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Jewish Member Included in U.S. Delegation to Pope’s Coronation

June 28, 1963
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Dr. Louis Finkelstein, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, was appointed a member of an interfaith group designated by President Kennedy to represent the United States at Sunday’s coronation of Pope Paul V1. The delegation also includes Protestant and Catholic members.

The appointment of Dr. Finkelstein was depicted here today by government sources as a move to stress wide interfaith American esteem for the new Pontiff, Dr. Finkelstein is the first Jew to be designated but the White House as one of a group of personal representatives of the President at the Vatican. He is believed to be the first rabbi to attend the coronation of a Pope.

(Israel will be represented at the coronation Sunday of Pope Paul VI by a delegation of four members. They are Maurice Fisher, Israel’s Ambassador to Italy; Ambassador Shmuel Bentsur, the Israeli envoy to Switzerland; Dr. Meir Mendes of the Israel Ministry for Religious Affairs; and Gad Elron, counsellor at the Israeli Embassy in Rome. No official diplomatic relations have yet been established between the Vatican and Israel but friendly relations exist since the establishment of the Jewish State.)

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