Jacob Ari Labendz is the Clayman Assistant Professor of Judaic and Holocaust Studies and the Director of the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH, USA. He writes about the history of Jews in and from Central Europe with a focus on post-war Czechoslovakia, communism, and antisemitism. He also participates in broader discussions on contemporary Jewish politics, Holocaust memory, and nationalism. He holds a PhD in History from Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.

• Introduction – Jewish property after 1945: cultures and economies of ownership, loss, recovery, and transfer 1. The amnesia of the Wirtschaftswunder: Essen’s ‘House of Industrial Design’ 2. Toward a material culture of Jewish loss 3. Unsettled possession: the question of ownership of Jewish sites in Poland after the Holocaust from a local perspective 4. Synagogues for sale: Jewish-State mutuality in the communist Czech lands, 1945–1970 5. Property Claims of Jews from Arab Countries: political, monetary, or cultural? 6. Grave connections: Algeria’s Jewish cemeteries as sites of diaspora-homeland contact 7. Reconnecting with a fugitive collection: a case study of the records of JDC’s Warsaw Office, 1945–1949

Jacob Ari Labendz is the Clayman Assistant Professor of Judaic and Holocaust Studies and the Director of the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH, USA. He writes about the history of Jews in and from Central Europe with a focus on post-war Czechoslovakia, communism, and antisemitism. He also participates in broader discussions on contemporary Jewish politics, Holocaust memory, and nationalism. He holds a PhD in History from Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.

• Introduction – Jewish property after 1945: cultures and economies of ownership, loss, recovery, and transfer 1. The amnesia of the Wirtschaftswunder: Essen’s ‘House of Industrial Design’ 2. Toward a material culture of Jewish loss 3. Unsettled possession: the question of ownership of Jewish sites in Poland after the Holocaust from a local perspective 4. Synagogues for sale: Jewish-State mutuality in the communist Czech lands, 1945–1970 5. Property Claims of Jews from Arab Countries: political, monetary, or cultural? 6. Grave connections: Algeria’s Jewish cemeteries as sites of diaspora-homeland contact 7. Reconnecting with a fugitive collection: a case study of the records of JDC’s Warsaw Office, 1945–1949

Jacob Ari Labendz is the Clayman Assistant Professor of Judaic and Holocaust Studies and the Director of the Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH, USA. He writes about the history of Jews in and from Central Europe with a focus on post-war Czechoslovakia, communism, and antisemitism. He also participates in broader discussions on contemporary Jewish politics, Holocaust memory, and nationalism. He holds a PhD in History from Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA.

• Introduction – Jewish property after 1945: cultures and economies of ownership, loss, recovery, and transfer 1. The amnesia of the Wirtschaftswunder: Essen’s ‘House of Industrial Design’ 2. Toward a material culture of Jewish loss 3. Unsettled possession: the question of ownership of Jewish sites in Poland after the Holocaust from a local perspective 4. Synagogues for sale: Jewish-State mutuality in the communist Czech lands, 1945–1970 5. Property Claims of Jews from Arab Countries: political, monetary, or cultural? 6. Grave connections: Algeria’s Jewish cemeteries as sites of diaspora-homeland contact 7. Reconnecting with a fugitive collection: a case study of the records of JDC’s Warsaw Office, 1945–1949