President Vaclav Havel has invited 180 members of the Czechoslovak Jewish community to accompany him on his trip to Israel on Wednesday.
Havel offered the free flight to the community members during a radio broadcast.
The president’s Jewish compatriots will accompany him in two Czechoslovak air force planes departing April 25. They will stay in Israel until April 29. Havel and his government entourage leave on April 27.
Havel will receive an honorary Doctor of Philosophy degree from the Hebrew University. The presentation ceremony will be held Thursday on the university’s Givat Ram campus.
The ceremony will be attended by international notables, including British newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, a Czechoslovak-born Jew.
Havel’s visit to the Hebrew University is preceded by that of a countryman 63 years ago. In 1928, Tomas Masaryk, Czechoslovakia’s first president and, like Havel, a writer, visited the Hebrew University campus on Mount Scopus, two years after its opening.
(JTA correspondent Gil Sedan in Jerusalem contributed to this report.)
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