History of the Jews in France
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Core Jewish population: 480,000–550,000[1][2][3][4][5] Enlarged Jewish population (includes non-Jewish relatives of Jews): 600,000[6][7] | |
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Traditional Jewish languages |
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Jews and Judaism |
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The history of the Jews in France deals with
Before 1919, most French Jews lived in
During
In the 21st century, France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third-largest Jewish population in the world (after Israel and the United States). The Jewish community in France is estimated to number 480,000–550,000, depending in part on the definition being used. French Jewish communities are concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Paris, which has the largest Jewish population among all European cities (277,000),[11] Marseille, with a population of 70,000, Lyon, Nice, Strasbourg and Toulouse.[12]
The majority of French Jews in the 21st century are
Approximately 200,000 French Jews live in Israel. Since 2010 or so, more have been making aliyah in response to rising antisemitism in France.[14]
Roman and Merovingian periods
According to the
An early account praised
In the sixth century, Jews were documented in
They probably remained under Roman law until the triumph of Christianity, with the status established by Caracalla, on a footing of equality with their fellow citizens. Their association with fellow citizens was generally amicable, even after the establishment of Christianity in Gaul. The Christian clergy participated in some Jewish feasts; intermarriage between Jews and Christians sometimes occurred; and the Jews made proselytes. Worried about Christians adopting Jewish religious customs, the third Council of Orléans (539) warned the faithful against Jewish "superstitions", and ordered them to abstain from traveling on Sunday and from adorning their persons or dwellings on that day. In the 6th century, a Jewish community thrived in Paris.[18] They built a synagogue on the Île de la Cité, but it was later torn down by Christians, who erected a church on the site.[18]
In 629, King Dagobert proposed the expulsion of all Jews who would not accept Christianity. No mention of the Jews was found from his reign to that of Pepin the Short. The Jews on the other hand continued to dwell and to prosper in what is now Southern France, then known as Septimania and a dependency of the Visigothic kings of Spain. From this epoch (689) dates the earliest known inscription relating to the Jews of France, the "Funerary Stele of Justus, Matrona and Dulciorella" of Narbonne, written in Latin and Hebrew.[15][16][17] The Jews of Narbonne, chiefly merchants, were popular among the people, who often rebelled against the Visigothic kings.[19]
Carolingian period
The presence of Jews in France under
Charlemagne fixed a formula for the Jewish oath to the state. He allowed Jews to enter into lawsuits with Christians. They were not allowed to require Christians to work on Sundays. Jews were not allowed to trade in currency, wine, or grain. Legally, Jews belonged to the emperor and could be tried only by him. But the numerous provincial councils which met during Charlemagne's reign were not concerned with the Jewish communities.
Jews were engaged in export trade, particularly traveling to
Capetians
Persecutions (987–1137)
There were widespread persecutions of Jews in France beginning in 1007 or 1009.[23] These persecutions, instigated by Robert II (972–1031), King of France (987–1031), called "the Pious", are described in a Hebrew pamphlet,[24][25] which also states that the King of France conspired with his vassals to destroy all the Jews on their lands who would not accept baptism, and many were put to death or killed themselves. Robert is credited with advocating forced conversions of local Jewry, as well as mob violence against Jews who refused.[26] Among the dead was the learned Rabbi Senior. Robert the Pious is well known for his lack of religious tolerance and for the hatred which he bore toward heretics; it was Robert who reinstated the Roman imperial custom of burning heretics at the stake.[27] In Normandy under Richard II, Duke of Normandy, Rouen Jewry suffered from persecutions that were so terrible that many women, in order to escape the fury of the mob, jumped into the river and drowned. A notable of the town, Jacob b. Jekuthiel, a Talmudic scholar, sought to intercede with Pope John XVIII to stop the persecution in Lorraine (1007).[28] Jacob undertook the journey to Rome, but was imprisoned with his wife and four sons by Duke Richard, and escaped death only by allegedly miraculous means.[29] He left his eldest son, Judah, as a hostage with Richard while he and his wife and three remaining sons went to Rome. He bribed the pope with seven gold marks and two hundred pounds, who thereupon sent a special envoy to King Robert ordering him to stop the persecutions.[25][30]
If
Another violent commotion arose at about 1065. At this date
Franco-Jewish literature
During this period, which continued until the
Rashi
The great Jewish figure who dominated the second half of the 11th century, as well as the whole rabbinical history of France, was
The Crusades
The Jews of France suffered during the
Jews did not have an active role in the Crusades, like Muslims and Christians did. Instead, Jews feared for their lives, as expulsions and anti-Jewish sentiment was on the rise in Western Europe. In 1256, around 3000 Jews were murdered in the French cities of Bretagne, Anjou, and Poitou. The violence and hatred spread by the pope encouraging violence led to the persecution of Jews in France. Many Jews fled to Narbonne, a city on the southwest coast of the country, which had long been a safe haven and center for Jewish life. The southern coast was more tolerant of Jewish life than the northern half of the country.[43]
Expulsions and Returns
Expulsion from France, 1182
The
During the century which terminated so disastrously for the Jews, their condition was not altogether bad, especially if compared with that of their brethren in Germany. Thus may be explained the remarkable intellectual activity which existed among them, the attraction that it exercised over the Jews of other countries, and the numerous works produced in those days. The impulse given by Rashi to study did not cease with his death; his successors—the members of his family first among them—continued his work. Research moved within the same limits as in the preceding century, and dealt mainly with the Talmud, rabbinical jurisprudence, and Biblical exegesis.[39]
Recalled by Philip Augustus, 1198
This century, which opened with the return of the
The practice of "retention treaties" spread throughout France after 1198. Lords intending to impose a heavy tax (captio, literally "capture") on Jews living in their lordship (dominium) signed treaties with their neighbours, whereby the latter refused to permit the former's Jews entry into his domains, thus "retaining" them for the lord to tax. This practice arose in response to the common flight of Jews in the face of a captio to a different dominium, where they purchased the right to settle unmolested by gifts (bribes) to their new lord. In May 1210 the crown negotiated a series of treaties with the neighbours of the
Under Louis VIII
Twenty-six barons accepted Louis VIII's new measures, but Theobald IV (1201–53), the powerful Count of Champagne, did not, since he had an agreement with the Jews that guaranteed their safety in return for extra income through taxation. Champagne's capital at Troyes was where Rashi had lived a century before, and Champagne continued to have a prosperous Jewish population. Theobald IV would become a major opposition force to Capetian dominance, and his hostility was manifest during the reign of Louis VIII. For example, during the siege of Avignon, he performed only the minimum service of 40 days and left for home amid charges of treachery.
Under Louis IX
In spite of all these restrictions designed to restrain, if not to suppress
In 1234, Louis freed his subjects from a third of their registered debts to Jews (including those who had already paid their debts), but debtors had to pay the remaining two-thirds within a specified time. It was also forbidden to imprison Christians or to sell their real estate to recover debts owed to Jews. The king wished in this way to strike a deadly blow at usury.
In 1243, Louis ordered, at the urging of Pope Gregory IX, the burning in Paris of some 12,000 manuscript copies of the Talmud and other Jewish works.
In order to finance his first Crusade, Louis ordered the expulsion of all Jews engaged in usury and the confiscation of their property, for use in his crusade, but the order for the expulsion was only partly enforced if at all. Louis left for the Seventh Crusade in 1248.
However, he did not cancel the debts owed by Christians. Later, Louis became conscience-stricken, and, overcome by scruples, he feared lest the treasury, by retaining some part of the interest paid by the borrowers, might be enriched with the product of usury. As a result, one-third of the debts was forgiven, but the other two-thirds were to be remitted to the royal treasury.
In 1251, while Louis was in captivity on the Crusade, a popular movement rose up with the intention of traveling to the east to rescue him; although they never made it out of northern France, Jews were subject to their attacks as they wandered throughout the country (see Shepherds' Crusade).
In 1257 or 1258 ("Ordonnances", i. 85), wishing, as he says, to provide for his safety of soul and peace of conscience, Louis issued a mandate for the restitution in his name of the amount of usurious interest which had been collected on the confiscated property, the restitution to be made either to those who had paid it or to their heirs.
Later, after having discussed the subject with his son-in-law, King Theobald II of Navarre and Count of Champagne, Louis decided on 13 September 1268 to arrest Jews and seize their property. But an order which followed close upon this last (1269) shows that on this occasion also Louis reconsidered the matter. Nevertheless, at the request of Paul Christian (Pablo Christiani), he compelled the Jews, under penalty of a fine, to wear at all times the rouelle or badge decreed by the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215. This consisted of a piece of red felt or cloth cut in the form of a wheel, four fingers in circumference, which had to be attached to the outer garment at the chest and back.
The Medieval Inquisition
The Inquisition, which had been instituted in order to suppress Catharism, finally occupied itself with the Jews of Southern France who converted to Christianity. The popes complained that not only were baptized Jews returning to their former faith but that Christians also were being converted to Judaism. In March 1273, Pope Gregory X formulated the following rules: relapsed Jews, as well as Christians who abjured their faith in favor of "the Jewish superstition", were to be treated by the Inquisitors as heretics. The instigators of such apostasies, as those who received or defended the guilty ones, were to be punished in the same way as the delinquents.
In accordance with these rules, the Jews of Toulouse, who had buried a Christian convert in their cemetery, were brought before the Inquisition in 1278 for trial, with their rabbi, Isaac Males, being condemned to the stake. Philip IV at first ordered his seneschals not to imprison any Jews at the instance of the Inquisitors, but in 1299 he rescinded this order.
The Great Exile of 1306
Toward the middle of 1306 the treasury was nearly empty, and the king, as he was about to do the following year in the case of the Templars, condemned the Jews to banishment, and took forcible possession of their property, real and personal. Their houses, lands, and movable goods were sold at auction; and for the king were reserved any treasures found buried in the dwellings that had belonged to the Jews. That Philip the Fair intended merely to fill the gap in his treasury, and was not at all concerned about the well-being of his subjects, is shown by the fact that he put himself in the place of the Jewish moneylenders and exacted from their Christian debtors the payment of their debts, which they themselves had to declare. Furthermore, three months before the sale of the property of the Jews the king took measures to ensure that this event should be coincident with the prohibition of clipped money, in order that those who purchased the goods should have to pay in undebased coin. Finally, fearing that the Jews might have hidden some of their treasures, he declared that one-fifth of any amount found should be paid to the discoverer. It was on 22 July, the day after Tisha B'Av, a Jewish fast day, that the Jews were arrested. In prison they received notice that they had been sentenced to exile; that, abandoning their goods and debts, and taking only the clothes which they had on their backs and the sum of 12 sous tournois each, they would have to quit the kingdom within one month. Speaking of this exile, a French historian has said,
In striking at the Jews, Philip the Fair at the same time dried up one of the most fruitful sources of the financial, commercial, and industrial prosperity of his kingdom.[46]
To a large extent, the history of the Jews of France ceased. The span of control of the King of France had increased considerably in extent. Outside the
Return of the Jews to France, 1315
Nine years had hardly passed since the expulsion of 1306 when Louis X of France (1314–16) recalled the Jews. In an edict dated 28 July 1315, he permitted them to return for a period of twelve years, authorizing them to establish themselves in the cities in which they had lived before their banishment. He issued this edict in answer to the demands of the people. Geoffrey of Paris, the popular poet of the time, says in fact that the Jews were gentle in comparison with the Christians who had taken their place, and who had flayed their debtors alive; if the Jews had remained, the country would have been happier; for there were no longer any moneylenders at all.[48] The king probably had the interests of his treasury also in view. The profits of the former confiscations had gone into the treasury, and by recalling the Jews for only twelve years he would have an opportunity for ransoming them at the end of this period. It appears that they gave the sum of 122,500 livres for the privilege of returning. It is also probable, as Adolphe Vuitry states, that a large number of the debts owing to the Jews had not been recovered, and that the holders of the notes had preserved them; the decree of return specified that two-thirds of the old debts recovered by the Jews should go into the treasury. The conditions under which they were allowed to settle in the land are set forth in a number of articles; some of the guaranties which were accorded the Jews had probably been demanded by them and been paid for.[49]
They were to live by the work of their hands or to sell merchandise of good quality; they were to wear the circular badge, and not discuss religion with laymen. They were not to be molested, either with regard to the chattels they had carried away at the time of their banishment, or with regard to the loans which they had made since then, or in general with regard to anything which had happened in the past. Their synagogues and their cemeteries were to be restored to them on condition that they would refund their value; or, if these could not be restored, the king would give them the necessary sites at a reasonable price. The books of the Law that had not yet been returned to them were also to be restored, with the exception of the Talmud. After the period of twelve years granted to them, the king might not expel the Jews again without giving them a year's time in which to dispose of their property and carry away their goods. They were not to lend on usury, and no one was to be forced by the king or his officers to repay to them usurious loans.
If they engaged in pawnbroking, they were not to take more than two deniers in the pound a week; they were to lend only on pledges. Two men with the title "auditors of the Jews" were entrusted with the execution of this ordinance and were to take cognizance of all claims that might arise in connection with goods belonging to the Jews that had been sold before the expulsion for less than half of what was regarded as a fair price. The king finally declared that he took the Jews under his special protection and that he desired to have their persons and property protected from all violence, injury, and oppression.
Expulsion of 1394
On 17 September 1394, Charles VI suddenly published an ordinance in which he declared, in substance, that for a long time he had been taking note of the many complaints provoked by the excesses and misdemeanors which the Jews committed against Christians; and that the prosecutors, having made several investigations, had discovered many violations by the Jews of the agreement they had made with him. Therefore, he decreed as an irrevocable law and statute that thenceforth no Jew should dwell in his domains ("Ordonnances", vii. 675). According to the Religieux de St. Denis, the king signed this decree at the insistence of the queen ("Chron. de Charles VI." ii. 119).[50] The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might sell their property and pay their debts. Those indebted to them were enjoined to redeem their obligations within a set time; otherwise, their pledges held in pawns were to be sold by the Jews. The provost was to escort the Jews to the frontier of the kingdom. Subsequently, the king released the Christians from their debts.[51]
Provence
Archaeological evidence has been discovered of a Jewish presence in Provence since at least the 1st century. The earliest documentary evidence for the presence of Jews dates from the middle of the 5th century in Arles. The Jewish presence reached a peak in 1348 when it probably numbered about 15,000.[52]
Provence was not incorporated into France until 1481, and the expulsion edict of 1394 did not apply there. The privileges of the Jews of Provence were confirmed in 1482. However, from 1484, anti-Jewish disturbances broke out, with looting and violence perpetrated by laborers from outside the region hired for the harvest season. In some places, Jews were protected by the town officials, and they were declared to be under royal protection. However, a voluntary exodus began and was accelerated when similar disorders were repeated in 1485.[52] According to Isidore Loeb, in a special study of the subject in the Revue des Études Juives (xiv. 162–183), about 3,000 Jews came to Provence after the Alhambra Decree expelled Jews from Spain in 1492.
From 1484, one town after another had called for expulsion, but the calls were rejected by
During the second half of the 17th century, a number of Jews attempted to reestablish themselves in Provence. Before the French Revolution abolished the administrative entity of Provence, the first community outside the southwest, Alsace-Lorraine and Comtat Venaissin, was re-formed in Marseilles.[52]
Early modern period
17th century
At the beginning of the 17th century, Jews began again to re-enter France. This resulted in a new edict of 23 April 1615[53] which forbade Christians, under the penalty of death and confiscation, to shelter Jews or to converse with them.
Alsace was home to a significant number of Jews. In annexing the region in 1648, the French government was at first inclined toward the banishment of Jews living in those provinces but thought better of it in view of the benefit he could derive from them. On 25 September 1675, Louis XIV granted these Jews letters patent, taking them under his special protection. This, however, did not prevent them from being subjected to every kind of extortion, and their position remained the same as it had been under the Austrian government.
In 1683, Louis XIV expelled Jews from the newly acquired colony of Martinique.[citation needed] The Regency was no less severe.[clarification needed][citation needed]
Beginnings of emancipation
In the course of the 18th century, the attitude of the authorities toward Jews became more tolerant and corrected previous legislation. The authorities often overlooked infractions of the edict of banishment; a colony of
By the 1780s there were about 40,000 to 50,000 Jews in France, chiefly centered in Bordeaux, Metz, and a few other cities. They had very limited rights and opportunities, apart from the money-lending business, but their status was not illegal.
The Revolution and Napoleon
The
The fall of the Bastille was the signal for disorders everywhere in France. In certain districts of Alsace the peasants attacked the dwellings of the Jews, who took refuge in Basel. A gloomy picture of the outrages upon them was sketched before the National Assembly (3 August) by the abbé Henri Grégoire, who demanded their complete emancipation. The National Assembly shared the indignation of the prelate, but left the question of emancipation undecided; it was intimidated by the deputies of Alsace, especially by Jean-François Rewbell.[55]
On 22 December 1789, the Jewish question came again before the Assembly in debating the issue of admitting to public service all citizens without distinction of creed. Mirabeau, the abbé Grégoire,
I believe that freedom of worship does not permit any distinction in the political rights of citizens on account of their creed. The question of the political existence of the Jews has been postponed. Still the Muslems and the men of all sects are admitted to enjoy political rights in France. I demand that the motion for postponement be withdrawn, and a decree passed that the Jews in France enjoy the privileges of full citizens.
This proposition was accepted amid loud applause. Rewbell endeavored, indeed, to oppose the motion, but he was interrupted by Regnault de Saint-Jean, president of the Assembly, who suggested "that every one who spoke against this motion should be called to order, because he would be opposing the constitution itself".
During the Reign of Terror
Judaism in France thus became, as the
Meanwhile, the French Jews gave proofs of their patriotism and of their gratitude to the land that had emancipated them. Many of them died in battle as part of the Army of the Republic while fighting the forces of Europe in coalition. To contribute to the war fund, candelabra of synagogues were sold, and wealthier Jews deprived themselves of their jewels to make similar contributions.
Attitude of Napoleon
Though the Revolution had begun the process of
After the Restoration
The restoration of
State recognition
Of the faiths recognized by the state, only Judaism had to support its ministers, while those of the Catholic and Protestant churches were supported by the government. This legal inferiority was removed in 1831, thanks to the intervention of the Duke of Orléans, lieutenant-general of the kingdom, and to the campaign led in Parliament by the deputies
Full equality
Full equality did not occur until 1831. By the fourth decade of the nineteenth century, France provided an environment in which Jews took active and many times leading roles. The Napoleonic policy of carrières aux talents, or 'careers for the gifted', permitted French Jews to enter previously forbidden fields such as the arts, finance, trade, and government. For this they were never forgiven by primarily Royalist and Catholic antisemites.[citation needed]
Assimilation
While the Jews had become in other respects the equals of their Christian fellow citizens, the
The 1870
People of Jewish faith in France were becoming assimilated into their lives. After their Emancipation in 1791, Jews in France had new freedoms. For example, Jews were allowed to attend schools that were once delegated for just non-Jews. They were also allowed to pray in their own synagogues. Lastly, many Jews found themselves moving from the rural areas of France and into the big cities. In these big cities, Jews had new job opportunities and many were advancing up the economic ladder.[citation needed]
Although life was looking brighter for these Western Jews, some Jews who lived in Eastern Europe believed that the Emancipation in Western countries were causing Jews to lose their traditional beliefs and culture. As more and more Jews were becoming assimilated into their new lives, these Jews were breaking away from rabbinical law and rabbinical authority decreased. For example, some Jews were marrying outside of their religion and their children were growing up in homes where they were not being introduced to traditional beliefs and losing connection with their roots. Also, fewer and fewer Jews in these new urbanized Jewish homes were following the strict rules of Kosher laws. Many Jews were so preoccupied with assimilating and prospering in their new lives that they formed a new type of Judaism that would fit with the times. The Reform Movement came about to let Jews stay connected to their roots while also living their lives without so many restrictions.[citation needed]
Antisemitism
Alphonse Toussenel (1803–1885) was a political writer and zoologist who introduced antisemitism into French mainstream thinking. A utopian socialist and a disciple of Charles Fourier, he criticized the economic liberalism of the July Monarchy and denounced the ills of civilization: individualism, egoism, and class conflict. He was hostile to the Jews and also to the British. Toussenel's Les juifs rois de l'époque, histoire de la féodalité financière (1845) argued that French finance and commerce was controlled by an alien Jewish presence, typified in the malign influence of the Rothschild banking family of France. Toussenel's antisemitism was rooted in a revolutionary-nationalist interpretation reading of French history. He was innovative and using zoology as a vehicle for social criticism, and his natural history books, as much as his political writings, were infused with antisemitic and anti-English sentiments. For Toussenel, the English and the Jews represented external and internal threats to French national identity.[59]
Antisemitism based on racism emerged in the 1880s led by
Dreyfus affair
The Dreyfus affair was a major political scandal that convulsed France from 1894 until its resolution in 1906, and which reverberated for decades longer. The affair is often seen as a modern and universal symbol of injustice for reasons of state[62] and remains one of the most striking examples of a complex miscarriage of justice where the press and public opinion played a central role. The issue was blatant antisemitism as practiced by the Army and defended by traditionalists (especially Catholics) against secular and republican forces, including most Jews. In the end, the latter triumphed, albeit at a very high personal cost to Dreyfus himself.[63][64]
The affair began in November 1894 with the conviction for treason of Captain
Two years later, in 1896, evidence came to light identifying a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy as the real spy. High-ranking military officials suppressed the new evidence and a military court unanimously acquitted Esterhazy after the second day of his trial. The Army accused Dreyfus of additional charges based on false documents. Word of the military court's framing of Dreyfus and of the attendant cover-up began to spread, chiefly owing to J'Accuse...!, a vehement open letter published in a Paris newspaper in January 1898 by the notable writer Émile Zola. Activists put pressure on the government to reopen the case.
In 1899, Dreyfus was returned to France for another trial. The intense political and judicial scandal that ensued divided French society between those who supported Dreyfus (now called "Dreyfusards"), such as Anatole France, Henri Poincaré and Georges Clemenceau, and those who condemned him (the anti-Dreyfusards), such as Édouard Drumont, the director and publisher of the antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole. The new trial resulted in another conviction and a 10-year sentence but Dreyfus was pardoned and set free. All accusations against Alfred Dreyfus eventually were demonstrated to be baseless, and in 1906 Dreyfus was exonerated and reinstated as a major in the French Army.
The Affair from 1894 to 1906 divided France deeply and lastingly into two opposing camps: the pro-Army, mostly Catholic "anti-Dreyfusards" who generally lost the initiative to the anticlerical, pro-republican Dreyfusards. It embittered French politics and helped the radical party come to power.[65][66]
20th century
The relatively small Jewish community was based in Paris, and very well established in the city's business, financial, and intellectual elite. A third of Parisian bankers were Jewish, led by the
By the time Dreyfus was fully exonerated in 1906, antisemitism declined sharply and it declined again during the First World War, as a nation was aware that many Jews died fighting for France. The antisemitic newspaper La Libre Parole closed in 1924, and the former anti-Dreyfusard Maurice Barrès included Jews among France's "spiritual families".[71][72]
After 1900, a wave of Jewish immigrants arrived, mostly fleeing the
The new arrivals got along poorly with the established elite Jewish community. They did not want to assimilate, and they vigorously supported such new causes, especially
World War II and the Holocaust
When France came under occupation by Nazi Germany in June 1940, about 330,000 Jews lived in France (and another 370,000 in never occupied French North Africa). Of the 330,000, fewer than half held French citizenship and the others were foreigners, mostly exiles from Germany and Central Europe who had immigrated to France during the 1930s.[8] Another 110,000 French Jews were living in the colony of French Algeria.[74]
About 200,000 Jews, and the large majority of foreign Jews, resided in the Paris area. Among the 150,000 French Jews, about 30,000, generally native to Central Europe, had recently obtained French citizenship after immigrating to France during the 1930s. Following the 1940 armistice after Germany invaded France, the Nazis incorporated the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine into Germany. The remainder of northern and western France was placed under German military control. Unoccupied southern metropolitan France and the French empire were placed under the control of the
German occupation forces published their first anti-Jewish measure on 27 September 1940 as the "First Ordinance." The measure was a census of Jews, and defined "
The first roundup of Jews took place on 14 May 1941, and 4,000 foreign Jews were taken captive. Another roundup took place on 20 August 1941, collecting both French and foreign Jews, who were sent to the
In the meantime, the Germans began deportations of Jews from France to the death camps in eastern Europe. The first trains left on 27 March 1942. Deportations continued until 17 August 1944, by which time nearly 76,000 Jews (including those from Vichy France) were deported, of whom only 2,500 survived. (see Timeline of deportations of French Jews to death camps.) The majority of Jews deported were non-French Jews.[8] One quarter of the pre-war Jewish population of France was killed in that process.
Antisemitism was particularly virulent in Vichy France, which controlled a third of France from 1940 to 1942, at which point the Germans took over that southern area. Vichy's Jewish policy was a mixture of 1930s antiforeigner legislation with the virulent antisemitism of the Action Française movement.
On the other hand, France is recognised as the nation with the third highest number of Righteous Among the Nations (according to the Yad Vashem museum, 2006). This award is given to "non-Jews who acted according to the most noble principles of humanity by risking their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust."
In 1995 French President Jacques Chirac formally apologized to the Jewish community for the complicit role that French policemen and civil servants played in the roundups. He said:
- "These black hours will stain our history for ever and are an injury to our past and our traditions. Yes, the criminal madness of the occupant was assisted ('secondée') by the French, by the French state. Fifty-three years ago, on 16 July 1942, 450 policemen and gendarmes, French, under the authority of their leaders, obeyed the demands of the Nazis. That day, in the capital and the Paris region, nearly 10,000 Jewish men, women and children were arrested at home, in the early hours of the morning, and assembled at police stations... France, home of the Enlightenment and the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, land of welcome and asylum, France committed that day the irreparable. Breaking its word, it delivered those it protected to their executioners."[77]
Chirac also identified those who were responsible: "450 policemen and gendarmes, French, under the authority of their leaders [who] obeyed the demands of the Nazis."
In July 2017, while at a ceremony at the site of the Vélodrome d'Hiver, France's President Emmanuel Macron denounced the country's role in the Holocaust and the historical revisionism that denied France's responsibility for 1942 roundup and subsequent deportation of 13,000 Jews (or the eventual deportation of 76,000 Jews). He refuted claims that the Vichy government, in power during WW II, did not represent the State.[78] "It was indeed France that organised this", French police collaborating with the Nazis. "Not a single German" was directly involved, he added.
Neither Chirac nor François Hollande had specifically stated that the Vichy government, in power during World War II, actually represented the French State.[79] Macron on the other hand, made it clear that the government during the War was indeed that of France. "It is convenient to see the Vichy regime as born of nothingness, returned to nothingness. Yes, it's convenient, but it is false. We cannot build pride upon a lie."[80][81]
Macron made a subtle reference to Chirac's 1995 apology when he added, "I say it again here. It was indeed France that organized the roundup, the deportation, and thus, for almost all, death."[82][83]
Post-World War II: Anti-discriminatory laws and migration
Part of a series on |
Jewish exodus from the Muslim world |
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Background |
Antisemitism in the Arab world |
Exodus by country |
Remembrance |
Related topics |
In the wake of the Holocaust, around 180,000 Jews remained in France, many of whom were refugees from Eastern Europe who either could not or would not return to their former home countries. To prevent the types of abuses that took place under the German Occupation and
Jewish exodus from France's colonies in North Africa
The surviving French Jews were joined in the late 1940s, 1950s and 1960s by large numbers of Jews from France's predominantly Muslim North African colonies (along with millions of other French nationals) as part of the
By 1951, France's Jewish population totalled around 250,000.[18] Between 1956 and 1967, about 235,000 Sephardi Jews from Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt immigrated to France.
By 1968, Sephardi Jews from the former French possessions in North Africa constituted the majority of the Jews of France. Before World War II and the Holocaust, French Jews were predominately from the
In the
France–Israel relations
Since World War II, France's government has varied in supporting and opposing the Israeli government. It was initially a very strong supporter of Israel, voting for its formation at the United Nations. It was Israel's main ally and primary supplier of military hardware for nearly two decades between 1948 and 1967.[84]
After the military alliance between France and Israel during the 1956 Suez Crisis, relations between Israel and France remained strong. It is widely believed that, as a result of the Protocol of Sèvres agreement, the French government secretly transported parts of its own atomic technology to Israel in the late 1950s which the Israeli government used to create nuclear weapons.[85]
But, after the end of the Algerian War in 1962, in which Algeria gained independence, France began to shift toward a more pro-Arab view. This change accelerated rapidly after the Six-Day War in 1967, in which the relations became strained. Following the war, the United States became Israel's main supplier of weapons and military technology.[84] After the 1972 Munich massacre at the Olympics, the French government refused to extradite Abu Daoud, one of the planners of the attack.[86] Both France and Israel participated in the 15-year-long Lebanese Civil War.
21st century
France has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third largest Jewish population in the world (after Israel and the United States). The Jewish community in France is estimated from a core population of 480,000–500,000[1][2][3][4] to an enlarged population of 600,000.[6][7]
In 2009, France's highest court, the
Antisemitism and Jewish emigration
In the early 2000s, rising levels of
However, Jewish philanthropist Baron
Rises in antisemitism in modern France have been linked to the intensifying
Between 2000 and 2009, 13,315 French Jews moved to Israel, or made
However, in the long term, France is not one of the top countries of Jewish emigration toward Israel.[111] Many French Jews feel a strong attachment to France.[112] In November 2012, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a joint press conference with François Hollande advised the French Jewish community by saying "In my role as Prime Minister of Israel, I always say to Jews, wherever they may be, I say to them: Come to Israel and make Israel your home." alluding to former Israel Prime Minister's Ariel Sharon's similar 2004 advisement towards the French Jewish community to move to Israel.[113] In 2013, 3,120 French Jews immigrated to Israel, marking a 63% increase over the previous year.[114]
During the first few months of 2014,
In January 2015, events such as the
Hours after the
Following the November 2015 Paris attacks, committed by suspected ISIS affiliates reputedly in retaliation for Opération Chammal, more than 80 percent of French Jews considered making aliyah.[127][128][129] The largest attack on the evening of 13 November killed 90 people, leaving 200 wounded at a rock concert in the Bataclan Theatre in Paris. Although its long time Jewish owners (who regularly set Jewish events there, including some in support of Israel) had sold the theatre shortly before the massacre, speculation arose about an antisemitic motive behind the attack, but this was not a popular theory in the French media. However, to some, this possible antisemitic motive was concealed by the general media, raising questions about the media's motives to do this, an issue reflected in the French Jewish community press.
According to the Jewish Agency, nearly 6500 French Jews had made aliyah as of mid-November 2015 and it was estimated that 8000 French Jews would settle down in Israel by the end of 2015.[130][131][132]
In January 2016, a 35-year-old teacher in Marseille was attacked with a machete by a Kurdish teenager.[133] Some Jewish groups debated recommending that Jews not wear the kippah in public.[134][135] A 73 year old Jewish municipal councillor in Créteil was murdered in his apartment the same month.[136][137]
On 4 April 2017, the horrific murder of a 65-year-old French Jewish woman,
On 23 March 2018, an 85-year-old French Jewish woman and Holocaust survivor, Mireille Knoll, was found dead in her apartment in the east of the French capital, where she lived alone.[139] She had been murdered by two Muslim suspects, one of which she had known since he was a child. The chief rabbi of Paris, Haïm Korsia, wrote on Twitter that he was "horrified" by the killing.
See also
- Abraham of Aragon
- D'Estienne du Bourguet Family
- Paris's Museum of Jewish Art and History
- History of the Jews in Alsace, in Arles, in Besançon
- French Jews in Israel
- List of French Jews
- List of Holocaust memorials and museums in France
- List of West European Jews
- France-Israel relations
- Mémorial de la Shoah
- TFJ
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Other references
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "France". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
- History of the Jews in France at the website of Jewish Virtual Library
Further reading
- Adler, Jacques. "The Jews and Vichy: reflections on French historiography." Historical Journal 44.4 (2001): 1065–1082.
- Arkin, Kimberly A. Rhinestones, Religion, and the Republic: Fashioning Jewishness in France (Stanford University Press, 2014) online
- Benbassa, Esther. The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present (2001) excerpt and text search; online
- Birnbaum, Pierre, and Jane Todd. The Jews of the Republic: A Political History of State Jews in France from Gambetta to Vichy (1996).
- Debré, Simon. "The Jews of France." Jewish Quarterly Review 3.3 (1891): 367–435. long scholarly description. online free
- Doron, Daniella. Jewish Youth and Identity in Postwar France: Rebuilding Family and Nation (Indiana UP, 2015).
- Graetz, Michael, and Jane Todd. The Jews in Nineteenth-Century France: From the French Revolution to the Alliance Israelite Universelle (1996)
- Graizbord, David. "Becoming Jewish in Early Modern France: Documents on Jewish Community-Building in Seventeenth-Century Bayonne and Peyrehorade." journal of social history (2006): 147–180.
- Haus, Jeffrey. "Liberte, Egalite, Utilite: Jewish Education and State in Nineteenth-Century France." Modern Judaism 22.1 (2002): 1–27. online
- Hyman, Paula E. The Jews of Modern France (1998) excerpt and text search
- Hyman, Paula. From Dreyfus to Vichy: The Remaking of French Jewry, 1906–1939 (Columbia UP, 1979). online free to borrow
- Safran, William (May 2004). "Ethnoreligious Politics in France: Jews and Muslims". S2CID 145166232.
- Schechter, Ronald. Obstinate Hebrews: Representations of Jews in France, 1715–1815 (Univ of California Press, 2003)
- Schoolcraft, Ralph. "In Lieu of Memory: Contemporary Jewish Writing in France," Shofar (2008) 26#4 online
- Taitz, Emily. The Jews of Medieval France: The Community of Champagne (1994) online
- Weinberg, Henry H. The myth of the Jew in France, 1967–1982 (Mosaic Press 1987)
Antisemitism
- Anderson, Thomas P. "Edouard Drumont and the Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism." Catholic Historical Review (1967): 28–42. in JSTOR
- Bell, Dorian. Globalizing Race: Antisemitism and Empire in French and European Culture (Northwestern UP, 2018). online
- Birnbaum, Pierre; Kochan, Miriam. Anti-Semitism in France: A Political History from Léon Blum to the Present (1992) 317p.
- Busi, Frederick. The pope of antisemitism: the career and legacy of Edouard-Adolphe Drumont (University Press of America, 1986)
- Byrnes, Robert F. Antisemitism in modern France (1969).
- Byrnes, R. F. "Edouard Drumont and La France Juive." Jewish Social Studies (1948): 165–184. in JSTOR
- Cahm, Eric. The Dreyfus affair in French society and politics (Routledge, 2014).
- Caron, Vicki. "The'Jewish Question'from Dreyfus to Vichy." in Martin Alexander, ed., French History since Napoleon (1999): 172–202, a guide to the historiography.
- Caron, Vicki. "The Antisemitic revival in France in the 1930s: the socioeconomic dimension reconsidered." Journal of Modern History 70.1 (1998): 24–73. online
- Cole, Joshua. "Constantine before the riots of August 1934: civil status, anti-Semitism, and the politics of assimilation in interwar French Algeria." Journal of North African Studies 17.5 (2012): 839–861.
- Fitch, Nancy. "Mass Culture, Mass Parliamentary Politics, and Modern Anti-Semitism: The Dreyfus Affair in Rural France." American Historical Review 97#1 (1992): 55–95. online
- Goldberg, Chad Alan. "The Jews, the Revolution, and the Old Regime in French Anti-Semitism and Durkheim's Sociology." Sociological Theory 29.4 (2011): 248–271.
- Isser, Natalie. Antisemitism during the French Second Empire (1991) online
- Judaken, Jonathan. Jean-Paul Sartre and the Jewish question: anti-antisemitism and the politics of the French intellectual (U of Nebraska Press, 2006)
- Kalman, Samuel. The extreme right in interwar France: the Faisceau and the Croix de Feu (Routledge, 2016).
- Kennedy, Sean. Reconciling France Against Democracy: The Croix de Feu and the Parti Social Fran ais, 1927–1945 (McGill-Queen's Press-MQUP, 2014).
- Lindemann, Albert S. The Jew Accused: Three Anti-Semitic Affairs (Dreyfus, Beilis, Frank) 1894–1915 (1991)
- Mandel, Maud S. Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict (Princeton University Press, 2014)
- Marrus, Michael R. and Robert 0. Paxton. Vichy France and the Jews (1981) online
- Read, Piers Paul. The Dreyfus Affair (2012)
- Shields, James G. "Antisemitism in France: The spectre of Vichy." Patterns of Prejudice 24#2–4 (1990): 5–17.
- Zuccotti, Susan. The Holocaust, the French, and the Jews (1999)
External links
- Jean-Marc Dreyfus, Institut d'Études Politiques, Paris; Jonathan Laurence, Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Anti-semitism in France.
- "The Holocaust in France" Archived 22 February 2019 at the Wayback Machine, Yad Vashem website
- "The Jews of France" Archived 13 June 2018 at the The Museum of the Jewish People at Beit Hatfutsot