Solomon Friederich, founder and director of the Alliance France-Israel, died here last Thursday after a long and painful illness. He was 58 years old. Services will be held at the Israel Embassy here Tuesday and the body will then be flown to Israel for burial in Jerusalem.
Friederich helped set up the de facto Alliance before the 1956 Sinai campaign and had been active since in both France and Israel in advocating close ties between the two countries. A few days before his death, Jacques Chaban-Delmas, National Assembly President and former Premier, visited Friederich in the hospital to personally present him with the French Legion of Honor.
Born in Rymanow; Poland, Friederich was drafted in the Polish army, managing to cross the Russian lines after the fall of Warsaw in World War It. Soviet officials deported him to Siberia. He settled in France in 1947 and became head of the local Betar group In that post, he helped provide the Irgun with funds and weapons and developed a personal friendship with Irgun leader Menachem Begin which lasted to his death.
In 1957; he organized the Alliance committee which at one time had II French Cabinet Ministers and dozens of senior officials among its members. After the Likud victory in Israel in May, 1977, he chose to stay in France and had been active recently in trying to organize Begin’s official visit to France.
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.
