Jeanne-Marie de Montalembert


Jeanne-Marie de Montalembert was a pillar of the Haifa community from the time of her arrival in Haifa in 1960.

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She was born during the First World War, on September 27, 1918 to an aristocratic family in France. Educated in a college of the Sisters of Sion she would enter the order in 1938 with a strong interest in Judaism and the Jewish people. After years of teaching, in 1950 she joined the Ancelles, founded by the Sisters of Sion as an apostolic group working within the Jewish milieu. Within this new context, Jeanne-Marie studied to be a social worker.

She arrived in Israel for the first time in 1955 and spent a year studying Hebrew. In 1957, Jeanne-Marie moved to Tunisia and worked as a social worker in a hospital in Tunis. It is in Tunis that she made contact with the Jewish community. However, due to bad health she had to return to France in 1960.

In October 1960, she moved to Haifa and spent a year perfecting her Hebrew. In January 1961, she was employed by the municipality of Afula as a social worker, working with new immigrant families from North Africa. For eleven years she commuted from Haifa to Afula. In 1973, she found a new job in the agricultural village Meir Shefaya, closer to Haifa.

In 1983, Jeanne-Marie could retire and she began a new life as a volunteer in Haifa. She worked half time in an institution for the mentally handicapped. After 1987, she consecrated much of her time to the life of the Hebrew-speaking Catholic community, especially spending time with the elderly.

In 1993, Jeanne-Marie was hospitalized. Returning to France, she succumbed to cancer and passed away on October 17, 1993. Many of her friends and acquaintances gathered to remember her on November 16, 1993 and the testimonies to her life and work bore witness to a radiant and vibrant presence in Israel and in the life of the Hebrew-speaking community.

 

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