A brief journey through French Jewish history

(Author: Bernard Katz, Vol. 71, No. 3, Chanukah 2016) 

By the time of Julius Caesar’s conquest in 58-51 B.C.E. until the invasion of the Barbarians in the 5th Century, Gaul – as France was originally known – was a province of the Roman Empire. The earliest evidence of a Jewish presence there concerns an isolated individual, Archelaus, the ethnarch of Judea, who was banished by Augustus in 6 C.E. to Vienne.1 His brother Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, was exiled to Lyon by Caligula in 39 C.E.2 A story which had been thought to be a legend claimed that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. the Romans filled three ships with Jewish captives, which arrived in Bordeaux, Arles and Lyon. Recent archaeological findings, however, suggest that there might be a basis for this legend. Objects identified as Jewish because of the menorah portrayed on them have been discovered around Arles (1st, 4th and early 5th Centuries) and in Bordeaux (3rd and early 4th Centuries).3 Written sources affirm that during the Roman period Jews had been present in Metz (mid-4th cent u r y), Poitiers (late-4th Century), Avignon (late-4th Century) and Arles (mid-5th Cent u r y).4 After 465 C.E. evidence of Jewish existence in France is abundant.5

The Heroic Age of Franco-German Jewry

According to the Jewish historian Irving Agus, only five to ten thousand Jews survived the persecutions and forced conversions between the 4th and 8th Centuries in France, Germany and Italy.6 At the time this constituted half of one percent of world Jewry. By the 20th Century, however, their descendants numbered twelve million and constituted more than 80% of the Jewish people. Agus asserts that this small group of survivors (“very unusual and very remarkable individuals)” possessed two very rare qualities, namely commercial ability and wealth on the one hand and tremendous dedication to the study and practice of Judaism on the other.7 Agus asserts further that the parent group consisted of two groups. The first comprised Jews, most probably enterprising individuals engaged in international commerce, who had migrated to Italy prior to the two great revolts against Rome.8 The second were captives from the revolts and in the main zealous rebels against the Romans.9 They included scholars of the Oral Law.10 According to Agus, it was this combination of high intelligence and wealth which enabled these people to survive centuries of hardships.11

Charlemagne (768–814) was favourably disposed to Jews, inviting them to settle in his territories and freely practice their religion. Under the Carolingians (his descendants), Jews enjoyed complete judicial equality.12 Agus describes the 9th through the 11th Centuries as the heroic age of Franco-German Jewry, during which Jews could practice their religion freely and openly, and organise their lives as an autonomous self-governing group.13 The most important reasons for the great success achieved by Jewish merchants and exporters and importers of goods in this period was the fact that Jews could travel much more easily than Christians and in comparative safety.14 In the pre-Crusade period Jews were politically free, religiously autonomous, economically successful and culturally the most progressive group in Europe.15

Impact of the Crusades and Expulsion

This advantageous position changed with the onset of the Crusades. Although the First Crusade (1096-99) had little immediate effect on the situation of French Jewry, it was in France that the first killings and forced conversions took place, namely in Rouen and Metz.16 Jews lost their monopoly on international trade as Christians began to master this skill in the 12th and 13th Centuries and became more involved as traders with consumers.17 Before the First Crusade money-lending was almost non-existent; among the more than 300 Responsa from the pre-Crusade period there is hardly a case of a Jew who was a professional money lender.18

By the end of the 13th Century the Jewish population of France could have been as high as 100 000.19 Following a series of persecutions, expulsions and readmissions the ‘definitive’ expulsion of Jews from France took place in 1394. After Provence was incorporated into France in 1481, Jews were expelled from there as well. Hence, by the beginning of the 16th Century there were practically no Jews within the present borders of France other than in Alsace and Lorraine, Avignon and Comtat Venaissin and the county of Nice.20

Impact of the French Revolution and Napoleon

On the eve of the French Revolution in 1789, about 40 000 Jews lived within the borders of what is today France. No single French Jewish community could be said to exist; rather, Jews lived in four separate and distinct communities. In Alsace and Lorraine were 30 000 mostly poor but strictly observant Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors had been inherited by France in 1648 as a consequence of the Treaty of Westphalia.21 Centred in Bordeaux were about 5000 Sephardi Jews who were of Marrano origins and who had arrived under the guise of Portuguese merchants. This group was highly acculturated and were permitted to live in France because of their utility as providers of credit.22 In the Comtat Venaissin, a territory centred round Avignon and owned by the Holy See until incorporated into France after the Revolution lived about 2500 Jews. Jews began migrating from the three established centres from the beginning of the 18th Century and on the eve of the Revolution about 500 were living illegally and semi-clandestinely in Paris, albeit with increasing security.23

As a result of the Revolution and the Napoleonic era the Jews of France and Western Europe were granted rights as citizens with equality before the law, and no longer subject to oppressive taxation and enforced residential restrictions.24 The granting of full citizenship rights did not occur immediately after the Revolution and it was somewhat of a struggle given opposition from the deputies from Alsace and Lorraine. Nevertheless, full equality was ultimately achieved on 27 September 1791. In his address to the National Assembly Clermont-Tonnerre, a strong supporter of Jewish equality, said the now famous words, “To the Jews as a Nation, nothing; to the Jews as individuals, everything.”

Napoleon’s attitude towards the Jews is complex and evolved over time. An announcement dated 22 May 1799 reads, “Bonaparte has published a proclamation in which he invites all the Jews of Asia and Africa to gather under his flag in order to re-establish the ancient Jerusalem.” Although the exact text of this proclamation has never been found and some scholars view it as a propaganda manoeuvre and dismiss it completely others argue that it is the forerunner of political Zionism. What is undisputed is that in the initial years of his rule nowhere does Napoleon appear as hostile to the Jews.25It is therefore surprising that within a few years his attitude changed towards one of hostility. In a letter to his brother dated 6 March 1806 he refers to Jews as “the most despicable of men.”26 Contemporary witnesses agree that this change of attitude was connected to the complaints against the Jews arising from their money-lending activities. By the end of the 18th Century 400 000 peasants and landowners were heavily indebted to a few thousand Jews.27 It was during Napoleon’s stay in Strasbourg on 23 and 24 January 1806 on his return from Austerlitz that he decided to take action on the Jewish problem. In a speech in the Conseil d’Etat on 30 April 1806 he accused Jews of being “a nation within a nation.”28

Napoleon established an Assembly of Notables tasked with answering twelve questions, including whether Jews regarded France as their country, whether the laws of France were legally binding on them, whether Jews could marry non-Jews and whether usury to non-Jews was permitted. These were not innocent questions and Napoleon was probing what he considered to be the problematic aspects of the relationship of Judaism to the state. Simon Schwarzfuchs has written that these were all leading questions aimed to compel Jews to choose between their religious law and their duties of patriotism.29

In their preamble the commissioners defined themselves as “French deputies professing the religion of Moses” and proclaimed their adherence to the Talmudic principle that the law of the land is the law – “Dina d’Malkhuta Dina.” The last two questions concerning whether Jewish law permitted usury from Jews and whether from Gentiles, which was aimed at establishing whether Jews had a double standard of morality, proved to be the most challenging. The deputies skillfully (or ingeniously) asserted that the law allowed for commercial loans to foreigners but not to Gentiles living among the Jews. Paula Hyman comments that taken together, the responses of the Assembly constituted a new definition of Jewish identity in the modern world.30

Napoleon expressed his satisfaction with the results of the Assembly and decreed that a session of the Sanhedrin, consisting of 71 members, two-thirds of whom were to be rabbis, be called to ratify the decision of the Assembly and give it rabbinic authority. The Sanhedrin duly ratified the responses of the Assembly and in April 1807 it was dissolved.

On 17 March 1808 Napoleon issued three decrees. The first two were administrative. The autonomous communities were replaced by a central consistory and for each department having at least 2000 Jews a local consistory would be established. The new system for the first time brought together all Jews in France under a central organisation. This constituted a recognition of Judaism as a religion, centralizing its organisation and placing it under government control, a model similar to that set up for Protestants (with Catholicism recognised as the main religion).31 The third decree became known as his “Infamous Decree”, for it undermined the equal rights that Jews had previously been granted by imposing restrictions on commerce and money lending for a period of ten years. It effectively placed the Jews on probation and greatly diminished the admiration most Jews had hitherto felt for Napoleon.32 In 1831 a law was promulgated that rabbis, like ministers of Christian religions, were to be paid by the state. This system remained in place until the separation of church and state in 1905.

In the words of Howard Sachar, “For better or worse the Jews had made their entry into Western society.”33

Schwarzfuchs concludes that despite Napoleon’s hostility to the Jews in general, and his “Infamous Decree” in particular, it cannot be denied that his reorganisation of Jewish life, which implied the definition of Judaism as a Christian-like religion, represented a remarkable attempt to solve the problem of Jewish existence in the modern world. The old model of Jewish autonomy organisation was rejected and replaced with a new model which admitted the existence of a rabbinate in charge of religious life but without absolute authority and which attempted to find a balance between Judaism and the modern world.34

Even after their emancipation, French Jews remained dispersed and small in number. It was only after 1848 that they began to make significant contributions in the spheres of social, economic, political and cultural life in France.35 Famous French Jews include Pissarro, Soutine, Chagall and Modigliani (Art), Offenbach (Music), Rachel and Sarah Bernhardt (Theatre), Henri Bergson, Marcel Proust, Andre Maurois and Elie Wiesel (Literature), Leon Blum, Pierre Mendes-France and Simone Veil (Politics) and Andre Citroen (Business).

The Dreyfus Affair

The French army officer Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935) was one of many Jews who took advantage of the opportunities emancipation had afforded. Hyman observes that “neither Germany nor Austria could have had a Dreyfus Affair, since no German or Austrian Jew had achieved a parallel position in their respective armies.”36 The ‘Dreyfus Affair’ began with Dreyfus’ arrest on charges of espionage in 1894 when he was accused of authoring a handwritten note containing French military secrets. Although the handwriting bore little resemblance to that of Dreyfus, the latter was nevertheless found guilty of treason and sent to Devil’s Island. It was only five years later, in 1899, that he was pardoned and it took a further seven years for him to be fully cleared.

The pivotal role in leading the campaign to exonerate Dreyfus was undertaken by his elder brother Mathieu. A turning point was the publication by Emile Zola of his indictment of French justice under the famed title ‘J’Accuse’ in George Clemenceau’s newspaper L’Aurore.

The conflict generated by the Affair became far greater than merely that of Dreyfus’ guilt or innocence – it became a fight between two distinct political outlooks. In the aftermath of the Affair, the progressive left faction was victorious in the election of 1906. Paul Johnson is of the view that French Jews ultimately paid a high price for the victory of Dreyfus. Although the Dreyfusard victory restored Jewish optimism in the French state it also caused antisemitism to be institutionalised with the establishment of a pro-fascist anti-Semitic League. This ultimately became the most vicious element of the Vichy regime and helped send tens of thousands of Jews to their deaths.37

In his book Dreyfus: A Family Affair, 1789 –1945, Michael Burns traces six generations of the Dreyfus family from the French Revolution until World War II. Their family history parallels, reflects and illuminates the history of the Jews of France during that period.38

Abraham Dreyfus, Alfred’s great-grandfather, was born in 1749 in the village of Rixheim in southern Alsace. A kosher butcher and moneylender, he married Brandel Meyer from nearby Mullheim on the German side of the Rhine. Their son Jacob became a peddler and moneylender and later invested in small properties. Seeking improved economic prospects he relocated his family to Mullhouse, one of Alsace’s main cities and a centre for the textile industry. Jacob’s son Raphael worked as a commission agent, a middleman between textile manufacturers and their customers. Eventually, he purchased a cotton mill, which resulted in the family becoming economically well-off.

The loss of Alsace and Lorraine to Prussia in 1870 resulted in many Jews from there, including Alfred and his older brother Mathieu, relocating to Paris. The Dreyfus family were staunch French patriots and Alfred called the loss of the provinces his “first sorrow.” He joined the army and became a captain. He was described as having much talent but little grace, being distant and disliked, as well as envied because of his family’s wealth. Alfred and his son Pierre served in the French army during World War I and both survived. Less fortunate were his brother Mathieu’s son and son-in-law, both of whom perished as did many other close relatives. World War II caused further devastated the Dreyfus family. Alfred’s favourite grandchild, Madelaine, fought in the Resistance and died in Auschwitz in 1944.

The Holocaust, the French and the Jews

Of the approximately 330 000 Jews living in France in 1940 some 77 000, around 24%, perished in the Holocaust. The attrition rate among the 135 000 non-French born Jews was much higher, between 41–45% compared to the 9–12.6% of French-born Jews.39

In her book The Holocaust, the French and the Jews, Susan Zuccotti concludes that while the Germans bear the primary responsibility, the French government in Vichy and many French civilians must share the burden of guilt. She is particularly damning of the Vichy regime, noting that its officials began preparing racial laws even before any had been decreed by the Germans and that Vichy police interned foreign Jews at a time when their counterparts in the occupied north remained free. Furthermore, Vichy officials ordered French police to round up mostly foreign Jewish men in Paris in 1941 and made no protest when they were deported in March 1942. In July 1942 they ordered the arrests in Paris of more foreign born Jews, this time including women and their often French-born children. Prior to these arrests Pierre Laval, head of the Vichy government, had urged the Germans to deport the children, before the Germans had decided what to do with them. Furthermore in July 1942 the Vichy government supplied the Nazis with foreign Jews from the free zone, where Germany did not as yet have jurisdiction. Vichy also supplied manpower to make arrests and deportations possible as the Germans were understaffed and functioned poorly without help.40

Zuccotti also addresses the converse of the terrible death rate – that 250 000 or 76% of the Jews survived. She argues that part of the explanation for this lies in geography (France being a large country with extensive tracts of remote, often mountainous terrain favourable to hiding). Also, in comparison to Holland and Belgium proportionally less German personnel were employed relative to the size of the country and population. The fact that 50 000 Jews lived in the south east in the Italian occupation zone between November 1942 and September 1943 also affected the survival rates by buying some time.41

Zuccotti maintains that attitudes within the non-Jewish community was an important factor in the survival rate, with many Jews being saved thanks to the assistance of the French population, and also because many French citizens at least turned a blind eye to those activities. She quotes the historian and former Jewish Resistant Leon Poliakov, who in 1949 wrote of “the good sense…the profound humanity of the immense majority of the French people.”42

Zuccotti also quotes from an interview in 1990 which she had with a Mrs Leiris, a French Protestant who had worked for the Red Cross and had looked after Jewish children. An anguished Mrs Leiris asked rhetorically, “How was it possible? How could French gendarmes have rounded up even Jewish children alone without their families? How could they have forced those children, abandoned by the world, into dark and crowded freight cars bound for Auschwitz?” Zuccotti then put to Leiris the reverse question “How was survival possible, since the national and municipal police were so implacable, the Vichy policy so vicious, and the French people unsympathetic?” Leiris responded “But not all were….Those who survived did so because the prevailing climate was rather more sympathetic than hostile.”43

On 16 July 1995, newly elected president Jacques Chirac pronounced that France must take full responsibility for the deportations of its Jews during World War II. Francois Hollande speaking at 70th commemoration of the Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris in 1942 said, “…13 152 men, women and children…..were interned in Drancy….A clear directive had been given by the Vichy administration…. We owe the Jewish martyrs the truth….the truth is that no German soldiers – not a single one – were mobilized at any stage of the operation. The truth is that this crime was committed in France by France.”

Relations between Israel and France

In the years 1956–64, France rather than the US was Israel’s strategic ally.44At the time, the only large-scale source of heavy weapons for Israel was France as America had an embargo policy which Prime Minister Ben-Gurion believed would not be reversed. Two camps existed within the Israeli establishment – one favouring a French orientation supported by Ben-Gurion, Shimon Peres, Moshe Dayan, Ezer Weizmann and Chaim Herzog and the other favouring an American orientation supported by, amongst others, Levi Eshkol and Yitzchak Rabin.45

Israeli action in 1956 to break the blockade of Israel-bound shipping in the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran was synchronized with an assault on the Suez Canal by France and Britain. In June of that year, an agreement was reached between Israel and France for Israel to purchase tanks, jets, light weapons and ammunition – at the time this was equivalent to almost 20% of Israel’s total budget. This relationship was further strengthened by agreements between 1956-58 to establish a nuclear reactor and to co-operate on the manufacture of nuclear weapons.46

\Although Israel-US relationship improved during the Kennedy administration, Israel still viewed France as its greatest ally.47 It was only after Eshkol became prime minister and met in June 1964 with President Lyndon Johnson that the Israeli-US relationship changed completely. This improvement in the relationship was in part attributed to a, “certain chemistry” between Eshkol and Johnson.48 It led to a MOU being signed between the two countries in March 1965, whereby the US pledged to preserve the security of Israel. After the signing of the MOU there could be no return to a French orientation.49

In November 1967, a few months after the Six Day War, President de Gaulle, at his famous press conference, announced the formal reversal of France’s policy, resulting in a shift towards closer ties with Arab world. He used the unfortunate phrase: “the Jewish people, self-confident and domineering.” This statement was made only a few years after hailing Ben-Gurion as “the greatest statesman of the century.”

Relations between France and its Jews

France has both the largest Muslim and the largest Jewish populations in Europe. Muslims number between five and six million, amounting to approximately 10% of the total population. This is a result of relatively unrestricted immigration from the former French colonies of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. A consequence of this influx has been the creation of a disaffected class of poor, frustrated and alienated Muslims who live in crime-ridden, violent and effectively autonomous housing projects on the outskirts of French cities – called banlieus.

A number of unsettling incidents for Jews have taken place in France in recent times. February 2006 saw the gruesome murder of a 23 year-old French Jew of Moroccan descent, Ilan Halimi. In March 2012 three Jewish children and a rabbi in a Jewish school in Toulouse were murdered and in January 2015, in the wake of Charlie Hebdo shooting, four Jews were murdered at the Hypercacher kosher superette. Hundreds of antisemitic incidents, mainly committed by Arab immigrants, are recorded annually. The recent violence may reflect what Michel Gurfinkel calls an “importation of the Palestinian conflict into France.”50

An opinion poll conducted by The Israel Project cites that one in four French Jews said they have considered emigrating due to worsening antisemitism.51 This poll has, however, been criticised by CRIF, the main umbrella organisation for French Jewry.52 It is nevertheless ironic that at a time when, antisemitism amongst French Christians, as consistently shown in opinion polls,53 has declined to its lowest point in modern history, there is so much pessimism among Jews about their future in France. Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president in 2007 and headed up what was perhaps the most philosemitic government in French history. Sarkozy himself has one-quarter Jewish ancestry and a Jewish daughter-in-law.54

French Jewish Demography after 1789

The 40 000 Jews who lived in France at the time of the French Revolution increased by natural growth and were augmented by 44 000 European refugees in the years 1881–1914.55 By the end of World War I the Jewish population numbered around 150 000.56 By the outbreak of World War II, it had more than doubled to 330 000. Between the two world wars France took in more Jewish refugees than any other country in Europe due to its proximity to Germany and its liberal attitude to taking in refugees.57 In the three decades after World War II, 290 000 Jews from North Africa relocated to France (25 000 From Egypt, 65 000 from Morocco, 80 000 from Tunisia and 120 000 from Algeria).58 By 1968, Sephardim constituted the majority.59 In 2013, the Jewish population of France was estimated at 478 000, of whom 283 000 or almost 60% lived in Paris. Only five communities outside Paris comprised Jewish communities in excess of 10 000, namely Marseilles (65 000), Lyon (20 000), Nice (20 000), Strasbourg (12 000) and Toulouse (18 000).60

The French Jewish population has been slowly decreasing, primarily due to emigration, mainly to Israel. This reflects the diminished feeling of security among French Jews.61 After surpassing 2000 annually for several years, aliyah stood at 1619 in 2011 and 1653 in 2012. The number who had made or were making aliyah between January and August 2015 was 25% higher than that same period in the previous year – from 4000 in 2014 to 5100 in same period in 2015.

Places of Jewish Interest

The first documentary evidence of Jews living in Paris is 582.62 In the 12th Cent u r y, even before Notre Dame was built on the Ile de la Cite, a Jewish quarter and a synagogue existed there. The Ile de la Cite is the boat-shaped island on the Seine where the origins of Paris are located and was once inhabited by the Parisii tribe which gave its name to Paris. In the 12th Century, Jews were reputed to have owned half the land in Paris.63

Over the main entrance of Notre Dame are two female statues, Ecclesia and Synagoga – representing the church triumphant and the synagogue defeated. Ecclesia stands upright wearing a crown whereas Synagoga is forlorn, blinded and with the tablets slipping from her hand. In 1240 a famous disputation on the Talmud was held in Paris, after which 24 cart-loads of Jewish books were burned in public.64

Jewish life in Paris’ Marais district can be dated to the beginning of the 13th Century. Since the Revolution, it has been the centre of Jewish Paris. At the heart of the Marais is the Pletzl (Yiddish: ‘little square’) and Rue des Rosiers. The Marais was one of Paris’ poorest areas and served as an entry point for many Jews from Eastern Europe and North Africa. Today, however, concern has been expressed about the decline of Jewish life in the district which, from being one of the poorest areas of Paris, has become very expensive, forcing large numbers of Jews out of the area. Today, the Marais houses the Jewish Museum and the Shoah Memorial, where the names of righteous gentiles and the 77000 Jews killed in the Shoah are listed. The Shoah Memorial contains an exhibit of the cards prepared by Vichy civil servants for the roundup of the Jews of Paris – the most notorious of which occurred on 16 and 17 July 1942, directed by the Nazis and carried out by the French police. On these two days 13 152 Jews were arrested including 4000 children. Before being deported to Auschwitz they were held at detention camps which included Drancy and the Velodrome d’Hiver – this roundup is sometimes referred to as the Vel’d’Hiv roundup.

The magnificent Grande Synagogue of Paris is also known as La Victoire synagogue, after the street in which it is located. Lavishly decorated with marble, stained glass and candelabras, it is often called the “Cathedral Synagogue”,65 which no doubt it was intended to imitate. This synagogue was built in 1874 with the financial support of the Rothschild family and claims to be the largest in France with a seating capacity exceeding 1800. Services are conducted according to the Ahkenazi-Alsacian tradition and the synagogue also serves as the official seat of the Chief Rabbi of France. There is a memorial board in the synagogue complex which lists the names of Parisian Jews who died for France in World War I – the list contains approximately 1200 names.

The Louvre contains a treasure trove of antiquities, including the Mesha Stele dating from the 9th Century B.C.E. This features the second oldest reference to Israel outside of the Bible. It records the triumphs of Mesha, king of Moab, over Israel, which the stele claims “has perished forever.” The same event is recorded in 2 Kings 3, except that here it is recorded that Israel “smote Moab…. [and] destroyed the cities.” The stele was first brought to the attention of scholars in 1868 but efforts to purchase it failed and it was subsequently broken into many pieces. Later, about two-thirds of the fragments were found and reconstructed. Fortunately, a paper imprint (or squeeze) had been taken of the intact stele, enabling scholars to fill in the missing text.

The Louvre also contains an exhibition on Palmyra, one of the Roman Empire’s major cities in what is now Syria in the first three centuries of the Common Era. The plaque in the section says that a number of exceptionally well preserved mural paintings were found here, notably, in the synagogue. In Hebrew and Aramaic, Palmyra is known as Tadmor and legend has it that the city was constructed by Solomon – this view is supported by Josephus but disputed by modern scholars. In present day Palmyra, there is etched into a doorway of a house the first four sentences of the Shema. Concern has been expressed as to whether this will survive the Islamic State occupation [See Zvi Gabay’s article elsewhere in this issue – ed.].

At the time of the Revolution there were at most 500 Jews in Paris. By 1939, there were 150 000 – over half the Jews of France.66 Today it is estimated that 283 000 Jews live in Paris, making up almost 60% of the country’s total Jewish population.

The road from Paris driving east to Strasbourg passes through the Champagne region. At the Taittinger Champagne house in Reims the company shows a movie which refers to a Thibaut (who lived c.1179-1201) and who brought back from Palestine grapes that were to become the grape variety we today know as Chardonnay. A similar legend has it that the name Chardonnay derives from the two Hebrew words Sha’ar (Gates) and A-d-o-n-o-y (God). Reims is also famous for its magnificent cathedral, construction on which commenced in 1211. Of special interest in the cathedral are the Chagall stained glass windows. The write-up in the cathedral says that at a time when art was devoid of any biblical content or inspiration Chagall, who was raised on the Holy Book, devoted many of his works to it.

Troyes is also in the Champagne region, to the south of Reims. It is where Rashi grew up and lived. Champagne is wine country, so it is not surprising that Rashi earned his living from his vineyards and the production of wine.

Further along the road towards Strasbourg is the town of Metz, capital of the Lorraine region. At the time of the Revolution, it was the cultural centre of Ashkenazi Jews in France. Although Rabbeinu Gershom spent most of his life in Mainz he was born in Metz. He is best known for his decree prohibiting Jewish men from taking more than one wife. The first evidence of Jews in Alsace is a report by Benjamin of Tudela (c. 1170) that Jews were living in Strasbourg.67

The Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 marked the end of the Thirty Years’ War and as a result thereof France acquired most of the territory of Alsace and Lorraine. Before the Revolution the economic conditions of Jews were precarious and many engaged in money-lending – almost always on a small scale. The majority were hawkers and dealers.68 The principal settlements of Jews were near the main towns from where they had been expelled but where they could get temporary admission.

In 1905 France decreed the separation between church and state. At that time Alsace and Lorraine were unaffected by the decree as there were then occupied by Germany. When the two provinces were recovered by France after World War II, in order to conciliate the Catholic Church, the religious structures were retained and continued to receive state financial support. The chief rabbi of Strasbourg, unlike that of Paris, is a functionary of the state, whose salary is paid by the state.

Several of Strasbourg’s rabbis and community leaders were active in the Resistance, among them the martyred chief rabbi of Strasbourg Rene Hirschler, after whom a street is named. Strasbourg’s community centre, a huge complex, was built in 1958, the old synagogue having been destroyed during the war. It contains four synagogues (including the Grande synagogue de la Paix, the Merkaz shtibl, a Sephardi synagogue and a youth minyan), a nursery school and a primary school. The Grande synagogue de la Paix seats 1700 and claims to be the second largest synagogue in Europe after Budapest. Strasbourg’s Jewish community, like all those of France, has been enriched by the influx of North African Jews. Strasbourg is the only French city where Ashkenazim outnumber Sephardim (by about 3 to 1).69

Lyon is home to the third largest Jewish community in France and is considered by many to have been the capital of the Resistance during World War II. Klaus Barbie, aka the “Butcher of Lyon,” was Gestapo chief in the town and was the most important war criminal to be put on trial in France. Tracked down by Beate Klarsfeld in Bolivia in 1972 and brought to France in 1983, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987.

The Comtat Venaissin refers to an area within Provence including the towns of Avignon, Carpentras and Cavaillon which were owned by the Holy See prior to the French Revolution. In 1498, Provence became incorporated into France, from where the Jews had been ‘definitively’ expelled in 1394. The Jews were expelled from Provence in 1501. After that date, the only Jews living in southern France were in the Comtat Venaissin and Nice, which were detached from Provence. Many of those expelled found refuge in the Comtat Venaissin and became known as the “Juifs du Pape” (Pope’s Jews).

The geographical location of Provence between three great intellectual centres – Spain, Italy and Franco-Germany – had a decisive influence in Provence becoming a major center for Jewish learning and literature. Provence had an important influence on the development of the Midrash.70 Maimonides began a correspondence with the rabbis of southern France in 1194.Many of these had Spanish origins, including Samuel ibn Tibbon, who translated The Guide of the Perplexed. As Jewish scholarship in Andalusia declined, the next great centre of Torah and science rose in Provence.71 By the 13th and 14th Centuries, probably 15000 Jews lived there.72

The synagogue in Carpentras is the oldest active synagogue in France (and the second oldest active synagogue in Europe after Prague). The edifice was built in 1367 but it was extensively rebuilt in the 18th Century. The complex houses a mikveh, challah bakery, matzah bakery and a beautiful synagogue. The ark contains twenty Sifrei Torah, three dating back to the 13th Century even before the original synagogue was built. Only about 300 Jews live in the town today.

The small, ornately decorated synagogue in Cavaillon was rebuilt in the 18th Century. It has a women’s section located below the wooden floor and apparently when the women were disturbing the men by talking too much the latter would to stamp on the floor to get them to quieten down. The women’s section was also used to bake matzah. Today the synagogue is no longer used. It houses some historical artifacts, the most interesting of which is a menorah with a seven-branched candlestick, dated as 1st Century.

The synagogue in Avignon, located on Place Jerusalem, was built in 1846, replacing a previous building which had been destroyed by fire. Avignon is home to 2500 Jews73 and hosts an active minyan.

Bernard Katz, a frequent contributor to Jewish Affairs, is a Chartered Accountant who works for an investment bank in Johannesburg.

NOTES

1. Encyclopaedia Judaica, Keter Publishing House Ltd, 2nd Edition, 2007, 7:147, hereafter cited as “EJ”
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Agus, Irving, The Heroic Age of Franco-German Jewry, Yeshiva University Press, 1969, ix
7. Ibid, p10
8. Ibid, p2
9. Ibid, p3
10. Ibid, p5
11. Ibid, p10
12. EJ, 7:149
13. Agus, op cit, x
14. Ibid, p40
15. Ibid, p52
16. EJ, 7:150
17. Agus, op cit, p42
18. Ibid, p145
19. Eban, Abba, Heritage, Civilization and the Jews, Steinmatzky Ltd, 1984, p165
20. EJ, 7:153
21. Hyman, Paula, The Jews of Modern France, p8
22. Ibid, p3
23. Ibid, p7
24. Schwarzfuchs, Simon, Napoleon, the Jews and the Sanhedrin, Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1979, ix
25. Ibid, p24, 27
26. Ibid
27. Sachar. Howard, The Course of Modern Jewish History, Vintage Books, 1990, p44
28. Schwarzfuchs, op cit, p45, 27
29. Ibid, p57
30. Hyman, op cit, p42
31. Benbassa, Esther, The Jews of France, A History from Antiquity to the Present, Princeton University Press, 1999, p90
32. Schwarzfuchs, op cit, p125
33. Sachar, Howard, The Course of Modern Jewish History, Vintage Books, New Revised Edition, 1990, p60
34. Schwarzfuchs, op cit, p193
35. Weinberg, David, France, The World Reacts To The Holocaust, Editor, Wyman, David, p4
36. Hyman, op cit, p99
37. Johnson, Paul, A History of the Jews, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987, p390
38. Burns, Michael, Dreyfus: A Family Affair, 1789 – 1945, HarperCollins Publishers, 1991
39. Zuccotti, Susan, The Holocaust, the French and the Jews, BasicBooks, 1993, pp3 and 284
40. Ibid pp280–1
41. Ibid, pp282-3
42. Ibid, pp285-8
43. Ibid, pp3-5
44. Goldstein, Yossi, ‘France or the US? The Struggle to Change Israel’s Foreign Policy Orientation 1956-64’, Part I, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Volume 4, Number 2, 2010, p99
45. Ibid
46. Ibid, pp102-103
47. Goldstein, Part II, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Volume 4, Number 3, 2010, p124
48. Ibid, p127
49. Ibid, p130-1
50. Bell, op cit
51. Berkofsky, Joe, The Jewish Federations of North America, News, More Than One Quarter of Jews in France Want To leave, Poll Finds, www.jewishfederations.org
52. Ibid
53. Bell, op cit
54. Bell, David, World Affairs Journal, Trapped by History: France and Its Jews, www.worldaffairsjournal.org, 26 April 2012
55. Hyman, op cit, p116
56. Ibid, p137
57. Ibid, p152
58. Johnson, p563
59. EJ, 7:162
60. Benbassa, op cit, p194
61. Berman Jewish DataBank, Sergio DellaPergola, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, World Jewish Population, 2013
62. EJ, 15:642
63. Ibid
64. Ibid, 15:643
65. Frank, Ben, France, A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe, Pelican Publishing Company, 2001, p42
66. Ibid, 15:644-5
67. Ibid, 2:6
68. Ibid
69. Lowin, Joseph, Strasbourg, The Jewish Traveler, Edited by Alan Tigay, Jason Aronson Inc., 1994, p501
70. EJ, 13:1263
71. Kraemer, Joel, Maimonides, The Life and World of One of Civilizations Greatest Minds, Doubleday, 2008, p432
72. Ibid, 13:1259-60
73. Frank, op cit, p86