The European Jewish Congress president has condemned the European Jewish Parliament for meeting far-right French politician Marine Le Pen.
Ukraine-born oligarch Vadim Rabinovich met Ms Le Pen as part of a roundtable discussion held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, along with 10 representatives of the Europe of Nations and Freedom bloc of nationalist parties which she chairs.
EJC president Moshe Kantor said the meeting was “shocking in the extreme”.
"It goes without saying that these people are as unrepresentative of the vast majority of European Jews as this collective of Le Pen's MEPs is of the vast majority of European citizens," he said.
But in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rabinovich defended his decision saying “only dialogue can lead to progress”.
In February, Roger Cukierman, president of the French Jewish representative body CRIF, said that while Marine Le Pen “cannot be faulted personally,” there is a consensus in the Jewish world that “there are all the Holocaust deniers, all the supporters of Vichy and [Philippe] Petain” behind her.