PARIS

(JTA) — A gasoline bomb was thrown at a synagogue near Paris.

The outer wall of the synagogue in Massy, some 20 miles south of the capital, was partially burned in the attack. The synagogue itself was empty at the time of the incident.

Meanwhile, a 63-year-old woman was treated for facial injuries March 27 after stones and pieces of cement blocks were thrown into the grounds of a synagogue in Garges-les-Gonesse, a large Jewish community in Paris' northern suburbs.

The Paris-based Council of Jewish Communities said it refuses to accept that synagogues were becoming "battlegrounds" and that "in order to pray, the buildings needed to be fortresses."

British extremist runs for local office

LONDON (JTA) — The far-right British National Party is fielding a candidate for a local election next month in a heavily Jewish neighborhood of London.

Jewish security officials called the candidacy of postal worker Julian Leppert "a worrying development" and warned that it has "ramifications not just for the Jewish community but also for other minority communities" in London's Redbridge borough.

Conflict heats up over Babi Yar center

KIEV, Ukraine (JTA) — Efforts are intensifying against plans to build a new memorial at Babi Yar.

A new group called the Community Committee for the Immortalization of the Memory of the Victims of Babi Yar, the site in Kiev where 33,000 Jews were massacred in September 1941, has called an April 2 news conference to publicly outline its opposition to the Heritage Center, a multimillion dollar memorial and community center project sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The Community Committee said it would provide details on its own vision of a memorial at Babi Yar.

Russian court OKs using anti-Semitic text

MOSCOW (JTA) — A Russian textbook that describes Jews as power hungry and greedy can remain in the country's schools.

A Russian court this week upheld an appeals court ruling that refused to allow an investigation into the textbook.

The book on Russian Christianity, introduced last year as part of an optional class for sixth-graders, says Jews forced Pontius Pilate to crucify Jesus.