Böcker av Arthur Finkle

The authorized agencies to recoup Nazi confiscation and 'Fire sale" transactions received fewer than 20 percent of the value of Jewish assets stolen by Nazis. Of the $220 billion confiscated by the Nazi's, $115-175 billion (at 2005 prices) remains unreturned. Even the highly publicized resurgence of restitution in the 1990s (when grandchildren sought restitution) resulted in the return of only three percent of assets. This book explores the remedies of retrieval of stolen property. Case law is a Byzantine labyrinth. The courts (both local and foreign) have different laws, different standards of provenance and different statutes of limitation. In addition, after 75 years ago is difficult to trace provenance if sold many times over. Can this massive tragedy, unequaled in human history, seek adequate restitution?

This penning brings to life an overlooked subject in contemporary Judaism ¿ how did the ancient Jewish tradition, rooted in the Temple rituals transform itself after the Destruction of the Second Temple. As you will find, this transformation did not occur immediately nor did the Rabbi¿s automatically accede to leadership. Indeed, competing sects of the Israelite religion vied for a leadership role. To understand, I have described the internecine fighting; the compromises of transforming the Jewish rites by including symbols of the Holy Temple; and its syncretization through the years. For one thousand years, the Israelites (Jews) worshipped in a Holy Space at the Temple in Jerusalem. Before the construction of the Temple ()there were two), the Holy of Holies, which contained the Law revealed to Moses and a small amount of manna), became the dwelling place for the Shechina (God¿s presence). Indeed, there was a cloud hovering over the holy of holies for the 40-year journey through the dessert and the years leading up to the construction of the First Temple.

Philanthropic European Jewish Bankers, Clara and Baron Maurice De Hirsch benefactored hundreds of billions of today¿s dollars, principally for the emigration of Russian Jews to seek economic opportunity. Besides donating to Jewish European charities, they also undertook, in the Americas, the Jewish Farming movement as well as helping those who dwelt in cities. Baron de Hirsch's unprecedented experiments in South America and in the United States by the JAS, provided knowledge, energy and optimism that four Jewish national organization sculd produce the successful Agro-Joint project. Sometimes Russian Jewry "exported" ideas and practices. Other times it absorbed them from abroad. Through the interchange, Jewish communities on four continents became solidly intertwined.