January 12, 2006
Warsaw’s Jewish community has received its biggest compensation deal since the government agreed to communal property restitution in 1997. After an eight-year battle with the authorities of the Polish capital, the city has paid the community US$ 3.2 million in compensation for the site of the Round Synagogue in Praga, an area next to the Vistula River. The synagogue, one of only a handful of round synagogues in Europe, was destroyed by the Communist regime in 1961, and the building now houses a theater and kindergarten as well as several other tenants. The local Jewish community plans to make longer-term investments, Andrzej Zozula, community vice-president and executive director of the Union of Religious Communities in Poland, told JTA. A decision about the best way to invest the compensation would not be made until after community elections in February, Zozula said.
