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Heirs of German-Jewish banker sue for restitution of one of van Gogh’s most famous paintings
(JTA) — Heirs of a German-Jewish banker are suing a Japanese insurance company for the return of one of Vincent van Gogh’s famed “Sunflowers” paintings or at least $750 million in punitive damages.
In December, Julius H. Schoeps, Britt-Marie Enhoerning and Florence Von Kesselstatt, heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, filed a 98-page complaint with an Illinois federal court alleging that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was forced to sell the painting in 1934 as the result of “racially exclusionary Nazi policies and concomitant coercion calculated to evict Jews from the economy and society of Germany.” They argue that the painting should be returned to his heirs as stipulated in his will.
A Sompo Holdings representative Courthouse News Service that the company “categorically rejects any allegation of wrongdoing and intends to vigorously defend its ownership rights in ‘Sunflowers.’” It displays the painting in a museum housed in its Tokyo headquarters building.
“It is a matter of public record that Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Company [Sompo’s predecessor] purchased the Vincent van Gogh ‘Sunflowers’ work at public auction from Christie’s in London in 1987. For over 35 years, the Sompo Museum of Fine Art in Tokyo, Japan has proudly displayed ‘Sunflowers,’” the statement reads.
Sompo International did not return a request for comment in time for publication.
The complaint alleges that Yasuo Goto, president of the Yasuda Fire & Marine Insurance Co. — which was incorporated into Sompo Holdings in 2002 — was aware of the painting’s previous owner when he purchased it at the Christie’s auction in 1987. It was sold for $39.9 million, at the time a record high price for a painting sold at an auction.
In 2001, a Yasuda representative wrote to the Art Institute of Chicago ahead of an exhibition including the painting that the company was “deeply concerned” and that its provenance had not been further investigated. The company displayed the “Sunflowers” work at the Art Institute anyway, and, according to the complaint, concealed the story behind its original sale from U.S. authorities, in violation of the National Stolen Property Act of 1934.
“By knowingly and fraudulently exploiting a Nazi-tainted painting in the U.S. for commercial gain, Sompo Holdings has violated multiple U.S. domestic and foreign policies,” the complaint states.
Representatives for the heirs declined to speak on the record.
Some art experts have argued the painting, the most famous in van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” series, is a forgery.
Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a member of the prolific German-Jewish Mendelssohn family, whose members included composer Felix Mendelssohn and Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn. In the late 1700s, family members founded the Mendelssohn & Co. banking house, which became the largest private bank in Berlin. Facing Nazi persecution, they were forced to close Mendelssohn & Co. in 1938.
According to the complaint, Nazi laws that targeted Jewish banks crippled Mendelssohn-Bartholdy financially, forcing him to sell some works in his art collection — which included pieces by Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Georges Braque. He died in Germany in 1935 of a heart attack.
Other members of the family were forced into exile, committed suicide while under arrest by the Gestapo or went into hiding and abandoned their Jewish names.
The complaint is only the latest in an ongoing saga as Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s heirs seek restitution of his collection. Thus far, they have filed lawsuits against the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the German state of Bavaria for the restitution of five paintings by Pablo Picasso.
Settlements were reached on three of the cases while one — against the National Gallery of Art — resulted in the return of Picasso’s “Head of a Woman” to the family. The case against Bavaria is ongoing, as the Bavarian State Painting Collections refuses to refer the case to the German commission established to address disputed ownership over Nazi-era looted art.
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Far-right UK activist Tommy Robinson visits Israel on invite of Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli
Far-right British agitator Tommy Robinson, known for his anti-Muslim rhetoric and leadership of the now-defunct extremist British Defense League, is in Israel this week on the invitation of Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli.
Together, Robinson and Chikli toured the site of the Nova music festival massacre, explored Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market on Friday morning and met with a prominent anti-immigration activist, Sheffi Paz, in Tel Aviv.
Robinson has been at the forefront of Britain’s anti-immigration movement and has also been imprisoned five times in the last 20 years for fraud, drug offenses and libeling a 15-year-old Syrian refugee. In 2023, he was arrested for attending a march against antisemitism against the wishes of the march’s Jewish organizers.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews, the largest Jewish organization in the United Kingdom, decried Chikli’s invitation in a post on X last week.
“Tommy Robinson is a thug who represents the very worst of Britain. His presence undermines those genuinely working to tackle Islamist extremism and foster community cohesion,” the group said. “Minister Chikli has proven himself to be a Diaspora Minister in name only. In our darkest hour, he has ignored the views of the vast majority of British Jews, who utterly and consistently reject Robinson and everything he stands for.”
Chikli pushed back on the Board of Deputies’ assessment, and accused them of becoming “openly aligned with left-wing, woke, pro-Palestinian parties.” (In August, the group called for a rapid increase in Gaza aid months after previously disciplining its members for signing an open letter condemning the war in Gaza.)
Now, after arriving in Israel Wednesday, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, used the opportunity to take aim at U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“I’ve arrived in the beautiful nation of Israel 
,” wrote Robinson, who is not Jewish, in a post on X. “A country with strong, patriotic leadership in @netanyahu and his party. Unlike the weak and cowardly @Keir_Starmer and his party of wrong’uns in the UK.”
Chikli has long associated himself with far-right activists and politicians in Europe, with whom he shares an interest in opposing Muslim immigration. Earlier this year, he stirred controversy by inviting far-right leaders from Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and France to speak at Israel’s International Conference on Combating Antisemitism.
On Thursday, Robinson posted an interview clip with Chikli where he asked the minister whether he believed Britain will “have to experience its own Oct. 7” in order to “realize that these terror organizations must be stopped.”
“I really hope you shouldn’t, but in order to make sure it will never happen, you need all other set of tools to address this challenge, and you need to be far, far more decisive, far, far more aggressive, and to understand that it most likely, it won’t go smooth and it won’t go quietly,” Chikli answered. “But if you won’t do it, I’m not sure there’s going to be Britain.”
Robinson posted videos showing shoppers approaching him and Chikli in Mahane Yehuda to express their support, and their opposition to U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who recently recognized an independent Palestinian state over the objections of the organized Jewish community in Britain and the Israeli government.
“Despite @BoardofDeputies saying I wasn’t welcome, the residents of Jerusalem welcomed me with open arms,” Robinson wrote.
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Course on Yiddish in Ukraine in the 20th century
ווי בײַ יעדן לערן־זמן פֿון דער ווירטועלער ייִדיש־פּראָגראַם בײַם אַרבעטער רינג, וועט מען במשך פֿונעם האַרבסט־זמן 2025 לערנען אַ צאָל אינטערעסאַנטע ווײַטהאַלטער־קורסן אויף ייִדיש.
דער פֿאָרשער גענאַדי עסטרײַך וועט לערנען אַ קורס וועגן דער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור אין אוקראַיִנע במשך פֿונעם 20סטן יאָרהונדערט, אַרײַנגערעכנט די שרײַבער פֿון דער „קיִעווער גרופּע“— דוד בערגעלסאָן און דער ניסתּר. מע וועט אויך דיסקוטירן די ייִדישע טאָגשולן אין די 1920ער און 1930ער; די השפּעה פֿונעם „קיִעווער אינסטיטוט פֿון דער ייִדישער קולטור“ און די ווערק פֿון די שרײַבער אַבֿרהם אַבטשוק, איציק קיפּניס, ריווע באַליאַסנע, חיים גילדין און הירש בלאָשטיין.
דער לינגוויסט לייזער בורקאָ וועט לערנען וועגן די ייִדישע דיאַלעקטן בײַ די הײַנטיקע חרדים, אַרײַנגערעכנט דעם אונגעריש־סאַטמערער דיאַלעקט פֿון וויליאַמסבורג, דעם ליובאַוויטשער דיאַלעקט פֿון קראַון־הײַטס און דעם ליטווישן פֿון לייקוווּד.
אָט זענען די אַנדערע קורסן וואָס מע קען אויסקלײַבן:
- אַן אינטענסיווער שפּראַכקורס צו פֿאַרבעסערן דאָס פֿאַרשטיין, לייענען, רעדן און שרײַבן ייִדיש (איוו יאַכנאָוויץ)
- מעשׂיות פֿון יצחק באַשעוויס זינגערס זכרונות, „אין מײַן טאַטנס בית־דין שטוב“ (שבֿע צוקער)
- די לידער פֿונעם אַוואַנגאַרדיסטישן פּאָעט יעקבֿ גלאַטשטיין (אַבֿרהם ליכטענבוים)
- מגילת־אסתּר אין דער מאָדערנער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור (נאַטאַליע קריניצע)
- שלום אַשעס ראָמאַן „קידוש השם“ (קאָליע באָראָדולין)
- ווי אַזוי אַרויסצורעדן און ניצן לשון־קודשדיקע טערמינען פֿון דער ייִדישער ליטעראַטור (יצחק ניבאָרסקי)
- וואָס וועט זײַן מיט דער צוקונפֿט פֿון ייִדישן הומאָר? (דניאל גלאַי)
- שלום עליכמס ראָמאַן „אין שטורעם“ (אַבֿרהם ליכטענבוים)
- אַ שמועסקרײַז מיטן ייִדישן נאָוועליסט און פּאָעט באָריס סאַנדלער
- דאָס קול פֿונעם ייִדישן שרײַבער (שבֿע צוקער)
נאָך מער פּרטים אָדער זיך צו פֿאַרשרײַבן אויף אַ קורס, גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.
The post Course on Yiddish in Ukraine in the 20th century appeared first on The Forward.
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UK Court to Hear Challenge to Pro-Hamas Group Ban After Government Loses Appeal
Police officers block a street as pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in protest against Britain’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s plans to proscribe the “Palestine Action” group in the coming weeks, in London, Britain, June 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jaimi Joy
The British government on Friday lost its bid to block the co-founder of the anti-Israel group Palestine Action bringing a legal challenge over the banning of the group under anti-terrorism laws.
Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, was given permission to challenge the group‘s proscription on the grounds that the ban is a disproportionate interference with free speech rights, with her case due to be heard next month.
Britain’s Home Office (interior ministry) then asked the Court of Appeal to overturn that decision and rule that any challenge to the ban should be heard by a specialist tribunal.
Judge Sue Carr rejected the Home Office’s appeal, saying challenging the proscription in the High Court was quicker, particularly where people have been charged and are facing trial for expressing support for Palestine Action.
The court also ruled that Ammori could challenge the ban in the High Court on additional grounds, which Ammori said was a significant victory.
“It’s time for the government to listen to the overwhelming and mounting backlash … and lift this widely condemned, utterly Orwellian ban,” she said in a statement.
The Home Office did not immediately comment.
DIRECT ACTION GROUP BANNED IN JULY
Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist organization by the government in July, making it a crime to be a member, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
More than 2,000 people have since been arrested for holding signs in support of the group, with over 100 charged.
Before the ban, Palestine Action had increasingly targeted Israel-linked companies in Britain, often spraying red paint, blocking entrances, or damaging equipment.
It accused Britain’s government of complicity in what it said were Israeli war crimes in Gaza. Israel has repeatedly denied committing war crimes in its two-year military campaign, which began after Palestinian Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel and Hamas agreed a ceasefire last week.
Palestine Action particularly focused on Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, and Britain’s government cited a raid by activists at an Elbit site last year when it decided to outlaw the group.
The group was banned a month after some of its members broke into the RAF Brize Norton air base and damaged two planes, for which four members have been charged.
Critics of the ban – including United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk and civil liberties groups – argue that damaging property does not amount to terrorism.
However, Britain’s former interior minister Yvette Cooper, who is now foreign minister, previously said violence and criminal damage have no place in legitimate protest.