European Rabbis to Meet Pope in the Vatican (Source israelnationalnews.com) Leading European rabbis are set to meet with Pope Francis on Monday. The meeting will take place in the Vatican, the first time that a delegation of leading rabbis has ever met with the Pope there. The delegation will be led by Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, President of the Conference of European Rabbis. The rabbis and the Pope will discuss a number of issues, including the current climate for Jews in Europe. In recent months, there has been a marked increase in the number of attacks on Jews throughout Europe. A new report released just last week by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, together with the European Jewish Congress (EJC), showed that in 2014, 766 violent acts committed either with or without weapons and via arson, vandalism, or direct threats were directed against Jews or Jewish institutions such as synagogues, schools, community centers and others in Europe. the Interfax news service quoted Rabbi Goldschmidt as saying that “An era of constructive dialogue between the Vatican and Europe has arrived. We are allies today and we deeply respect Pope Francis as a person who has played an enormous role in promoting the development of inter-faith dialogue and in establishing peaceful relations between nations and religions. We hope that jointly we will ward off the danger of Islamic radicalism threatening Europe.