Jews now living abroad who were deported to locations within the Soviet Union are to receive financial support from the Goodwill Fund for the first time, chair of the fund’s executive board and chair of the
Lithuanian Jewish Community Faina Kukliansky announced. She and fellow executive board chair Rabbi Andrew Baker from the United States presented planned allocations from the fund to Lithuanian parliamentary speaker Loreta Graužinienė Wednesday.

“That the fund has paid out monies to people who suffered from the occupational regimes is also an important matter. Jewish deportees who live abroad have never received any payments. They have not been compensated for the time they spent in internal exile, not by the Lithuanian state, nor by Russia or the countries where they now reside. Those who suffered under Naziism receive compensation from Germany, but deportees have not received anything at all,” Faina Kukliansky pointed out to reporters at the Lithuanian parliament Wednesday after the meeting with speaker Graužinienė.

She said 869,000 euros had been scheduled for payment to approximately 1,500 people.

Further information is available in Lithuanian HERE