called us the sabonim," he says - using Hebrew slang for "cowards." But it also sounds like the Hebrew word "sabon," or soap, which survivors perceived as a reference to the soap the Nazis made from Jewish corpses.

With some justice, survivors arriving in Israel felt stigmatized. Israelis were creating a "new Jew," symbolized by the suntanned kibbutznik working the fields or the fearless underground fighter. They looked down on the passivity of European Jews, who they felt went like sheep to the slaughter. Eager to fit into Israeli society, Sanbar says, many survivors tried to shake off their Holocaust experiences.

And 50 years later, they do not want to reopen the history books to fight for financial restitution. Nevertheless, the Holocaust does play an important role in Israeli education and public life. In addition, the media often discuss Holocaust-related issues. For example, a recent expose by the Israeli daily Ma'ariv of a local restitution issue - in which Israeli survivors committed to psychiatric hospitals had their funds frozen by the state - generated much interest.

Walter Zvi Bachrach, a professor emeritus from Bar-Ilan University and an expert on Holocaust history, says the role the Holocaust plays in Israeli public life may explain why there is less interest in restitution in Israel than in the Diaspora.

"Dealing with and identifying with the Holocaust is an integral part of independent Jewish life. But in the U.S., for example, that national and public identity with the Holocaust simply doesn't exist," he said.

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Holocaust restitution deals fail to engross Jewish state

AVI MACHLIS Jewish Telegraphic Agency

AVI MACHLIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency