Rabbi Sholom Mendel Kalmenson, a Jewish activist in the DP camps after the War and a pioneer of Jewish life in Aubervilliers, France, passed away Monday, December 19. He was 90.

Born in Vitebsk, in what is today Belarus, Sholom Mendel was the second of five children. At the time, Soviet persecution of religious observance made it illegal for children to receive a Jewish education. Nevertheless, the Kalmenson home stood as a bastion of Jewish tradition amid the onslaught of Soviet oppression. Young Sholom Mendel initially learned in the local Cheder, a single-room school house, run by the venerable chasid Rabbi Elya Chaim Roitblat.

With the German invasion of Russia in 1941, the Kalmensons fled the advancing Nazi Army, moving deep into the Soviet interior. Arriving at last in Kutaisi, Georgia, the Kalmensons were able to reconstruct some semblance of life as it has been before the War. Kutaisi, one of the worlds oldest continuous Jewish communities, was already home to a small Chabad community, established by the fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber Schneersohn. There, far from the ever-watchful eye of the Kremlin, conditions for practicing Judaism were somewhat easier.

 In 1945, an opportunity to escape the Soviet Union presented itself to Russia’s Jews. With the Second World War’s end, the thousands of Polish Jews that had fled the advancing Nazi army were able to return to their homeland. Under the guidance of legendary chasid Rabbi Mendel Futerfas, hundreds of Chabad chasidim, including the Kalmensons, crossed the border, leaving through the Ukrainian town of Lviv in 1946.

 Like other refugees following the war, the small group of Russian refugees were settled in Displaced Person (DP) camps across Europe. In the Summer of 1946, Kalmenson settled in Prague along with other DPs. Kalmenson soon became a point-man for the work of the Previous Rebbe, Rabbi Josef I. Schneersohn, in Prague. At the crossroads of Europe, he was able to relay information and requests from chasidim in Central and Eastern Europe to Chabad’s new headquarters in Brooklyn. Under the direction of the Previous Rebbe, Kalmenson opened the Beis Sarah school for girls in Prague. The school remained active until February 1948, when Czechoslovakia fell into Soviet control, uprooting Kalmenson and other DPs once more.

After making several trips to Ireland, where he served as a shochet for shipments of kosher meat sent to Israel, Kalmenson joined the other Chabad chasidim living in France. There, Kalmenson and his growing family were settled by the United Jewish Appeal in the Parisian suburb of Aubervilliers.

When members of the small community of chasidim in Aubervilliers traveled to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Shneerson in 1962, the Rebbe inquired about the general level of Jewish observance in the city. To this group of pious chasidim, Aubervilliers seemed complete devoid of other Jews, let alone observance, outside of their small enclave. The Rebbe, however, insisted that there were “at least 200 other Jewish families” in Aubervilliers.

Kalmenson, inspired by the Rebbe’s directive to help other Jews, began to go door-to-door looking for Jewish families and recruiting children for their local Jewish school. Soon the school, Ecole Chne-Or, the first in France to service all segments of the community, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, began to grow in size.

 The work, however, was difficult. Kalmenson served not only as the school administrator, but its principle financier as well. When his wife Basya spoke with the Rebbe about the difficulties they experienced in Aubervilliers, the Rebbe told her that “G-d rejoices in your work, you must rejoice as well.” What is more, always one to encourage growth, the Rebbe suggested that the Kalmensons open a camp during the summer recess. This camp would prove fortuitous. Local children, enrolled in public schools during the year, were able to attend the camp and ultimately feed into the Jewish school system.

 Today, Ecole Chne-Or boasts some 500 students, with many of the schools teachers and administrators themselves graduates of the school.

 Rabbi Sholom Mendel Kalmenson is survived by his wife Basya and children, Beila Gansbourg, Rivka Lipsker, Rochel Bruchstat, Feiga Levitin, Leah Raskin, Sterna Deitsch, Chaya Nisselevitch, Meir Simcha Kalmenson, and Yosef Yitzchak Kalmenson, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of them Chabad emissaries in Aubervilliers and around the world.