In a statement, Ariel Muzicant, the president of Austria's Vienna-based Jewish Community, said the measures would be necessary because the government had "taken no measures to ensure the existence of the Jewish communities in Austria."Well, boo hoo hoo!
So far the community has been getting government subsidies of $911,000, which is 6.75 percent of its annual budget of $13.22 million.Even after all these decades, is it still Austria's responsibility to give money to anything just because it is Jewish? What nonsense!?!
"We have asked for an additional $3 million, and, what we have been seeking for the last 58 years, the restitution of the community's property" seized by the Nazis when they annexed Austria before World War II.
Then the government offered to set aside an annual $906,000 in loans for three years. But the Jewish Community would have none of that -- all or nothing:
Ariel Muzicant, the president of the Jewish Community, said in a statement that the federal government's action was inadequate.
"It is high time that the Republic of Austria assumes finally its historical responsibility and makes the requisite steps. The government's (loan) offer sidesteps the actual problem," Muzicant said adding that "the government is trying again to shun responsibility."
He said an increase in subsidies was needed "in order to guarantee Jewish life in Vienna, as well as a just restitution or compensation for ... community property" robbed by the Nazis.
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