Fleg (Flegenheimer), Edmond

(1874–1963)

   French writer. Born in Geneva into an assimilated family, Fleg settled in Paris, where he made a reputation as a critic and playwright. Horrified at the blatant anti-Semitism aroused by the DREYFUS case, he began his return to Judaism. He grew interested in Zionism and attended the Third Zionist Congress in 1899. During World War I he joined the French Foreign Legion and after the war became a French citizen and entered the civil service. He continued to write. In 1921 he edited a Jewish anthology considered one of the best introductions to Jewish writing. An English translation appeared in 1925. In 1929 he published Why I am a Jew. He visited Palestine in 1931 and wrote Ma Palestine (The Land of Promise, 1935). His poetic cycle écoute Israel reflects on Jewish history up to the founding of Israel. Fleg had a positive influence on French-Jewish writers and he was one of the founders of the Christian-Jewish Fellowship. He was made an officer of the French Legion of Honour and was elected a member of the French Academy.