Funeral services will be held here tomorrow for Elis Maissi, the dean of the Israeli press corps in Paris and a veteran foreign correspondent. He died here last Saturday at the age of 72. Jerusalem-bom Maissi, who last represented the Israeli daily, Haaretz, was a Knight in the French Legion of Honor and had been awarded the Military Cross for his activities during World War II.
A graduate of the French School for Electrical Engineering, Maissi volunteered for the French army at the outbreak of the war. Captured by the Germans, he escaped from a prisoner of war camp and joined the resistance movement. After France’s liberation, he joined the staff of the International News Service and later that of United Press International as chief diplomatic correspondent for France.
Maissi resigned in 1967 to become Paris correspondent for Haaretz. In spite of his 50-year residence in France, Maissi never accepted French nationality and remained till the end the “proud bearer” of an Israeli passport.
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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.