By Laurent Herz
Geneviève Zadoc-Kahn was the grand daughter of the rabbi Zadoc Kahn and one of the great grand daughters of rabbi Salomon Ulmann. Her childhood wasn’t spared from difficult events : at 5 years old, she lost her father, a loving brother in 1940, who was killed during war, and many members of her family and friends during the deportations. However, supported by a big and loving family, and by her own strength of character, she left the memory of a woman filled with humor, positive, dynamic and generous to all the people close to her.
Geneviève Zadoc-Kahn took music courses at the Conservatoire de Paris, in particular with one of her cousins, the composer Maurice Franck (1897-1983). Settled in Boulogne-Billancourt in the 1950’s with her mother, who died in 1973, she was for many years a music and piano teacher. In 1984, she taught again in the schools of Boulogne Billancourt to help the pupils rehearse for the creation of a children’s opera La Sorcière du placard aux balais by Marcel Landowski.
For nearly 4 years, she worked at Musigrains, organizing educational concerts in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées between 1949 and 1978. The Musigrains featured many talented artists, and tens of thousands of young music lovers. She worked there until it was closed in 1986.
An active socialist, a frequent assessor on election days, she was also involved in the Human Rights League of the Boulogne area section, for which she was president at the end of her life.
