PARAF, PIERRE

PARAF, PIERRE (1893–1989), French author, editor and broadcasting executive. Born in Paris, Paraf, a graduate in law, was an officer in the French army during World War I, then took up journalism, and from 1930 until 1939 was literary editor of the Paris daily La République. He later worked for the left-wing daily Combat and for the monthly L'Europe. In 1936 he joined the French radio service and eventually became chief editor of French Radio-Television. After the French military collapse in 1940, he fought with the underground until the liberation in 1944. Paraf showed strong Jewish loyalties in his work and writings. In one of his early books, Quand Israël Aima (1929), he expressed his pride in belonging to the Jewish people. With the writer bernard lecache , he founded in 1927 the Ligue internationale contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme. He was president of the Mouvement contre le Racisme, l'Antisémitisme et pour la Paix and a member of the executive of the League for the Rights of Man. After World War II he directed the monthly review Amitié France-Israël and wrote books on Jewish and Zionist themes. Among them were Israël dans le monde (1947) and L'Etat d'Israël dans le monde (1960). His other books include Les cités du bonheur (1945), L'Ascension des peuples noirs (1958), Les démocraties populaires (1962), and Le Racisme dans le monde (1964). (Godfrey Edmond Silverman)