Israel’s representative on the Claims Conference board is Rebbetzin Dr. Esther Farbstein, a historian and author who is regarded as the foremost Charedi Holocaust expert.
The 77-year-old Farbstein is the great-granddaughter of the Imrei Emes of Gur and the wife of Chevron Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Moshe Mordechai Farbstein. In her works, Hidden in Thunder: Perspectives on Faith, Halachah, and Leadership During the Holocaust (2007) and Hidden in the Heights: Orthodox Jewry in Hungary During the Holocaust (2014), she focuses on the spiritual reactions of Jews to Nazi persecution.
At the Holocaust Studies Center she founded at the Michlalah-Jerusalem college in Bayit V’Gan, she has done a lot of teaching.
In negotiations for monetary restoration and compensation for Holocaust survivors and their successors, the Claims Conference speaks for all Jews worldwide.
The conference manages compensation monies, locates lost Jewish property, and distributes money to organizations that support Holocaust survivors’ social welfare needs and uphold the memory and lessons of the Holocaust.
Uri Maklev, the deputy minister of transport who oversaw the appointment, spoke via Zoom to the conference in New York and said, “Rebbetzin Farbstein is a unique researcher of the Holocaust and an educational role model who will influence the Torah and spiritual aspect of services for Holocaust survivors as well as helping them in other ways.
The Holocaust Survivor Rights Authority in Israel is headed by Maklev, who also said, “We don’t wait for them to ask; we try to offer what they deserve and need, with a broad panoply of economic and health services including emotional support, treatment, care, social welfare, communal services, and day centers.” Maklev said, “I try to lower bureaucratic barriers for survivors. Our objective is to increase financing and support for long-term care, treatment of various diseases, psychiatric care, and activities that are important to our country as a whole.
There are currently roughly 100,000 survivors in Israel, including people who fled the Nazis’ grasp, forced laborers, and survivors of extermination camps. Sadly, this community is shrinking.
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