Here in Israel, the 4,500 ex-Austrians who fled before the Anschluss in 1938 are also watching the restitution argument with great interest. Gideon Eckhaus, chairman of the Central Committee of Jews from Austria in Israel, talks of his admiration for Muzicant's courage, but he too has his criticisms. Eckhaus disagrees that restitution of Jewish communal property should automatically go to the present-day Austrian Jewish community, arguing that aside from some 450 Austrian Jews who survived the war and stayed in the country, the rest of the modern Austrian Jewish community is comprised of Jews who settled there after the war. It's not their work, it's the work of my fathers. They should get something, it's a moral duty, but not everything.
Nothing is more valuable.
Muzicant, though, as someone living in present-day Vienna, has other thoughts. There is a lot of soul-searching to be done. Unfortunately, the haggling over money is, as in so many cases, resonating louder in Vienna than an examination of the shameful events of six decades ago. Specials Support Israel's soldiers in their time of need. The Fund for Strengthening Israel's Defense.