World Report

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) -- Argentine Jews dedicated a new community center last week to replace the AMIA building where 86 people were killed five years ago in a bombing that remains unsolved.

The new building is a monument that "reminds us of our mission's deepest sense: to honor life and constantly exercise memory," AMIA President Oscar Hansman told hundreds of onlookers.

Germany ends investigation in bombing of Jewish gravesite

BERLIN (JTA) -- German officials called off an investigation into last December's bombing of the gravesite of the former leader of the nation's Jewish community.

The state's offer of $11,000 for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the attack on Heinz Galinski's grave did not help to solve the case, the officials said Tuesday.

Russian immigration to Israel up 116 percent in early 1999

MOSCOW (JTA) -- Russian immigration to Israel is up by 116 percent during the first quarter of 1999, according to the Jewish Agency for Israel.

Some 7,933 Russian Jews immigrated to Israel in the first three months of the year, compared with 3,673 during the same period in 1998.

Some 31 percent of 1,054 immigrants surveyed by the Jewish Agency cited anti-Semitism as one of the main reasons for their move, an increase from 9 percent in a similar survey conducted before Russia's economic crisis began last August.

Overall, 16,389 immigrants from the former Soviet Union arrived in the Jewish state in the first quarter. Some 13,336 did so during the same period in 1998.

Ultranationalist Zhirinovsky loses election in Russian region

MOSCOW (JTA) -- A Russian ultranationalist known for his anti-Semitic rhetoric lost an election for governor in a rural region in southwestern Russia.

Returns from Sunday's vote in the Belgorod region gave Vladimir Zhirinovsky less than 18 percent of the vote, which placed him third in the race won by the region's incumbent governor.

Recent opinion polls show that Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democratic Party may not reach the 5 percent threshold necessary to gain representation in the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, in elections scheduled for December. The party currently has 51 deputies in the 450-seat house.

Fearing Kurdish protests, Berlin beefs up security at Jewish sites

BERLIN (JTA) -- Berlin police stepped up security Monday around Jewish and Israeli sites in the city to coincide with the start of the trial against Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Turkey.

The police are providing special protection for all countries suspected of involvement in Ocalan's extradition from Kenya last winter. Israel has repeatedly denied that it was involved in Ocalan's capture.