Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Israel’s Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi, discussed the plight of Syrian Jews and the status of Jerusalem with Terence Cardinal Cooke, the Archbishop of New York, at a 40-minute meeting at the Archdiocese today. The Roman Catholic leader promised Rabbi Goren to intervene on behalf of Syrian Jews.
Rabbi Goren told Cardinal Cooke that since Jerusalem has been under Israeli control, members of all faiths have free access to all holy sites and shrines. He contrasted this with the situation during 19 years of Jordanian control of East Jerusalem when Jews were denied access to their holy places and Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. Rabbi Goren told Cardinal Cooke that his mother’s gravestone was one of those destroyed in that period. Rabbi Goren, who is visiting the U.S. on behalf of the Israel Bond Organization, also discussed the situation of Syrian Jews with Jewish Congressmen in Washington yesterday. He will be honored at a City Hall reception to be given by Mayor Abraham Beame Friday. (By Yitzhak Rabi)
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