Vatican City ? Pope Benedict XVI told American Jewish leaders Thursday that he plans to visit Israel in May, coupling the long-awaited announcement with his strongest condemnation of Holocaust denial.

The 81-year-old pope assured the group that the Catholic Church was “profoundly and irrevocably committed to reject all anti-Semitism,” helping to ease Jewish furor that followed the pope’s reinstatement of an ultraconservative bishop who questioned the extent of the Holocaust.

“Such warmth, with an outstretched hand,” said New York Rabbi Arthur Schneier, a Holocaust survivor, after the audience in the frescoed Consistory Hall. “The visit is on, no hesitation, reservations.”

There has been only one other official visit by a pope to the Jewish state. Both sides said it will take place in May.