The Times of Israel reports: WASHINGTON — US Vice President Joe Biden eulogized former Israeli prime minister and president Shimon Peres Thursday as “the conscience and the soul” of Israel.
At a national memorial service held at Adas Israel Congregation, the largest Conservative synagogue in Washington DC, Biden compared Israel’s elder statesman to America’s founding fathers and encouraged Israelis and the Jewish community to carry on his legacy of pursuing peace.
The event, which was co-hosted by the Israeli Embassy and a host of Jewish organizations, was the first Jewish communal gathering in the United States to honor Peres since his death on September 28 after suffering a massive stroke two weeks earlier.
Peres’s funeral last Friday at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl cemetery drew dozens of world leaders, including US President Barack Obama, who led a 33-person delegation of US officials on a six-hour visit to Israel for the ceremony.
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