BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — About 400 people gathered this week to mark the second anniversary of the terror bombing of the Jewish headquarters here that left 86 dead and 300 wounded.

On Monday, as they have done on every Monday since the July 18, 1994, bombing, a group known as Active Memory gathered at a park across the street from the Argentine Supreme Court and called on the government to find those responsible for the attack.

During ceremonies that launched a weeklong series of commemorations for those killed in the attack on the Argentine Jewish Mutual Aid Association, or AMIA, a candle was lit in remembrance of the dead while a shofar was sounded.

The founder of Active Memory, Rabbi Sergio Bergman, addressed the gathering, saying that attention to the group's motto, "Justice, justice you will seek," a biblical quote, was needed in Argentina "because of the indifference of our country."

The investigation of the AMIA bombing has been marked by a frustrating succession of false leads. The Argentine government has drawn the ire of Jewish groups here and abroad for failure to find those responsible for the attack.

The government has likewise been unable to find those responsible for the March 17, 1992, bombing of the Israeli Embassy, which left 29 dead and some 100 wounded.

Rothschild heir commits suicide

PARIS (JTA) — Amschel Rothschild, heir apparent to the British merchant bank N.M. Rothschild & Sons, has hanged himself in a Paris hotel room.

Rothschild, 41, chairman of Rothschild Asset Management, was found by a maid last week in the luxurious Bristol Hotel, where he was staying during a business trip.

Police later confirmed that Rothschild took his own life.

His death leaves open the question of who will succeed his cousin Sir Evelyn de Rothschild as head of the Rothschild banking dynasty.

The dead man is survived by his wife, Anita, and three children.

The Rothschild family shrouded his death in secrecy, withholding news of the suicide for several days.

Holocaust memoir wins Australian prize

SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — The 1996 Banjo Award, Australia's most prestigious prize for nonfiction writing, has been given to an Auschwitz survivor for his self-published memoir.

Abraham Biderman, who now lives in Melbourne, wrote his memoir, "The World of My Past," to fulfill his parents' dying wish that he "remember what they did to us. Tell what they did."

He remembers his mother calling this message out to him as his parents were dragged away from him by a guard at Auschwitz.

Biderman could not find an Australian publisher for his work, so decided to publish the book himself.

Biderman's view is that a Christian world which had as its base "a theology of hatred towards Jews" was at the core of the Holocaust.

On receiving the award, he said those who hate Jews, as well as minorities such as Aborigines, gypsies and blacks, also hate "God, because we are also his creations."

French foil attack on Jewish school

PARIS (JPS) — French security forces this week prevented a terrorist attack on a Jewish school here, and arrested several people suspected of involvement.

On Wednesday morning of last week, a car bomb was discovered by French security agents next to Chabad's Or Yosef school, while 300-400 children were studying in the building. The bomb was neutralized.

"The car was parked next to the school for several days, but the school's guards didn't notice it," one Or Yosef employee said. Security sources in Paris said the French police had arrested several suspects of North African origin.

It is not clear whether the planned attack was directly connected to the Arab-Israeli conflict or with Algerian fundamentalist groups that last summer committed several bombings all over France.

One of the targets last summer was the Jewish school in Lyon. Thirteen pupils were slightly wounded when a car bomb exploded in a street next to the school.

Anti-Semitic fliers protest Rabin show

PRAGUE (JTA) — Anti-Semitic leaflets headlined "Against Zionism and Islamism" have been plastered on the streets of Brno, the Czech Republic's second largest city.

The leaflets protested a photographic exhibit that opened in Brno last week about the life of assassinated Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin.

The exhibit, called "Yitzhak Rabin 1922-1995," was criticized in the leaflets, which said it "confirms that the Jews play too big a role in Czech politics and culture," the Czech news agency CTK reported.

The leaflets were signed by a nationalist group calling itself the Patriotic Front.

Tomas Kraus, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Communities, played down the incident, saying the leaflets were written by a marginal group deserving little attention.