The History of Jews in France

The Jewish Community in France is one of the most important communities in the Jewish World today. Numerically it ranks fourth or fifth. Even though its history goes back as far as the Roman era, it is not very well known except for certain episodes like the Sanhedrin or the Dreyfus Affair and a few others. Jewish history and civilization in France is long and rich and as full of diversity as the Jewish people.

In a short study tour of France we will only be able to touch a few important issues and periods;

Rashi and the Tosafists
About an hour's ride east of Paris there is a town called Troyes. Here lived Rashi in the 11th century. Rashi and his grandsons Rabenu Tam and Shmuel ben Meir mark the beginning of a new chapter in the long history of Jewish scholarship and spirituality- the Ashkenazi tradition. Rashi's commentary on the Torah and Talmud are fundamental in the study of both till this very day. Was Rashi an exceptional individual or was he the product of certain historical and spiritual developments in that part of the diasporah at the height of the "Dark Ages". Visiting Troyes where very little remains of that Period, we will learn about Rashi and the other tosafists and put them in the context of what preceded and what followed them, we will learn about the nature of biblical and talmudic commentary and we will deal with the issue of continuity and change in Judaism.

The Jews of Avignon
In the High Middle Ages France exemplified typical ambivalence of medieval Christianity towards Jews: On the one hand religious Judophobia ,persecutions and expulsions and on the other hand tolerating them as economic objects and renders of needed services. The one area in France where there are some remains of medieval French Jewry is in the South in such towns as Avignon, Carpantras, Arles and Montpellier. Paradoxically when Jews were expelled from most of France , here they remained because they were under Papal protection. What remains are ancient Jewish quarters, synagogues, mikvaot and other relics. The fact that this area is adjacent to the French Riviera, does not take away from its attraction.

The Jew of Bordeaux
In 1580 -1640 a process of unification between Spain and Portugal brought the persecutions of the Inquisition to Portugal as well. The result was another wave of New Christians who had sought refuge elsewhere. Adjacent France was the most immediate solution. Officially, France would not accept Jews from 1394. But, since the region around Bordeaux, close to the Spanish border, was impoverished and depopulated in the Hundred Years' War, the French overlooked the disguise and went by formality- they accepted these fugitives as New Christians, also known as "Portuguese Merchants".

In reality, the New Christians enjoyed a privileged situation because they lived as good Catholics, baptized their children, married and buried their dead in Christian manner, without giving the least sign of their Jewish tendencies whatsoever. Nonetheless, by the end of the 18th century, at the height of what seems as their movement toward integration, these Portuguese drifted back, and by their own choice ended up being Jews. Their main communities were Bordeaux and, Saint -Esprit-les- Bayonne but there were others as well in the South East of France.

Emancipation
Following the French Revolution and Napoleon the Jews of France were the first ones to be emancipated . Was emancipation "good for the Jews or bad for the Jews"?What were the meaning and dynamics of emancipation in a state that continued to be Christian? What price did the Jews have to pay with their identity? Did emancipation inevitably lead towards assimilation? Visiting historical sites of the French Revolution and Napoleon we will read texts referring to the Jews in the light of these events.

By the second half of the 19th century Jews tried to assimilate , or as some historians insist- culturally integrate, into French society, with varied degrees of success. The Dreyfus Affair that breaks out towards the turn of the century marks France as one of the main centers of modern Antisemitism. Since then ,Antsemitism seems to be a fundamental component of the French Right. Is it dialectical logic, that the first country to emancipate the Jews should be amongst the first to repudiate them? What is certain is that the Dreyfuss case influenced another assimilated Jew - Theodor Herzel - to establish Zionism as a reaction to the failure of assimilation. There are several sites in Paris where we will be able to tell the story of both Drefuss and Herzel.

In the Holocaust, France also stands out as a very special case of ambivalence. Vichy France remains till today a symbol of collaboration with the Nazis. Yet the fact that "only " 90,000 Jews were sent away from France to the death camps, is because they would only give away the unnaturalized Jews who immigrated to France from elsewhere. The "French" Jews remained but were mistreated locally the "French Way". Despite flagrant Antisemitism in France, quite a few French clergy stand out in the history of the period as righteous people who rescued Jews.

After the Holocaust the Jewish community in France underwent radical change. No longer Ashkenazi, it is mainly constituted of North African Jews. Very much assimilation on the one hand but also significant return to Orthodoxy and significantly pro Zionist. We will meet representatives of the community including educators who will tell us about the nature of the community today.
An new old issue has arisen in the last few months and that is the current wave of terrorism and vandalism against Jews in many parts of France. There is disagreement amongst experts about the context of these - Antisemitism or Anti - Israel.