Rabbi Nadich and the Liberation of Paris

Fantastic Day Wednesday at the Archives of the Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism:  On Wednesday, I found wonderful documents working with the papers of Rabbi Judah Nadich who was the American Chaplain in charge of all religious instruction with the American forces that liberated Paris in 1944.  Nadich opened the synagogues I write about that were closed during the war, some after French collaborators bombed them in 1941, although the Grande Synagogue on the Rue de la Victoire stayed open until 1943.  This is an interesting view on liberation and what it meant, and it units the French and American experience in a fascinating way.  It's a rather interesting (and glorious) take on American democracy at mid-century---American troops led by a Jewish rabbi under instruction from the American liberation high command to open the synagogues in Paris and reintroduce Jewish worship into city!  What an interesting view of RELIGIOUS TOLERATION and the reintroduction of French democratic ideals by American command.  The Grande Rabbi, Julien Weill, having just miraculously returned from Auschwitz was too sick to take charge, and so on September 7, 1944, Rabbi Nadich (Major Nadich) delivered the first sermon in the Grande Synagogue since the synagogue had been shut down by German/French command following a massive arrest of Jews during a religious service in 1943.  Nadich then went on to open other synagogues in Paris including four of the six others bombed by the Cagoulards in 1941 (two others had been destroyed).  He went to the Synagogue on the Rue Copernic where I took my students last march on my Study Abroad trip and opened that synagogue and then stayed to help clean it and remove debris from the 1941 bombings.  At the Ratner Center I found Nadich's sermons from these events AND his daily log indicating what he was doing, who he spoke with, and how he was feeling.  (He also wrote a lot about what he was eating!)   Rabbi Nadich went on work with General Eisenhower on the matter of Displaced Persons and then returned to life as a rabbi after the war.  He eventually lead the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City for over thirty years until his death in 2007.