President Shimon Peres has agreed to a request by France's Chief Rabbi Yosef Sitruk to keep the Sabbath according to Jewish law as part of an outreach effort to the country's Jews, the Israeli religious radio station Kol Chai reported.
The 84-year-old president is avowedly secular. His grandfather studied at the Volozhin yeshiva and taught his grandson Talmud. But Peres's home was secular and he remained secular.