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B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin have issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International commends the House of Representatives for passing the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today (JUST) Act (HR 1226/S.447), which calls on the U.S. State Department  to annually assess and report on the restitution of Holocaust-era assets in countries with outstanding obligations.
 
B’nai B’rith expressed its support of the bill in a letter sent to Congress.
 
The bill “…directs the Department of State, with respect to covered countries, to annually include within either the relevant Annual Country Report on Human Rights, the International Religious Freedom Report, or other appropriate report an assessment of the nature and extent of national laws or enforceable policies regarding the identification, return, or restitution of wrongfully seized or transferred Holocaust era assets and compliance with the goals of the Terezin Declaration on Holocaust Era Assets and Related Issues…”
 
We hope this legislation will result in long overdue accountability by those countries that need to settle restitution obligations, and in the process, provides justice to survivors, their families and the Jewish communities as a whole. 
 
The act will now be sent to the White House, and B’nai B’rith encourages President Donald J. Trump to sign the bill into law.
 
B’nai B’rith is a founding member organization of the World Jewish Restitution Organization (WJRO).