French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur has agreed in principle to provide financial help to the Consistoire Central, the main religious body of French Jewry, a magazine here has reported.
The report in the French satirial weekly, Le Canard Enchaine, or The Chained Duck, was embarrassing both to Balladur and to the new president of the Consistoire, Jean Kahn.
The French Constitution, based on the separation of church and state, bars such financial arrangements between government and religious bodies.
Shortly after Kahn was elected to the presidency of the Consistoire Central earlier this year, he ordered an audit of the organization.
The results were not made public, but according to reliable sources, the organization’s deficit stands at about $8 million.
In a subsequent meeting with Balladur, Kahn reportedly evoked the dire financial situation of the Consistoire.
According to an internal memo of the Consistoire published by Le Canard, Kahn told the prime minister that he was “hoping for financial help from the government.”
The prime minister reportedly answered that he agreed to the idea in principle, but that he would have to find “a legal loophole” to do so.
Commenting on the Balladur-Khan meeting, the satirical weekly said,”Kahn should know better: When you ask for such favors, you don’t leave written evidence.”
Officials at the Consistoire refused to comment on the story.
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