PARIS, March 30 (Reuters) — The head of France’s main Jewish religious body is under pressure to resign for writing to a long-time rival: “If Auschwitz had not existed, it is likely you would have invented it,” Jewish sources said on Thursday.

Jean Kahn, president of the Central Israelite Consistory of France, made the comment in an angry letter to Moise Cohen, president of the consistory for the Paris area, they told Reuters.

The consistory was created by Napoleon over 200 years ago to coordinate Jewish religious affairs with the state. Some 76,000 Jews from France died in wartime death camps, mostly Auschwitz.[…]