NEW YORK (JTA) — New York's top financial officers are calling on Poland to make restitution for property looted by the Nazis from Polish Jews.

State Comptroller H. Carl McCall and City Comptroller Alan Hevesi urged Poland to stop trying to block a lawsuit brought by Holocaust survivors who want Warsaw to return billions of dollars in stolen property.

On Dec. 14, more than 100 Holocaust survivors demonstrated in Brooklyn to protest Poland's attempts to have their legal claims thrown out of U.S. courts. The survivors have joined in a class-action lawsuit seeking to recover thousands of properties seized by the Nazis and subsequently confiscated by the Polish government after World War II.

Shoah survivor dies in L.A. car accident

LOS ANGELES (JTA) — A 77-year old Holocaust survivor who had filed a lawsuit for slave labor compensation was killed Saturday by a hit-and-run driver trying to elude the police.

Charlotte Lenga of Encino, a native of Czechoslovakia, had survived Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen and months of slave labor in German factories. Last year, Lenga joined six other survivors in a lawsuit against Ford, General Motors and several German companies for forcing her and others to work under inhumane conditions during World War II.

Lenga was killed when the compact car she was driving was struck by a sports utility vehicle, allegedly stolen and driven by James McMann, 22, who, according to a police report, was trying to outrun officers in pursuit.

Bill closes loophole in senior health care

WASHINGTON (JTA) — As a result of new U.S. legislation, elderly Jews enrolled in managed health care programs will now be able to return to their nursing homes after hospitalization.

The new legislation, which corrects a gap in public policy, will allow Jewish patients to heal in facilities that comply with dietary laws and holiday observances, said Diana Aviv, vice president for public policy for United Jewish Communities, which lobbied on the issue.

The legislation was included in a spending bill passed last Friday.

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