Francis Kalifat awarded with the Legion of Honour

The President of the Representative Council of French Jewish institutions (CRIF), Francis Kalifat, has been awarded with the Legion of Honour.

Francis Kalifat has been working for the good of the Jewish community for 47 years, including 38 years of activism within the CRIF, the representative organisation of French Jewish communities.

Mr. Kalifat joined the CRIF under the presidency of Théo Klein in 1984. He was quickly elected to the steering committee, then to the executive board. Elected treasurer in 2002, he actively contributed to the financial and strategic consolidation of the institution. He was then elected and re-elected Vice President.

On 29 May 2016 he became the 11th President of the CRIF. After three years as President, he was re-elected for a second term on 23 June 2019.

Every year, the French Republic honours its citizens who have committed themselves through the various titles and decorations of the Legion of Honour and the National Order of Merit. Mr. Kalifat has been awarded with the rank of Knight of the Legion of Honour (Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur).

The National Order of the Legion of Honour is the highest order of merit of the French Republic, both military and civil. For two centuries, it has been awarded in the name of the Head of State to reward the most deserving citizens in all fields of activity.

About Francis Kalifat

Born in Oran in 1952, Francis Kalifat experienced a hasty departure from Algeria, against the backdrop of the civil war, in 1962 and an eventful arrival in Paris with his mother and brothers. His father, a police officer waiting to be transferred, joined them a few months later and they went to live in Trappes. A few years later, after the birth of his sister, his family moved to Versailles, and it was at the Lycée Hoche that he did all his schooling, before joining the Faculty of Law at Sceaux.

As a teenager, he became involved in the Zionist youth movement. There he acquired a taste for militancy, solid political thinking and a sense of leadership. A practising and tolerant Jew, he has great respect for the plurality of identities. Fascinated by the history of the Jewish people and marked very early by meetings with survivors and accounts of the Shoah, he WISHED to invest himself in the fight against anti-Semitism and the transmission of memory. At the age of 22, he embarked on a professional career as a business manager and successfully developed his company.

He became president of the Federation of Zionist Organisations of France (FOSF) and joined the Crif under the presidency of Théo Klein in 1984. He was quickly elected to the steering committee, then to the executive board where he sat continuously. Elected treasurer in 2002, he actively contributed to the financial and strategic consolidation of the institution. He was then elected vice-president and was continually re-elected to these positions.

During Roger Cukierman’s last mandate, he contributed to the influence of Crif’s regional sections, and more particularly to the projects of living together, dialogue with Muslims and Crif’s digital communication department, spearheading the fight against hatred on the Internet.

On 29 May 2016 he became the 11th President of Crif. After three years as President, he was re-elected for a second term on 23 June 2019.

 

 

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