Iran has invited Israel to participate in the 2,500th anniversary of the reign of King Cyrus, famous in Jewish history for permitting captive Jews to return from Babylon to Palestine in the period between the first and second Jewish commonwealths, it was reported here today. The celebration will take place in 1961.
According to tablets in the British Museum, King Cyrus was the first monarch to promulgate the idea of legal equality for all nations, races and religions. Iran hopes to turn the anniversary celebrations into a United Nations-sponsored celebration of human rights.
Hodj Eddin Haifa, the cultural counsellor at the court of the Shah of Iran met with Mrs. Golda Meir, Israel’s Foreign Minister, in an extension of his tour of Europe for the anniversary. He asked for active Israel and worldwide Jewish cooperation.
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