Survivors challenge Swiss settlement

new york (jta) | A group of Holocaust survivors petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to change the terms of the Swiss banks settlement.

The petition filed earlier this month by the Holocaust Survivors Foundation USA calls for more money from the $1.25 billion settlement for Holocaust-era bank accounts to be given to survivors in the United States rather than those in the former Soviet Union, the Forward reported.

The judge overseeing distribution of the money from the 1998 settlement previously ruled that more should go to survivors in the former Soviet Union because they’re more destitute.

miami (ap) | Museums in the United States and Israel will get $500,000 to establish an archive to document the experiences of Hungarian Jews during World War II as part of the settlement of a lawsuit stemming from U.S. seizure of a Nazi “Gold Train” loaded with Hungarian valuables.

The money will be split evenly between the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel.

A plan for use of the money was approved April 6 by U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Seitz.

wilkes-barre, pa. (ap) | A longtime editor of the Times Leader in Wilkes-Barre has sued the newspaper, claiming she was fired from her six-figure job because of her gender and Jewish faith.

Allison W. Walzer’s federal discrimination suit claims she was fired last year despite performance-based pay hikes in 2003 and 2004.

The paper said her dismissal came after she had a staff photographer take personal pictures of her children, according to the suit.

Publisher Patrick McHugh replaced Walzer with Philadelphia Inquirer veteran Matt Golas, whom the suit describes as “a Catholic male, like McHugh.”

washington (jta) | Elie Wiesel and Judy Yudof, former president of the Conservative Judaism movement, are among nine people President Bush named to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council last week.

The council oversees the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. The appointees will serve until January 2011.