David Feuerwerker

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David Feuerwerker (October 2, 1912 – June 20, 1980) was a French Jewish rabbi and

In 1925, he completed his primary school education at the Rue Vauquelin Talmud Torah school in Paris, and after receiving his baccalauréat in science, literature and philosophy, he entered the rabbinical school Séminaire israélite de France in 1932. Beginning in 1933, he simultaneously studied Semitic languages at the prestigious École pratique des hautes études, where he received the Diplôme de l’EPHE, a postgraduate degree. Among the languages he spoke were Aramaic and Syriac. He became a naturalized French citizen in 1936, and was ordained a rabbi on October 1, 1937.

Second World War

Military service and recognition

From October 15, 1937, until September 1, 1939, he served in the French Army, in Alsace. After World War II broke out, he remained in the army until July 25, 1940. He was in charge of communications for a group of artillery of the 12th R.A.D. (Régiment d'Artillerie Divisionnaire) and chaplain of the 87th D.I.A. He was demobilized at Châteauroux on July 25, 1940.

He received the

The citation to the Order of the Brigade reads as follows:

As chief of artillery communications has participated from September 1939 to February 1940 in the engagements in Alsace in the region of Bitche. Has shown drive, courage, and competence in assuring under fire the phone and radio contacts. Distinguished himself again during the combats of June 1940 on the Ailette, the Aisne, and the Seine, as Jewish Chaplain of his Division. Has contributed to maintain the fighting spirit around him and to uphold the morale of the engaged units.

A second citation for the

Rabbi of Brive and of three départements

In 1940, he was nominated rabbi of three French

The Jewish population consisted of numerous refugees, including a large segment originating from Alsace and other regions occupied by the Nazi invader. He helped numerous of them to find a country of refuge, with the help of the oldest agency dealing with refugees in the United States, the HIAS. Among the destinations, Cuba. For himself, there was no thought of leaving France, since he was a community leader. He succeeded in liberating many internees from transit camps in France, including the camp at Gurs. He helped Benoit Mandelbrot in the pursuit of his studies.^[2]

In the Résistance

In Brive with

He was to be made Knight (Chevalier) of the

Despite the exceptional risks which were attached to his ministry, has participated in an active, permanent and unselfish way to the organisation of the resistance in all the region.

Has not hesitated to risk his freedom, and without any doubt his life, to be for the Movement "Combat" an auxiliary particularly serious.

It's to him that many hundreds of resistants owed their false identification papers which allowed them to escape the searches by the Gestapo.

His wife,

Jacques Soustelle and the passage to Switzerland

Six months before the end of World War II, the Germans finally understood that the Rabbi of

Antoinette Feuerwerker had remained in France for the last six months of the war. In order to evade the Germans and deportation, she went underground with her baby daughter, Atara. Once the war ended, the couple reunited in Lyon, for the adventure of reconstruction of the post-war French Judaism.

Chief rabbi of Lyon, at the Libération

He participated in the liberation of Lyon as the captain-chaplain (Capitaine-Aumônier) of the French Forces of the Interior (Forces Françaises de l'Intérieur, F.F.I.), In Lyon in 1944. He became the chief rabbi of Lyon at the Liberation, rabbi of the Great Synagogue 13, Quai Tilsit, Lyon 2. He became also the captain-chaplain of the Place de Lyon and of the Alpine Division (27^e brigade d'infanterie de montagne).

He spoke at the ceremony commemorating the Liberation of Lyon, at Place Bellecour.^[3]

His activities included liaising with the former

In 1946, he was elected rabbi in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, where he established a Cercle d'Etudes (Study Circle) at 12 rue Ancelle. The money destined for the Aliyah Bet ship Exodus was hidden, without his knowledge, by his wife, Antoinette Feuerwerker, under his bed, since no one would suspect him.

In 1948, he became rabbi of Les Tournelles, the Great Synagogue in Paris. In the Cercle d'Etudes du Marais he formed at 14

In an assessment of "European Jewry Ten Years After The War", and of France, in particular, Arnold Mandel writes in 1956: "Under the auspices of a very dynamic, forceful and militant rabbi David Feuerwerker a free debating club the Circle du Marais has been active for several years. Situated in one of the most beautiful squares in Paris, the Place des Vosges where the Victor Hugo Museum is located, the club, where the discussions are sometimes stormy, is one of the liveliest and most picturesque spots in the Jewish quarter of the French capital. It is Hyde Park with more spirit.^[4]"

Roger Berg writes^[5] en 1992 on the Cercle d'Études du Marais: "Sometime after the end of World War II, and before the sudden emergence of television in homes, study circles were created all over, the most prestigious among them was the Circle of the Marais of David Feuerwerker." The French Jewish Community paid tribute to him, on December 23, 1956, on the occasion of his twentieth year in the Rabbinate and of the two hundred and fiftieth Session of the Cercle d'Etudes du Marais, to as it specified, Honor the guide and the master whose activity is creative and efficient for the Jewish Community of France.

He was the head of Jewish Education (Directeur de l'instruction religieuse) (Paris) (1952), and vice president of the Council for Education and Jewish Culture in France (Conseil pour l'Education et la Culture Juive en France, CECJF) (1953).

The City of Paris, and in its name, the municipal council, in its session of December 14, 1957, awarded to him the Gold Medal of the City of Paris.

Teacher and orator

On diverse occasions, his talent as an orator was made to contribution. He participated on a regular basis to the Annual Commemoration at the Memorial of the Unknown Jewish Martyr (Mémorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu), with the attendance of civilian and military authorities. He gave the only funeral oration in French for the famous Rabbi Samuel Jacob Rubinstein of the Synagogue of the 10 rue Pavée in Paris 4 (Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue). He spoke at a commemoration on the site of the camp at Drancy. He spoke also at the Grande Synagogue of Paris, rue de la Victoire in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

In parallel to his rabbinical activities, he obtained a