Chief Rabbi Jacob Kaplan personally thanked President Georges Pompidou Saturday for his intervention on behalf of Soviet Jewry when Soviet Communist Party Secretary Leonid Brezhnev visited France in Oct. Rabbi Kaplan visited Pompidou on New Year’s Day, the occasion when diplomats, clergymen and politicians traditionally pay their respects to the President. Sources close to Rabbi Kaplan said afterwards that the meeting was “most cordial” and that the Chief Rabbi had also told Pompidou about the “House of France” which the Jewish community is building on the Hebrew University campus in Jerusalem and of French Week soon to be held there. Rabbi Kaplan said he had a keen interest in re-enforcing cultural ties between France and Israel.
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