"I am especially pleased by the decision to designate a foundation established by local and international Jewish organizations to oversee disbursement of the compensation funds," Clinton said in the letter to Kubilius.
In her words, “the passage and implementation of this legislation is an important step towards historical justice for the Lithuanian Jewish community.”
"I would like to reiterate how much I appreciate the key role you played in guiding your country on the path to addressing a difficult period in its history," reads the letter from the US secretary of state.
Last year, the parliament adopted a Law of Good Will Compensation for Real Estate of Jewish Religious Communities. The government in April appointed a foundation which will distribute compensation for property owned by Lithuanian Jewish communities and later nationalized by totalitarian regimes.
Pursuant to the law, 128 million litas (EUR 36.5m) will have to be transferred to the special foundation within a decade. The money will be spent on Jewish education, religious, scientific, cultural, healthcare and other projects that must be beneficial to the general public.
From the sum, 3 million litas will have to be spent to support Jewish nationals who lived in Lithuania during World War II and suffered from the totalitarian regimes.
