France's top rabbi Gilles Bernheim quits in plagiarism row

France's top rabbi, Gilles Bernheim, has resigned amid a scandal over plagiarism.

Rabbi Bernheim had admitted to plagiarising several authors and lying about an academic status on his CV, reports said.
He has resigned with immediate effect, the body governing France's Jewish congregations announced.
Members of the Central Israeli Consistory of France had been meeting in emergency session in Paris.
"He recognised his faults, apologised and gave explanations," Sammy Ghoslan, the consistory's vice-president, told AFP news agency.


His resignation as grand rabbi was "a solution that brings more serenity. We all agreed," he said.
A caretaker will take up Rabbi Bernheim's post while a permanent successor is chosen, he said.
Rabbi Bernheim had been accused of plagiarising other authors for sections of his book, Forty Jewish Meditations.

And AFP said it had established that a claim on his CV that he had been awarded a prestigious but rarely granted philosophy academic status from Sorbonne University was also not true.