GOUDCHAUX, MICHEL

GOUDCHAUX, MICHEL (1797–1862), French banker and politician. Born in Nancy, Goudchaux was a director of his father's bank there. In 1826 he became manager of the bank's Paris branch and helped found a working-class newspaper Le National. He participated in the revolution of July 1830 and was wounded when he placed himself at the head of an insurgent group. After the revolution, Goudchaux was made mayor of his district, member of the general council of the department of the Seine, and paymaster general in Strasbourg. In 1834, however, he returned to Paris and bitterly attacked the government's economic policies in a series of articles in Le National. Goudchaux became minister of finance in the Second Republic and in 1849, vice president of the National Assembly. He was defeated in the elections of 1852 and devoted his life to philanthropic work, founding Jewish schools in Nancy. In 1857 he was elected to the Legislative Assembly but refused to swear the oath of allegiance to Napoleon III and did not take his seat. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Lazard, Michel Goudchaux, son oeuvre et sa vie politique (1907); Rabi (pseud.), Anatomie du Judaïsme français (1962), 65; JC (Jan. 9, 1863), 7. (Shulamith Catane)