11 April, 2006
The Jewish community in the Czech Republic is suing the government for two pieces of property it has been trying to get back from the state since 1990. One property in the city of Brno is the former Jewish Town Hall, the other was a tennis court of the local Jewish sports club and is now used by the Interior Ministry as a tennis club for police. The empty town hall is slated for use by the Ministry of Social Affairs. The case is rather unusual in the Czech Republic, a country that returned most property to the 10 Jewish communities in the country. Tomas Kraus, head of the Czech Federation of Jewish Communities, said the fact that the state has been so reluctant to return the properties, nationalized after World War II by the Communists, could hurt the country’s positive image in Jewish circles. “This is the only stain on the white shirt,” Kraus was quoted by JTA as saying.
