THE JEWISH NEWS

13 FRO T

This Week's Top Stories

A Final
Settlement

The U.S. Justice
Department is reviewing
and seeking claims by
Holocaust survivors
against the German
government.

JULIE EDGAR SENIOR WRITER

ugo Princz spent three
years of his life in Dachau
and 40 years trying to win
compensation from the
German government for his in-
ternment.
When he finally grabbed the
attention of a U.S. judge and
then President Clinton himself,
he emerged from relative obscu-
rity in Highland, N.J., to become
a cause celebre.
Mr. Princz's tenacity also led
to the formation in 1995 of a joint
U.S.-German program in which
the German government agreed
to pay reparations to Holocaust
survivors who, like Mr. Princz,
were U.S. citizens at the time of
their persecution by the Nazis.
The first installment was $2.1
million that was distributed to
Mr. Princz, 74, and 10 others
with similar claims.
The U.S. Justice Department's
Foreign Claims Settlement Com-
mission (FCSC) is prepared to
cover more survivors' claims, pro-
vided they are submitted by next
September. The amount of a fi-
nal settlement with Germany is
contingent on the number of le-
gitimate claims the FCSC re-
ceives and on factors like the

H

A Place
Of Their Own

Congregation Or Chadash, espousing a
liberal version of Orthodoxy, finds a niche
in a growing community.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

Above: Ed Codish
joins in prayer with
other congregants in his
living room.

Right: Congregants of
Congregation Or
Chadash daven last
Sunday in the living
room of Ed and Susann
Codish.

heirs is a story of a sad
farewell, a seemingly end-
less search to find a place
where they fit and the ul-
timate triumph in creating a
place of their own.
Congregation Or Chadash, in-
corporated in the spring, is the
fruition of that search and the ob-
ject of that creation for a group
of Oak Park residents who
couldn't find the right fit with
any of the established syna-
gogues.
In a way, it is perhaps also a
sign that the Orthodox com-
munity is growing enough to
support a new and diverse con-
gregation as well as a number
of more traditional Orthodox
shuls.
The congregation began in the
living room of Oak Park resi-
dents Ed and Susann Codish. It
counts as its base at least six
member families and others who
attend services. It is difficult to
exactly count members since
dues are not required.
"We wanted an Orthodox con-
gregation that was — and I am
trying to say this part not in neg-
. ative terms — intellectually

T

open, some place that didn't
claim that it had all the answers,
that was inclusive to women,
that didn't have an us-versus-
them attitude (toward other
branches of Judaism), that rec-

ognized everyone's common hu-
manism and adhered to Jewish
law," said Mrs. Codish.
"We felt that, although we
honored the rules of the religion,
we were not part of the commu-
nity of observers," Mr. Codish
wrote on the congregation's Web
site. 'This was so largely because
of an insufferable and growing
sense of intolerance in that com-
munity toward those, such as
ourselves, who differed from
them in matters of social concern
and political importance."
With a handful of other fami-
lies and the former rabbi from
Young Israel Oak-Woods, Eliez-
er Cohen, the Codishes formed
the new congregation. It distin-
guishes itself from existing Or-
thodox shuls by having a more
egalitarian bent.
For example, the shul has the
first female president of an
Orthodox congregation in this
area. Five years ago, the elections
at Young Israel of West Bloom-
field were canceled when a
woman ran for that office. Lo-
cally, women generally hold po-
sitions of leadership on Orthodox
shuls' boards of directors and as

treasurers or secretaries.
In addition, Or Chadash's first
major event was a bat mitzvah
held during a Shabbat service in
the spring. Most Orthodox bat
A PLACE page 20

length of a survivor's internment
and any injury that resulted.
Claimants cannot have already
received compensation from the
German government.
"Some people thought [the
number of claimants] would be
in the low double digits. It's clear
it will be higher than that," said
Delissa Ridgway, chairperson of
the program for the FCSC. "We
have no real way of knowing
how many U.S. nationals there c.c,
were. Most of the individuals el- crd,
igible were people shown in Nazi —
records; at the time they were „ c;
dual nationals. They were like r,
ca
Hugo Princz, who was Slova- u-i
kian-American. Others were

Czech-American or Polish-
American."
So far, the commission has re- cz)
ceived 245 claims, although not

SETTLEMENT page 21

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