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Wednesday, January 26, 2000
Jewish community activists lobby for return of cultural assets By Ivan Remias While tourists come and go through this picturesque medieval town, a cold war is being waged over the future of the one time synagogue. Seized first by the Nazis and later by the communists, the building is now the property of the Interior Ministry. The Jewish community wants it back. "It's a disgrace," says Tomas Kraus, executive director of the Prague-based Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic. "The state should have returned the synagogue [to the Jewish community] ages ago. We thought that after 1989 these issues would have been handled quickly and properly, that politicians would have been willing to deal with them." The government has not lived up to Kraus' expectations. Ten years after the fall of communism, the Czech Republic has yet to restore many religious and cultural properties such as the Telc synagogue to their historical owners. Despite legislation mandating the return of property nationalized by the communist regime, Jews, Catholics and other religious communities have largely been ignored in the restitution. War of nerves The Telc synagogue is one of some 200 properties -- mostly synagogues, monuments and cemeteries -- the Federation of Jewish Communities is attempting to reclaim from the state. Five years ago, the Federation proposed the legal restitution of all Jewish property seized during and after World War II. The proposal was voted down by Parliament. Nazi troops seized the Telc synagogue in the early 1940s, turning it into a depot for the confiscated property of more than 150 southern Moravian Jews. The building was returned to the Jewish community after the war, only to be nationalized by the communist government in 1948. Later, the structure was a kindergarten until it became a police station in 1980. So far, negotiations between the Jewish community and the government have gone nowhere. "It's not that the ministry would refuse to return it," says Interior Ministry spokesman Milan Kriz. "It's just very complicated, and the best solution takes time to find." The Telc City Council has weighed in, offering to donate land for the construction of an emergency center that would serve the police, fire department and rescue squads. But the Interior Ministry says it won't fund such a project anytime soon. Says frustrated Telc Mayor Milos Vystrcil: "We [City Hall] realize that we need the police in the town. But we can't play the role of the state and build hospitals and police stations." For Kraus, the Telc situation is emblematic of an endemic problem. He says 60 synagogues have been returned, but 30 remain in state hands. Others, he contends, have been sold by local governments to businesses and nongovernmental organizations, a move that some see as an attempt by the state to absolve itself of responsibility to the Jewish community. Kraus hopes long-awaited legislation on the return of cultural property will become law this year. Yet he can't be certain. Cat-and-mouse game Czech soil was home to some 400 synagogues at the start of the 20th century. Fewer than half survived the century. While dozens withstood Nazi attacks, many were torn down later. Others were converted into Christian churches. Still others, like the one in Telc, were rebuilt and "adapted." Arno Parak, a historian at the Jewish Museum in Prague, says the adaptations were often instrumental in keeping synagogues from destruction. Today, only four synagogues in the Czech Republic -- two in Prague and two in Brno -- are used for Jewish religious services. "Paradoxically, those synagogues that were rebuilt into something else were saved Š and most of them are in very good shape today," says Parak. "Those that weren't touched, that served as storage houses or such things, preserved the values of Jewish architecture." For now, the Czech Jewish community can do no more than press ahead in its cat-and-mouse game with the authorities, hoping that one day the building will return to religious hands. Ivan Remias's email address is iremias@praguepost.cz
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