Agudath Hakehilot, the synagogue at 10 rue Pavée in the Marais, by Hector Guimard.
Jewish Paris
Paris Kiosque - November 2000 - Volume 7, Number 11
Copyright (c) 2000 - Used with permission.
The city we know as Paris has been inhabited for over 2,000 years. Rome
conquered the area in the fourth century and named it Lutetia Parisiorum, after the Parisi,
the Gallic tribe who lived surrounded by swampland on the Ile de la Cite. And Jews have
lived here ever since, and perhaps even before.
But while Paris has been a place of Jewish greatness, prosperity, and learning, it
has also seen a lot of Jewish tears. For centuries the Jewish community lived within
France only at the sufferance of the king. Expulsions were common, as were punitive
taxes. It was not until the French revolution in the late eighteenth century and then
Napoleon in the early nineteenth that Jews finally had some measure of civil and
religious freedom.
Take the story of Jonathan, a thirteenth century moneylender. In 1290 he made a
loan to a woman who gave him her clothing as collateral. But she spread rumors about
him that he would not return her pledge until she gave him the communion host from the
nearby church. According to her claim Jonathan stabbed the host and threw it into a pot
of boiling water from which it arose and floated in mid air. The frightened woman
blabbed her story to the entire quarter. King Phillipe le Bel burned Jonathan at the stake,
and ordered his house destroyed. Today the church of Les Billettes (22-24 rue des
Archives, 4th) now stands on that site.
Earlier that same century, in 1240, an infamous trial of the Talmud was held in
Paris in Place de Greve (now Place de lHotel de Ville). Instigated by Nicolas Donin, a
Jew turned priest with a hefty ax to grind against the faith he betrayed, it took the form of
a religious disputation or debate. Leaders of the Jewish community were forced to defend
Judaism and its texts against Donin and his henchmen minions of Pope Gregory IX. It
was hardly a trial really as the guilty verdict was predetermined. The sentence?
Cartloads of Jewish books were burned in 1242 at the Place de Greve.
Parisian Jewry suffered terribly during the Nazi occupation when thousands of
Jews were rounded up, processed at the now demolished Velodrome d'Hiver (rue
Nelaton), moved to the transit camp at Drancy (outside Paris), and shipped to their deaths
in Auschwitz and other camps. At war's end the Jewish community and its institutions
were in shambles. Rebuilding did not come easily, but it did come.
Though Paris contains vestiges of the Jewish past, there is a lack of specifically
Jewish architectural monuments as a result of the long enforced absences of the Jewish
community from Paris. Nonetheless, the Jewish presence is there even on some
churches.
During the middle ages a synagogue stood on the Ile de la Cite near Place Louis
Lepine, just about where the flower market now stands. At that time, the Jewish
community lived on or near rue de la Juiverie (rue de la Cite). But in 1182, when King
Phillippe-Auguste confiscated all Jewish property and possessions in order to raise
money to construct the old central market at Les Halles, he tore down the synagogue and
replaced it with a church.
Sixteen years later, in 1198, the same Phillippe-Auguste invited the Jews back so
he could take more money from them for other royal projects. Some went to the left bank
where there was a tiny Jewish community in the fifth and sixth centuries. But most of
them went to the right bank where Paris was developing. Eventually they settled in the
neighborhood around the rue des Rosiers.
Notre Dame de Paris is as famous as it is imposing. It has been and remains a
monument to French Catholicism. So it is surprising that it also holds quite a bit of
interest for Jews. The present Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, was born Aaron
Lustiger, a Jew. His parents sent him to a convent for safe keeping during WW II. They
were murdered in Auschwitz and Aaron converted to Catholicism and took the name
Jean-Marie.
In front of the cathedral you can easily see two figures on either side of the front
portal. On the left is Ecclesia, a beautiful woman wearing a crown. She represents
Christianity. On the right is Synagoga, a woman blindfolded by a serpent around her
eyes. She represents Judaism. These two figures are common in church architecture all
over Europe and represent the theological conflict between Christianity and Judaism.
Across the street from the back of Notre Dame is Place de l'Ile de France. A small
gate on the right side of the square leads to the Memorial to the Unknown Deportee.
Inside are the names of the German death camps where 200,000 French men, women,
and children, Jews and Christians were put to death. It is a moving memorial - simple yet
poignant. As you leave, the French words above the door speak volumes - "Forgive, but
do not forget!"
Not far from here is the Pletzel Yiddish for little place. This section of Paris'
4th arrondissement is a tangle of streets and alleys centered around rue des Rosiers. Here
you will find numerous Jewish shops and restaurants. Jews have lived here since the
early twentieth century. But this was actually a Jewish neighborhood in the middle ages
too. In the thirteenth century it was known as La Juiverie (the Jewry) with its own
synagogues, cemeteries, and food manufacturers. Some of the street names from that
earlier period survive, as we shall see.
In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries Jews here led a precarious existence punctuated
by successive expulsions and returns according to the whims or economic calculations of
respective monarchs. But in 1394 Jews were expelled for a final time they did not return
officially to Paris for nearly four hundred years.
During World War II, Jews were deported from this and other Paris neighborhoods.
Some, who were lucky enough to survive, returned after the liberation and filed legal
actions for the return of their homes and shops that had been appropriated by the
occupying Germans and then the French. Now, once again, it is a vibrant center of
Parisian Jewish life.
A good time to come here is early on a Friday afternoon when residents are busy
preparing for the Sabbath and the streets are busy and lively. But keep it in mind for
Sunday too, when many Paris restaurants are closed and you can always find a meal or a
snack here as well as prepared food to take back to your hotel or as a picnic in one of
Paris' ubiquitous parks and squares. But be aware that the narrow rue des Rosiers is so
crowded on Sunday as to make it difficult to walk.
At 10 rue Pavee is Agudath Hakehilot, an orthodox synagogue. Hector Guimard,
the Art Nouveau architect and decorator famous for the archways he made for the Paris
metro designed the building. Guimard's wife, an American, was Jewish and with the rise
of Nazism they left France for the United States. On Yom Kippur 1940 it was dynamited
by the Germans, but has since been restored and is now a national monument.
Off rue des Rosiers is rue Ferdinand Duval, until 1900 the rue des Juifs. In the
rear of the courtyard of number 20, is a sixteenth century Hotel Particulier known as the
Hotel des Juifs. Now owned by an artist, it is a remnant of a Jewish community of the
eighteenth century composed of Jews from Alsace, Lorraine, and Germany.
Also off rue des Rosiers is rue des Ecouffes (literally street of kites, a bird of prey.
But in the Middle Ages kite was synonymous with pawnbrokers). There are a number of
orthodox synagogues along this short street.
Further up rue des Rosiers is rue des Hospitalieres St. Gervais. Here, at number
six is a Jewish boys school. The plaque on the wall commemorates the 165 students who
were sent to the internment camp at Drancy and then to Auschwitz where they were
murdered.
Courtyard of the Momorial du Martyr Juif Inconnu, 17 rue Geoffroy-l'Asnier.
On the southern end of the Marais, at 17 rue Geoffroy-l'Asnier is the Memorial to
the Unknown Jewish Martyr. This memorial to the six million Jews who were murdered
by the Germans and their accomplices has been expanded since it was built in 1956 and
now houses a museum, which displays documents and photographs of Nazi
concentrations camps and a research library and archives.
The Musée de l'Art et d'Histoire du Judaisme opened to much publicity in December
1998. Dedicated to the celebration of Jewish life in its extensive picture exhibits and
collection of ritual objects, its library also provides rich resources for scholars.
Toni L. Kamins is a freelance journalist, and former editor. She
has covered an array of Jewish and secular subjects for
The New York Times, The New York Daily News,
The Jerusalem Post, New York Magazine, the Village Voice and
other publications.
She is also the author of the Complete Jewish Guide to France and the Complete
Jewish Guide to Britain and Ireland (St. Martin's Press). You can learn more
about her and her books here:
www.completejewishguides.com.
Editor's Note:
Dear Readers, while our writers are always
delighted to hear and to receive comments, both about their columns in the The Paris Kiosque,
as well as your experiences in Paris,
they are unable to answer any requests
for travel information.
Thank you for your understanding.
Museum Passes