Breakthrough in Art Case
Heirs of a Dutch Jewish art dealer whose paintings were looted by the Nazis will get most of them back. The Dutch Culture Ministry announced this week that 202 of 267 paintings claimed by the survivors of Jacques Goudstikker would be handed over, while the rest would remain with their current owners because it could not be proved that they belonged to the art dealer when he fled the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940. Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law, Marei von Saher, hailed the decision as a breakthrough in a decades-old reclamation battle. Many of the paintings mentioned in the suit now hang in 17 museums throughout the Netherlands.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
