Shorts: World

Argentine court to investigate possible cover-up

buenos aires (jta) | An Argentine court is studying a possible cover-up in the investigation of the 1994 bombing of an Jewish center that killed 85 people.

The main AMIA court investigation ended almost two years ago, when the entire case was thrown out by a special tribunal that had spent three years hearing the evidence. The trial was reportedly the longest and costliest in Argentina's history.

A Delegation of Argentine Jewish Association spokesperson complained that the new investigation is not addressing the most important question of who bombed the AMIA building.




Sharansky: No state-level Russian anti-Semitism

moscow (jps) | Anti-Semitism at the state level is not a problem in Russia, Likud member Natan Sharansky told the Federation of the Jewish Communities of the CIS while visiting Moscow.

When asked to respond to the "Letter of the 500," a petition calling for Jewish organizations in Russia to be banned and which referred to Judaism as "Satanic," Sharansky said that he had met with a number of scholars and officials, and concluded that the initiative was atypical.

"It is incorrect to say that it reflects the opinion of the authority or of Russia's residents," Sharansky said.




Argentine schools to teach Holocaust ed

buenos aires (jta) | Holocaust education will be a required part of the curriculum in Argentina's public school system.

The country's education minister, Daniel Filmus, said that he and his staff are working on guidelines and how to incorporate the subject into existing curricula.

The decision came after a lobbying effort by Jewish groups, especially the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Argentine Jewish group DAIA, which have been in discussions with the Education Ministry for the last three years. They hope the new syllabus will be introduced at the junior high school level by March 2007, the beginning of the next Argentine school year.




Greek Jewish leader insists on equality

athens (jta) | Moisis Constantinis, president of the Central Jewish Board of Greece, says that the Greek government should pay rabbi's salaries as it does for Christian and Muslim clergy.

He added that the Jewish community should be allowed to build synagogues without the approval of Greek Orthodox church leaders. There are currently 13 synagogues in Greece, but only three operate regularly.