A memorial slab has been unveiled in the Place des Invalides in commemoration of foreign born Jewish volunteers who fell in battle.
Two thousand foreign born Jews who served as volunteers in the French Army during the war were present at the unveiling ceremonies.
In the course of 1914-18, the inscription on the slab reads, Jews of foreign birth joined the French army in thousands. To commemorate their service for France and the memory of those of them who fell this tablet has been erected by the Federation of Jewish Volunteer Front-Fighters in the French army.
The President of the Republic, M. Lebrun, sent a member of his staff to represent him at the ceremony. Several Generals, Government officials and the military attaches of the Allied Governments were present.
The Chief Rabbi of France, M. Israel Levi, delivered an address in which he said:
“In the name of my co-religionists, in the name of the Jewish Volunteers, in the name of all those who love France, I express my gratitude for all that Jews have found in this great land of great men and of great ideas.”
Tribute to the valour of the Jewish foreign-born soldiers in the French army were paid by several of the Generals present.
M. Candace, the negro Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, presided at a banquet, at which the chief speaker, M. Rene Cassin, the French delegate to the League of Nations, spoke in high praise of the foreign Jews living in France, who had rallied to the aid of their adopted country in her hour of need.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
