Last update - 00:00 07/12/2007
Peres plans international prayer session for Israel's 60th
By Haaretz Service
President Shimon Peres is initiating a sabbath prayer session for all the world's Jews marking Israel's 60th anniversary, the spokeswoman for the President's Residence said Thursday.
Peres proposes to call on all the world's Jews to come to the synagogue and say a special prayer on a sabbath around Israel's 60th Independence Day.
The initiative was inspired by French Chief Rabbi Joseph Sitruk to unite Jews all over the world to preserve that sabbath day.
The statement followed the report on Kol Hai radio that Peres had promised to carry out Rabbi Sitruk's initiative.
Peres wants to expand the prayer beyond the Jewish world's limits to churches and mosques, so that Muslims and Christians would say it too.
Former Meretz chairman Yossi Sarid was quoted on Maariv's online news site, saying that "I don't undertake to preserve the same Sabbath. It depends on my plans. In my opinion this whole initiative is a pretentious display. Besides, my sources give me different information about the messiah."
According to popular belief, if all Jews preserved the Sabbath, the messiah would come.