The B’nai B’rith Lodge in Antibes – Juan les Pins, was established on 5th June 1988 (5748) at the instigation of Mr Jean Marc Rosenfeld and Mr Fred Michel z’l, both of whom lived in Antibes and were brothers in the Nice-based Côte d’Azur Lodge.
In December 1987, they started work on founding a B’nai B’rith Lodge in Antibes, a potentially vast but very necessary task.
Jean Marc Rosenfeld was on the Committee of the Côte d’Azur Lodge and suggested presenting the project to his President Claude Gourewitch, who felt the idea was ambitious but solid, and agreed to play the role of mentor for the new Lodge. Support was also received from the President of District XIX, Maurice Honigbaum.
Active members from Antibes and Juan les Pins very quickly joined the leading figures - Jacques Melamed, former Lodge President, Louis Mayer z’l, Member and brother from the Chalom Cannes Lodge, and Tanya Michel, wife of Fred and Member of the Nice-based Mazal Tov Women's Lodge.
Thanks to this dynamic team, 18 future Members were put forward to found the Lodge. After all the necessary formalities René Cassin Lodge received its B’nai B’rith International Charter under number 3310.
The opening ceremony was held on 5th June 1988 at Hotel Acapulco in Cannes, chaired by Maurice Honigbaum, European President of District XIX and Georges M. Bloch, District XIX International Relations Officer. The seven Lodge Presidents from the Alpes Maritimes département and Monaco were also present.
Since 1989, the René Cassin Lodge has been organising of one the major annual events of the French Riviera– its Benevolence gala, which coincides with the Hanukkah festival. This gala evening is a fixture in the B’nai B’rith calendar on the French Riviera. It is always held in prestigious locations and draws together up to 600 people to distribute B’nai B’rith profits to various Jewish or non-Jewish charitable associations or organisations. It thus put into practice the essential principles of the B’nai B’rith family: Benevolence, Brotherly Love and Harmony.
René Cassin Lodge has warm relationships with all French and European Lodges:
- Twinned with the London-based "Raoul Wallenberg Lodge" in 2000-2001.
- Mentor to Belgrade-based "Serbie 676" Lodge (Serbia-Montenegro) in 2004, when the Menorah was "relit" on 11th September 2004 in the presence of the whole Executive Committee of B’nai B’rith Europe and International Political and Religious figures. The Serbian Lodge had previously been founded in 1936 but its light was "snuffed out" during the Holocaust.
Commentary by Jean Jacques Dayan and Gérard Gouzlan
René Cassin was born in Bayonne on 5th October 1887, and became a professor of law, before being seriously injured in the First World War.
Cassin was driven by a desire for justice, peace and friendship between peoples, and was a chief architect of the Oeuvre des Pupilles de la Nation (high council for wards of the nation), later becoming a French delegate to the League of Nations.
He was one of the first civilians to join General de Gaulle in London in 1940, and De Gaulle used to call him his "Mordecai". He founded UNESCO in 1945, and was a major force behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1968.
After his death in 1976, his ashes were interred in the Pantheon in Paris.
