STEG, ADOLPHE

STEG, ADOLPHE (Ady) (1925– ), French surgeon and Jewish community leader. Steg was born in Verecky, Czechoslovakia, and taken to France in 1932. After completing his medical studies, Steg became a surgeon in Paris and professor of urological surgery at the faculty of medicine in Paris (1976). From World War II, Steg has been prominent in many Jewish organizations. Initially he was active in student circles and was president of the Union of Jewish Students in Paris (1948) and vice president of the World Union of Jewish Students (1949). He was a leading member of the Fonds Social Juif Unifie, the Consistoire, and the Alliance Israélite Universelle. He took part in the creation of the Coordinating Committee of Jewish Institutions in May 1967 on the eve of the Six-Day War. Steg was the founder of the French Association of the Friends of the Hebrew University which he headed from 1965 to 1986. He served as the president of the Conseil Representatif des Juifs de France (CRIF) from 1969 to 1974 and from 1985 as president of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, and he was a member of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah. Steg was a member of the Académie de Chirurgie and of the Académie Nationale de Médecine. From 1984 he was secretary general of the European Urological Association and from 1986 president of the French Urology Association. He was a Grand Officier of the Legion of Honor, a Commandeur of the Ouissam Alaoui, and a Grand Croix dans l'Ordre National du Mérite. He received an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a member of the Economic and Social Council of France from 1979. (Michael Denman (2nd ed.)