Gugenheim was born in
Westhoffen in
Alsace, France on January 22, 1916 to Rabbi Max Gugenheim, who was the rabbi of the town and came from a family of rabbis. His mother, Martha , died when he was about 4 years old. He was the youngest of four children. His father, a graduate of the
Hildesheimer Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin, was his first teacher and educated him in the way of
Torah im derech eretz advocated by Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch. In 1933, Ernest entered the Israelite Seminary of France in Paris, under the direction of Maurice Liber. In January 1938, at the age of 22, he left for Lithuania to study at the yeshiva of
Mir. He describes extensively in his letters to his teacher his daily experiences in a world since erased by the
Holocaust. Eight months later he was called back to France by his father, who sensed that a new conflict between France and Germany was about to break out. In the end, the confrontation was postponed, following the
Munich Agreement. He was drafted into the French army shortly after his arrival, and was captured by the Germans at the beginning of
World War II, in 1940. Until the end of the war, Jewish soldiers, most of whom were also
Alsatians, were not allowed in a POW camp. He served as a spiritual leader to the other prisoners in the camp, until his release in 1945, after the surrender of Germany. After his release, he was appointed a teacher of
Talmud and rabbinic law at the Israelite Seminary of France. There he met his future wife, Claude-Anne (Hannah) d'Alsace, who was accepted to the school of liturgy and pedagogy that was open at that time. He served in these positions in the Seminary until his death, and also headed it as temporary director from 1949 to 1951, until the appointment of Rabbi
Henri Shili. In 1977 he was appointed as the permanent director of the Seminary, and died a few days later. During these years he lived in an apartment in the Seminary building, forming a close relationship with the apprentice rabbis and being an available address for them. Under his influence, the Seminary moved to a more conservative and pious line than before, a process that was finally completed with the immigration of
North African Jews to France. Gugenheim was also the editorial director of the Chantiers du Rabbinat, taught at the Yabné School, and was a member of the rabbinical court, dealing with points of matrimonial and civil law, before being responsible for conversions to Judaism. In 1966, he was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. Simultaneously with his teaching in the rabbinical beit midrash of France, he taught in the Jewish high school
École Yabné, and was a member of the
rabbinical court of the
Consistory. He was appointed vice president of the court in 1952, where he mainly dealt with areas related to Jewish identity and
marriage, and soon became responsible for the issue of
conversions. As part of his position, he was also in charge of
agunot and divorce refusals. Together with legal officials from the community, he created a system that allows women who were civilly divorced but did not receive a
divorce from their husbands to sue them in court and demand compensation. Along with these activities, he served as an available address for questions, and worked to make the values of Judaism and its laws clearly accessible in French. His halachic authority, along with his accessibility to applicants from the Jewish community and beyond, made him perceived as an authoritative figure regarding the view of
Orthodox Judaism in France. Thus he was invited to the committees of the
National Assembly of France, to present the Jewish view on the issues of
contraception and
termination of pregnancy before legislation on these issues. In 1966 he was awarded as a
Knight of the Legion of Honour, and in 1973 as a Grand Rabbin. == Personal life ==