Rabbi David Feuerwerker, scholar and spiritual leader of French-speaking Jews in North America has died of a heart attack at the age of 68. He will be buried in Israel. Messages of sympathy from Pope John Paul II, French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing and from France’s Jewish community poured into Montreal. He was widely known in France for his war-time record.
A native of Switzerland, Feuerwerker was Chief Chaplain for the French Armed Forces of the Resistance Movement. His decorations included the French Legion of Honor, the Croix de Guerre and six citations for bravery. He was the recipient of the Grand Prix of the French Academy for his work, entitled. “The Emancipation of the Jews of France” and he was awarded the humanitarian Grand Prix by the French Senate. In 1966, after serving as a professor at the Sorbonne in Paris, he immigrated to Canada and later taught Judaism at the University of Montreal.
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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.