The Alliance Israélite Universelle was founded in 1860 in Paris to fight for Jewish rights and combat anti-Jewish prejudice wherever manifested. Organized by a group of younger Jewish activists, it soon came to encompass much of the French Jewish elite in its leadership. The AIU lobbied actively for Jewish emancipation and represented world Jewry on the international stage—at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, for instance and the Paris Peace Conference after World War I. It continued its political activities during the interwar period, especial…