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44 Facts About David Feuerwerker

1.

David Feuerwerker was a French Jewish rabbi and professor of Jewish history who was effective in the resistance to German occupation the Second World War.

2.

David Feuerwerker was completely unsuspected until six months before the war ended, when he fled to Switzerland and his wife and baby went underground in France.

3.

David Feuerwerker was born on October 2,1912, at 11 Rue du Mont-Blanc, in Geneva, Switzerland.

4.

David Feuerwerker's father Jacob Feuerwerker was born in Sighet, now Sighetu Marmatiei, Maramures, then Austria-Hungary, now Romania.

5.

David Feuerwerker's mother Regina Neufeld was born in Lackenbach, one of the famous seven Jewish communities or Sheva Kehillos in the Burgenland, Hungary, now Austria.

6.

David Feuerwerker became a naturalized French citizen in 1936, and was ordained a rabbi on October 1,1937.

7.

David Feuerwerker was demobilized at Chateauroux on July 25,1940.

8.

David Feuerwerker lived at Villa du Mont-Blanc, avenue Turgot, in Brive.

9.

David Feuerwerker 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.

10.

David Feuerwerker succeeded in liberating many internees from transit camps in France, including the camp at Gurs.

11.

David Feuerwerker helped Benoit Mandelbrot in the pursuit of his studies.

12.

David Feuerwerker was to be made Knight of the Legion of Honor for his military activities.

13.

David Feuerwerker took the difficult decision, in agreement with his spouse, Antoinette Feuerwerker, to leave Brive.

14.

Antoinette Feuerwerker obtained from Jacques Soustelle, a future minister of Charles de Gaulle and later his opponent, but then a leader of the Resistance, information how to reach clandestinely neutral territory, in Divonne-les-Bains.

15.

Antoinette David Feuerwerker had remained in France for the last six months of the war.

16.

David Feuerwerker became the chief rabbi of Lyon at the Liberation, rabbi of the Great Synagogue 13, Quai Tilsit, Lyon 2.

17.

David Feuerwerker became the captain-chaplain of the Place de Lyon and of the Alpine Division.

18.

David Feuerwerker spoke at the ceremony commemorating the Liberation of Lyon, at Place Bellecour.

19.

David Feuerwerker's activities included liaising with the former Prime Minister of France, Edouard Herriot and the Roman Catholic primate of the Gauls, Cardinal Pierre-Marie Gerlier, later, recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations, by Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, Israel.

20.

David Feuerwerker published in Lyon, the first weekly Jewish newspaper since the war, called L'Unite.

21.

David Feuerwerker was the head of Jewish Education , and vice president of the Council for Education and Jewish Culture in France.

22.

David Feuerwerker participated on a regular basis to the Annual Commemoration at the Memorial of the Unknown Jewish Martyr, with the attendance of civilian and military authorities.

23.

David Feuerwerker gave the only funeral oration in French for the famous Rabbi Samuel Jacob Rubinstein of the Synagogue of the 10 rue Pavee in Paris 4.

24.

David Feuerwerker spoke at a commemoration on the site of the camp at Drancy.

25.

David Feuerwerker spoke at the Grande Synagogue of Paris, rue de la Victoire in the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

26.

David Feuerwerker taught at the Sorbonne EPHE 6eme section Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes from 1962 to 1965.

27.

David Feuerwerker published articles in, among other publications, La Revue Historique des Annales; Evidences; Bulletin de nos communautes; le Journal des communautes.

28.

David Feuerwerker created the position of chief chaplain of the French Navy.

29.

David Feuerwerker was based at the Centre Marine Pepiniere, 15 rue Laborde, in Paris 8.

30.

David Feuerwerker went on special missions in Algeria and Tunisia.

31.

David Feuerwerker was chaplain of prisons, Lycees and hospitals in Paris.

32.

David Feuerwerker introduced Hebrew as a foreign language for the French Baccalaureat, in 1954.

33.

David Feuerwerker was the sole examiner for the city of Paris.

34.

David Feuerwerker was close to Pierre Mendes France, the former Prime Minister of France.

35.

David Feuerwerker befriended and helped Aime Palliere, who has remained as the Noahide par excellence.

36.

David Feuerwerker became the rabbi of the Synagogue 15 Rue Chasseloup-Laubat.

37.

David Feuerwerker lived at 5583 Woodbury Avenue, in Montreal, a minute away from l'Universite de Montreal.

38.

David Feuerwerker became professor of sociology at the Universite de Montreal, from 1966 to 1968, and then created at that university a department of Jewish Studies.

39.

David Feuerwerker became judge in the rabbinical court of that city, and a member of the Vaad Hair, beside the chief rabbi of Montreal, Pinhas Hirschprung.

40.

David Feuerwerker was the editor of the French section of the Voice of the Vaad journal, called "la Voix du Conseil".

41.

David Feuerwerker appeared on French and Canadian television and radio, was called often as an expert and lectured extensively.

42.

David Feuerwerker organized the appearance of the famous Hazzan Moshe Koussevitzky, at the Synagogue de la rue des Tournelles, in Paris.

43.

David Feuerwerker was a guest on several occasions on the radio show, animated by Alain Stanke, called "La musique des nations" of Radio-Canada.

44.

David Feuerwerker died in Montreal on June 20,1980, and was buried in Sanhedria in Jerusalem, Israel.