World Report

BUENOS AIRES (JTA) -- Argentine Jews called on the nation's president-elect to find those responsible for the March 1992 car bombing of the Israeli Embassy and the July 1994 bombing of a Jewish center, both in Buenos Aires.

"We hope the promises of justice that were made during the electoral campaign become a reality," said a participant at a rally Monday involving relatives of victims of the 1994 bombing.

The rally was held after opposition candidate Fernando de la Rua was declared the winner of Sunday's presidential election.

Seven French citizens named as Righteous

PARIS (JTA) -- Israel recently honored seven French citizens who saved Jews during World War II.

Among the Righteous Gentiles honored at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial were two women who saved orphans by smuggling them to Spain and a piano teacher who was sentenced to Ravensbruck for aiding the Resistance.

Hungarians Jews seeking property

BUDAPEST (JTA) -- Hungarian Jewish leaders met U.S. officials in Budapest to request the return of property looted from Hungarian Jews by American forces at the end of World War II.

"We at least must save the valuable assets of the 600,000 martyrs that were killed," the leader of Hungary's Jewish community, Peter Tordai, said Wednesday of last week. "It is our moral obligation."

The request came after a U.S. presidential commission said last week that in May 1945, American soldiers took the property, originally looted from Hungarian Jews by the Nazis.

Austrian Jews face increased threats

VIENNA (JTA) -- The head of Austria's Jewish community said threats against Jews increased 10 times during the recent election campaign of Jorg Haider and his far-right Freedom Party, which placed second in the vote.

Ariel Musikant said Jews have experienced a significant rise in hate mail, threatening phone calls and harassment on the street. An estimated 12,000 Jews live in Austria.

Indian Jews seeking mates head to Israel

CALCUTTA (JTA) -- Many of the remaining Jews in Cochin, India, are heading for Israel in order to beat a shortage of marriage partners.

During the past 50 years, the community has shrunk from 2,400 to 60, with just 18 Jews left in Cochin's historic Jew Town, site of the city's only functioning synagogue.

Poll shows Russians strongly anti-Semitic

MOSCOW (JTA) -- More than 4 out of 10 Russians hold strong anti-Semitic views, according to a survey released by the Anti-Defamation League.

The latest poll found that 44 percent of the respondents embrace a range of stereotypes about Jews, including a belief that Jews exercise too much power in Russia and in world business, and that Jews "are ready to use unscrupulous means to achieve their aims."

The ADL called the findings "extremely troubling and potentially dangerous."