Thus, as he says, the legal fight for the former temple has been extended, although everyone was convinced, in November last year, that it was over.
The confusion around the synagogue lasted for a full four years, until the Administrative Court, acting on the order of the Supreme Court of Cassation, did not confirm the decision of the Agency for Restitution and returned the synagogue to JO Zemun. The Jewish community then said that the restaurant, which has been renting space there for years, will remain in the law for another three years, after which the building will change its purpose.
The Agency for Restitution returned the building of the temple where the famous Rabbi Alkalaj used to serve, on May 19, 2016, in the name of compensation for the property confiscated in the former Primorska 3 and 5, today Rabbi Alkalaj Street. According to Fogel, in the restitution procedure, JO Zemun asked for the return of the building of the former Jewish school, right next to the synagogue, and the expertise determined that it was 20,000-30,000 euros more expensive, so the Agency decided to return the temple to them in replacement restitution. This decision was confirmed by the Ministry of Finance as a second instance body, but the dispute was initiated before the Administrative Court by the State, City and Municipal Attorney’s Offices. The Administrative Court ruled in their favor, and the Agency filed a request for review of the decision with the Supreme Court of Cassation.
In March last year, the Supreme Court of Cassation stated that the Administrative Court misapplied the regulations, judging by the Law on Return of Confiscated Property and Compensation, even though the synagogue was returned according to the Law on Restitution of Property to Churches and Religious Communities. With the new decision of the Administrative Court, as Strahinja Sekulic, the director of the Agency for Restitution, explained at the time, the process is over.
The Attorney General’s Office, however, requested a review of the decision.
– We do not understand the position of the City Attorney’s Office because the Supreme Court of Cassation has already ruled in our favor once. It is also not clear to us why the request was submitted by the City Attorney’s Office, when the property in the cadastre is registered in the Republic of Serbia. We will wait for a new decision of the Supreme Court of Cassation, and in the meantime we will take all the legal possibilities available to us – says Fogel.
FROM OFFICE TO DISCO CLUB
The ZEMUN Ashkenazi synagogue was built in 1850 and sold by the Jewish community in 1961 to help the surviving Jewish inmates. The buyer was the Municipality of Zemun, which according to the contract was only a user of social property, while the official owner is the Republic. The synagogue was first the seat of socio-political organizations, the writer and publisher Rasha Livada also had that office, and DJ Zoran Modli ran a disco club.
Follow us through iOS and android apps
Source: Novosti.rs RSS – Današnje vesti by www.novosti.rs.
*The article has been translated based on the content of Novosti.rs RSS – Današnje vesti by www.novosti.rs. If there is any problem regarding the content, copyright, please leave a report below the article. We will try to process as quickly as possible to protect the rights of the author. Thank you very much!
*We just want readers to access information more quickly and easily with other multilingual content, instead of information only available in a certain language.
*We always respect the copyright of the content of the author and always include the original link of the source article.If the author disagrees, just leave the report below the article, the article will be edited or deleted at the request of the author. Thanks very much! Best regards!
