A national committee, composed of leaders in the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform branches of American Judaism, has been formed to help establish and support the work of an Institute of Hebrew Culture in Tokyo, it was reported here today. The institute will be headed by Dr. Abraham S. Kotsuji, Japanese convert to Judaism, who will initiate the project.
Dr. Kotsuji, now visiting this country, was officially converted to the Jewish faith last year by the rabbinate in Jerusalem. A descendant of a line of Shinto priests, Dr. Kotsuji accepted Judaism after a lifetime of study of Jewish laws and traditions that began in Kyoto when he was 13 years old. He is considered the leading Hebraist in Japan. During the Second World War, Dr. Kotsuji was instrumental in saving the lives of thousands of Jews who had fled to Japan from Poland before the Nazi invasion.
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