Israel voiced hope this evening that as a German, new Pope Benedict XVI would be especially committed to fighting anti-Semitism, and a prominent Israeli rabbi described him as a friend of the Jewish people.
A government statement quoted Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom as welcoming the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new leader of the world's Roman Catholics.
"The foreign minister expresses his hope that this Pope, considering his historical experience, will be especially committed to an uncompromising fight against anti-Semitism," the statement said.
The Pope, born in Bavaria, Germany in 1927, was a boy when Nazi leader Adolf Hitler came to power.
The new Pontiff's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was widely hailed in Israel for his millennium pilgrimage to the Holy Land, his efforts to improve relations between Christians and Jews and the establishment of diplomatic ties between the Vatican and Israel in 1994.
Tel Aviv's chief rabbi, Israel Meir Lau, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, said he met the Pope last year at a symposium on anti-Semitism held in New York, where the cardinal was the first to deliver a speech condemning the hatred of Jews.
"He is known as a friend to the Jewish people. And I hope pray and wish him to follow the footsteps of John Paul II ... in his good approach and friendship to the Jewish people in the world and to state of Israel especially," Mr Lau said.