Bidspirit auction | France: Narcisse Leven 50th Anniversary

France: Narcisse Leven 50th Anniversary of Alliance Israelite Universelle, 1910 ; struck in bronze; by Jewish medalist Emmanuel Hannaux ; weight: 94.25g; size: 59mm. Obverse depicts detailed left facing bust of Leven with French legend around edge ”Narcisse Leven Pt. [President] De L'Alliance Israelite Universelle”; on reverse an allegorical image of female artist set against a castle and a canvas with Tablets of the 10 Commandments, two hands shaking and the Hebrew word ”[the] Other”, with the Alliance's name and dates of the jubilee (1960-1910) around the edge. In AU with nice toning; some surface residue from holder; two light manufacturing impressions on the top rim on obverse; JMM-60. Narcisse Levin (1833-1915) together with Adolphe Cremieux and 15 other young French Jews established the Alliance in 1860 to protect both Jewish and non-Jewish minority rights, on the basis of Judaic principles and the ideals of the French revolution (1789). The AIU promotes the ideals of Jewish self-sufficieny and defense through education and profressional development, and its motto is the Rabbinic injunction ”All of Israel is responsible for each other”. The AIU embarked on a ”civilizing mission” to advance the progress of Jews in the Middle East on the basis of French education and culture, and - from a numismatic angle - in this framework, in 1879 produced the AIU tokens of the Mikveh Israel Jewish agricultural school in Palestine . Leven was the AIU's general secretary from 1863 to 1883, its vice president from 1883 to 1898, and its president from 1898.