The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present. PDF
Preview The Jews of France: A History from Antiquity to the Present.
THE JEWS OF FRANCE THE JEWS OF FRANCE A HISTORY FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT Esther Benbassa TranslatedbyM.B.DeBevoise PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY Copyright(cid:211) 1999byPrincetonUniversityPress PublishedbyPrincetonUniversityPress,41WilliamStreet, Princeton,NewJersey08540 IntheUnitedKingdom:PrincetonUniversityPress, Chichester,WestSussex AllRightsReserved LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Benbassa,Esther. [HistoiredesjuifsdeFrance.English] TheJewsofFrance:ahistoryfromantiquityto thepresent/EstherBenbassa;translatedbyM.B.DeBevoise. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN0-691-05984-5(cloth:alk.paper) 1.Jews—France—History. 2.France—Ethnicrelations. I.Title. DS135.F8B3613 1999 944¢.004924—dc21 99-17461 Cetouvragepubliédanslecadreduprogrammed’aideàlapublication bénéficiedusoutienduMinistèredesAffairesEtrangères,du ServiceCultureldeL’AmbassadedeFrancereprésentéauxEtatsUnis, etduMinistèrefrançaischargédelaCulture–Centrenationaldulivre. Thiswork,publishedaspartoftheprogramofaidforpublication, receivedsupportfromtheFrenchMinistryofForeignAffairs,the CulturalServiceoftheFrenchEmbassyintheUnitedStates, andtheFrenchMinistryofCulture–NationalCenterfortheBook. ThisbookhasbeencomposedinJanson OriginallypublishedasHistoiredesJuifsdeFrance, (cid:211) ÉditionsduSeuil,1997. Thepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirements ofANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992(R1997)(PermanenceofPaper) http://pup.princeton.edu PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 TO THE MEMORY OF Annie Kriegel A JEW OF FRANCE Contents Translator’sNote xi NotetotheFrenchEdition xiii Preface xv Foreword,byAronRodrique xxi Chapter1. TheOriginsoftheJewishPresenceinGaul 3 DuringtheRomanConquest 3 UndertheFranks 5 TheChurchandtheJews 5 TheCarolingian“GoldenAge” 7 TowardRoyalAlliance 8 Ecclesiastical Reaction 9 EconomyandCulture 11 Chapter2. Nobles’Jews,Kings’Jews 13 IntheSeigneuries 13 Kings’Jews 15 TheReligiousZealofSaintLouis 17 BetweenChurchandTemporalPower 18 ConditionalLiberty 20 TheEraofCrises 21 AnotherReturn 22 North/South 24 Chapter3. JewishLifeintheMiddleAges 26 CommunalSpace 26 CulturalSpace 33 Chapter4. TheJewsoftheSouth 41 TheComtatVenaissinandAvignon 41 NewChristians andJews:SpanishandPortugueseinFrance 47 Chapter5. TheJewsoftheEastandofParis 58 MetzandLorraine 58 Alsace 64 Paris 70 viii CONTENTS Chapter6. OntheWaytoEmancipation 73 TheEnlightenmentandtheJews 73 APolicyofEmancipation? 79 Chapter7. NewPerspectives 84 TheTerror 85 UnderNapoleon 86 TheGrandSanhedrin 89 TheConsistories 90 InternalDivisions 92 InaSecularState 94 Chapter8. EntryintoFrenchSociety 96 ASpectacularIntegration 97 FromTraditiontoIntegration 99 Paris:TheNerveCenter 103 Socioeconomic Profile 106 Demography 110 Chapter9. AdvancementandIdentity 114 AdvancementthroughEducation 114 IntheArtsandLiterature 115 IntheAcademyandStateAdministration 117 AlternativePaths 119 AndWomen 123 IntegrationandJewishness 124 FromJewtoIsraélite 125 ModernSolidarity 128 ScholarshipandthePerpetuationofTradition 131 Chapter10. BreachesinFranco-Judaism 134 Immigration 134 Anti-Semitism 137 TheAffair 141 Zionism 146 Chapter11. BetweentheWars 148 Migration 148 NeighborhoodsandTrades 149 ConceptionofJudaism 151 RevivalofAnti-Semitism 153 ReexaminingJudaism 156 CONTENTS ix YouthMovements 157 RepositioningZionism 159 TheNaziPeril 161 Chapter12. TheDarkYears 166 TheWar 166 FromCitizentoPariah 167 TheRoundups 171 PublicOpinion 174 TheUGIF 175 TheResistance 177 Chapter13. Recovery 179 TheInfluxofNorthAfricanJews 185 TheNewFaceofFrenchJewry 189 Chronology 201 Notes 221 Bibliography 241 Index 271 Translator’s Note IN TRANSLITERATING Hebrew terms and personal names, which display slight differences between English and French, I have nonetheless fol- lowedtheauthorinpreferringfamiliarformstotechnicallymoreaccurate but less common renderings. Thus, for example, takkanot is used rather than taqqanot, and likewise Solomon ben Isaac instead of Shelomoh Yits(cid:149)aqi,SamuelbenMeirratherthanShemu’elbenMe’ir,andsoon.The extensivediacriticalapparatusoftransliteratedHebrewhasbeenkepttoa minimumhereaswell.Inordertodisambiguatetheletterschxthandhx,the conventional underdotted “h” ((cid:149)) is used to indicate the former (usually pronounced as a voiceless velar fricative, like the final consonant in“Bach”),and“h”(pronounced asinEnglish) toindicatethelatter.The letterv´lephisindicatedinmedialpositionbytheusualsinglequote(’)and (cid:220)ayinbytheinvertedformofthismark(‘). A strict and comprehensive system of Hebrew-English transcription maybefound inthenewOxfordDictionary oftheJewishReligioneditedby R.J.ZwiWerblowskyandGeoffreyWigoder,whichIhaveconsulted(al- though not always obeyed) with regard to questions of orthography and, occasionally, substantive points. Here and there as a courtesy to the En- glish-speakingreaderIhaveaddedanote,orslightlyqualifiedtheFrench text,inordertoexplaincertaintermsmorefully.Aconsiderableamountof fresh materialhas been incorporated bytheauthorin thefinalchapterof thepresentedition, aswellasintheChronology, withaviewtoupdating the account of contemporary events. Throughout the text, figures calcu- latedtohundredthsofapercentintheoriginaleditionareroundedoff,at times resulting in sums greater than 100 percent; readers interested in morepreciseapproximationsmaylocatethemintherelevantsourcesgiven inthenotes. Finally,Englishglossesofthemanymovementsandorgani- zationscitedbytheirFrenchnamesinthetextareprovidedintheindex. Note to the French Edition THE PRESENT WORK would not have been possible without the patience, criticalsense,andfriendshipofitsfirstreaders,ValérieHannin,AronRo- drigue, and Jean-Christophe Attias, who have my warmest thanks. Their commentsand suggestions havebeeninvaluabletome.Iamalsograteful to my colleagues for having responded so generously to my various re- questsforinformation. I have indicated dates of birth and death for the majority of Jewish figures mentioned in thetext;similarly, foreign terms, concepts,and par- ticular aspects of Jewish civilization are explained in the notes as they occur. I have not thought it appropriate, however, to supply comparable detailsregardingfiguresandfactsfamiliartothereader. Preface THEHISTORYoftheJewsofFranceisanintegralpartofthehistoryofthe Jewsasapeople.Priorto1789,theJewsofFranceplayedacentralrolein Jewishhistoryasaparticularincarnationofthemultisecularexistenceofa people in diaspora, deprived of territory.1 They have continued to do so sincethen, by introducing intothishistoryanessentialrupture,pregnant with“messianic”hopes,andanewdeparture,legallyconsecratedbyeman- cipation and its corollary, citizenship, that represent the inclusion of the excluded. From that moment onward, France represented liberty—the RightsofMan—andstoodasamodelbothintheimaginationofitsJewish citizensandinthatofJewselsewhere,notonlyinEurope,butthroughout the Near East. And while emancipation occurred only gradually in other countries,andnotatallinsome,intheirmindsFranceneverfellfromthe pedestalthatithadcometooccupyintheconcertofnations. Thisbookisintendedchieflyasasynthesis.Itdrawsuponclassicworks aswellasthemostrecentandmostinnovativeresearch.Ihavenotwritten it,however,simplytoaddanotherstonetoanedificeslowlyandpatiently constructedby my predecessors.The abundanceof existingworksonthe Jews of France, and the diversity of the viewpoints found in them, are proof of the livelyinteresttheyhavearoused in an eraof heightened his- toricalconsciousness, when thedescendantsof thenewJewishcitizensof theRevolutionbegantotreasuretheirhistoryandtoinquireintotheori- gins of their presentplacein Frenchsociety;and also of theinterestthey havearoused outside France.Someof themostdaringworkson theJews ofFrancehavebeenproducedbyscholarslivinginotherlands. AsaspecialistontheJewsofsoutheasternEuropeandtheNearEast,I find myself confronted regularly with a reality that cannot be ignored: France—its history and the history of its Jews—has profoundly affected the contemporary history of Jewish peoples living far outside its borders. By providing a model that is both validated and validating, it has shaped theself-perceptionofthesepeoplesnolessthanthecourseoftheirindivid- ual and collective histories, which in their turn are almost organically linkedtoFrance—thatcoveted“elsewhere.” Indeed,theJewishleadershipofFrance,proudofitsachievements,con- vinced of the superiority of a country so generous to its Jews, and filled withgratitudetowardit,laboredtobringabouttheFrenchificationoffel- low Jews in the East. It tried to impose upon them,from above, avolun- tariststyleofwesternization,withitsownpatternofemancipation,andto give them a French-style education nourished by dreams of France. The
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