Lévy, Isaac

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LÉVY, ISAAC

LÉVY, ISAAC (1835–1912), French rabbi, born in Marmoutier, Alsace. Lévy was rabbi of Verdun in 1858, of Lunéville in 1865, and of Colmar in Upper Alsace in 1869. After the annexation of Alsace by Germany following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, Lévy chose to remain French, and the French government created a new chief rabbinate for him at Vesoul. In 1887 he became chief rabbi of Bordeaux. Lévy wrote Récits bibliques (1864), Défense du Judaïsme (1867), and Histoire sainte à l'usage de la jeunesse Israélite, the standard biblical history for Jewish children in France (1869; 16th ed., 1931).