Jews in France 09: 1945-1970
Immigration waves - professions - organization of the communities - newspapers, radio, and TV - youth organizations - Hebrew in France - de Gaulle speech of 1967 - numbers of 1968
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): France, vol. 7, col. 41. Charles de Gaulle at a memorial to Jewish soldiers
who died for France in World War I. Courtesy Ma'ariv, Tel Aviv [[unfortunately without date]]
NATIVE POPULATION AND WAVES OF IMMIGRATION.
France was the only country in Europe to which the Jews immigrated in significant number after World War II, and in 25 years the Jewish population tripled. [[...]]
[[The main parts of Jews came from Germany (Displaced Persons), from Africa (because of passport regulations), and also from racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel (because of not acceptable racist circumstances and chaos)]].
(All statistics given in this article are estimates made by the Jewish community). [[...]]
In 1945, there were 180,000 French Jews who had survived the Holocaust.
[[Jews who had changed their names or their religion are not mentioned in this article. Probably the number would have been much higher, so]].
The community was composed of established Jewish families and immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe and Mediterranean countries. Between 1945 and 1951 many Displaced Persons passed through France, and some of them settled there. In 1951, there were 250,000 Jews in the country, and between 1954 and 1961 approximately 100,000 Egyptian, Moroccan, Tunisian, and Algerian Jews moved to France.
[[Many Jews of the new North African countries ("Sephardim") did not want to accept African nationality but wanted to keep their French nationality which was rated to be "better", or the economic conditions in the newly founded African states were bad, or there were new discriminations after the wars of the racist Jewish army in Palestine. So the Jews in Northern Africa were leaving the African states for France]].
After the Bizerta incidents (1961) and the establishment of independent Algeria (1962), immigration increased;by 1963, almost the entire Jewish community of Algeria (110,000 persons) had moved to France. Moroccan and Tunisian Jews continued to arrive in the late 1960s, and their wave of immigration reached a new peak following the *Six-Day War (from the summer of 1967 to the summer of 1968, 16,000 Moroccan and Tunisian Jews sought sanctuary in France).
Approximately 50% of the Jews who left North Africa settled in France, so that by 1968 the (col. 36)
Sephardim were in the majority in the French Jewish community. (col. 37)
The Consistoire Central Israélite de France et d'Algérie [[Central Israelite Consistory of France and Algeria]] comprised 83 Jewish congregations in France and Algeria in 1965. Orthodox in orientation, the consistory was the official representative of French Judaism, responsible for the training, nomination, and appointment of rabbis, religious instruction for young people, the supervision of kashrut [[Jewish nutrition rules]], and the application of religious law in matters of personal status. The central consistory maintained close contact with the three regional consistories in Alsace-Lorraine, where the law regarding the (col. 37)
separation of Church and State did not apply, religious functionaries there being paid by the state. The synagogues of the consistory generally practiced Ashkenazi rites, but some followed the Portuguese or North African rites.
The Chantiers du Consistoire building projects provided newly formed communities with synagogues and community centers. North African Jews often formed their own communal organizations, but were represented in all the consistorial organizations.
After 1945, most of the pupils of the École Rabbinique [[Rabbinical School]] and the rabbinical seminary, the Séminaire Israélite de France [[Israelite Seminary of France]], were of Egyptian and North African origin. After 1952, Orthodox Judaism was represented by the Conseil Représentatif du Judaisme Traditionnaliste de France (C.R.J.T.F.) [[Representative Council of Traditionalist Judaism of France]]. [[...]] Its members were particularly active in aiding the social and religious absorption of North African Jews, whom they sought to organize into active communities. The Union Libérale Israélite [[Liberal Israelite Union]], affiliated to the World Union for Progressive Judaism, was no less active. It had greater influence in more assimilated circles of established and North African families and trained its ministers at the Institut International d'Études Hébraïques [[International Institute of Hebrew Studies]]. Lastly, there were the independent religious bodies, including Sephardi and North African communities practicing their various local rites, Poles, and Hasidim (Ḥasidim) and kabbalists.
[Jewish administration's congregations in France 1945-1970]
Despite the amount of effort expended, only a small minority of French Jewry practices their religion. There were, however, hundreds of associations and institutions of a cultural, social, or philanthropic nature. From 1945 efforts made to coordinate and channel the rather anarchic development of such organizations met with a measure of success.
The Conseil Représentatif des Juifs de France (C.R.I.F.) [[Representative Council of Jews in France]] was founded in 1944. [[...]] According to its statutes, the Council's aim was "to protect the rights of the Jewish community in France". Under the terms of an agreement signed with the World Jewish Congress, the Council acquired the sole right to represent the interests of French Jewry before French authorities.
Since 1945 C.R.I.F. played an active role in the fight against anti-Semitism. The Fonds Social Juif Unifié (F.S.J.U.) [[Jewish Unified Social Funds]], founded in 1949 to centralize the various efforts of the community, rapidly became the central organizational body of French Jewry. It coordinated, supervised, and planned the community's major social, cultural, and educational enterprises, which it financed through its unified fund-raising campaign and the contributions of the *American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Its community services played an important role in the integration of Jewish immigrants, and its numerous community centers aimed at involving peripheral elements without religious affiliations in community life.
After Six-Day War, the F.S.J.U. and the Appel Unifié pour Israël (United Israel Appeal) coordinated their activities and formed the Appel Unifié Juif de France [[Unified Appeal of France]], a joint fund-raising venture. Varied ideological and political orientations, from the assimilationists to the [[racist]] Zionists and from the left wing to the right, were freely expressed in French Jewish community. Although the Landsmanschaften of Eastern European immigrants gradually died out, associations of immigrants from North African countries multiplied. (col. 38)
The diverse cultural trends of French Jewry were expressed by its 40 or so weekly and monthly publications. [[...]] After 1945, due to the activities of the *Conference on Jewish Material Claims, many books on Jewish and Israel subjects were published (col. 38)
annually by large French publishing houses; there was also a weekly Jewish radio broadcast and a regular television program.
Most French Jews preferred to provide their children with a secular state education. Less than 5% of Jewish schoolchildren studied in Jewish day schools at all levels, but the numerous youth movements and organizations tried to attract as many young people as possible.
Under an agreement between the French and Israel governments, Hebrew could be taught as a foreign language in the lycées (state high schools). Ten universities included Hebrew in their curriculum, the universities of Paris and Strasbourg taught Jewish history, literature, and sociology. (col. 39)
All the major [[racist]] Zionist youth movements were represented in France. The French [[[racist]] Zionist Federation included various [[racist]] Zionist parties; however, it was decimated by internal feuds and its influence was weak. Nevertheless, more and more French Jews expressed their solidarity with [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel.
Despite a certain latent but rarely virulent anti-Semitism (research conducted by the Institut Français de l'Opinion Publique [[French Institute of Public Opinion]] in December 1966 showed that about 20% of the French public held seriously anti-Semitic opinions), Jews felt well integrated into French society. (col. 39)
[Assimilation is going on]
The efforts of numerous Jewish organizations did not retard the rate of assimilation. (col. 39)
[[Assimilation was performed by conversion or by mixed marriages]].
After the Six-Day War (1967), the explicit anti-Israel stance of de Gaulle and his government (see below), came as a shock to French Jewry. The feeling of uneasiness increased when the anti-Israel utterances of de Gaulle, his officials and commentators assumed a half-disguised, sophisticated anti-Semitic quality, particularly through hints at the Jews' "double loyalty". It reached its peak when de Gaulle, at a press conference (Nov. 27, 1967), defined the Jews as "un peuple d'élite, sûr de lui-même et dominateur" ("an elite people, self-assured and domineering"), thus giving a great impetus to overt expressions of latent anti-Semitism.
This dictum aroused a wide public controversy in France and abroad. The chief rabbi, Jacob Kaplan, voiced his protest, reaffirming Jewish attachment to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel and stressing that it did not contradict in any way the fact that the Jews of France are loyal Frenchmen.
De Gaulle later told the chief rabbi that his words were not meant to be disparaging. At the same time from the other extreme of the political scene, came the violently aggressive anti-Israel propaganda of the *New Left and of the "students' revolution" of May 1968, who supported Arab-Palestinian terrorism against [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, though many of the movement's leaders were themselves young Jews (Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Marc Kravetz, Alain Krivine, and others). This agitation was the cause of embarrassment to most French Jews, not only because of its (col. 39)
enmity toward [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] but also because of its extremist ideology of violence (Troskyism, Maoism, anarchism, etc.), which could have easily aroused an anti-Semitic reaction in the mainly conservative French middle class, to whom most Jews belong. Physical clashes between Jews and Arabs in certain quarters of Paris, mostly provoked by pro-Palestinian North Africans, added to the malaise. As a result, migration from France to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, by both French and Algerian Jews, considerably increased in the late 1960's.
[D.BS.] (col. 40)
[Numbers of 1968]
Between 1957and 1966 the number of localities in which Jews lived rose from 128 to 293. The dispersal of the immigrants from North Africa, which answered the need to absorb them into the economy, resulted in the establishment of Jewish communities throughout the country. (col. 37)
Although there has been no official census of the French Jewish population, it has been estimated that 550,000 Jews (about 1% of the total French population) were residing in France in 1968. (col. 36) [[...]]
In 1968 about 60% of the Jewish population lived in Paris and its surroundings, about 25% in the Midi [[South of France]], and the rest were scattered throughout France. Five provincial towns supported important communities:
and Strasbourg (12,000). (col. 37)
In the late 1960s the Jewish community of France, the largest in Western Europe and the fourth largest in the world, underwent a new geographical distribution, diversification in occupations and social status, a change in community structure, and a fundamental reorientation in religious, ideological, and cultural trends. (col. 36)
In 1968, 76 rather isolated communities contained fewer than 100 Jews, and 174 communities numbered less than 1,000 (such communities were particularly numerous in the Paris district). (col. 37)
In 1968 it [[the Conseil Représentatif du Judaisme Traditionnaliste de France (C.R.J.T.F.) (Representative Council of Traditionalist Judaism of France]] comprised 49 bodies in Paris and the provinces. (col. 38)
In 1968, it [[the Conseil Représentatif des Juifs de France (C.R.I.F.) (Representative Council of Jews in France)]] was composed of 27 important organizations of diverse trends, including religious, [[racist]] Zionist, Bundist, and even Communist bodies. (col. 38)
In 1968, there were ten daily, weekly, or monthly publications in Yiddish>. (col. 38)
France played a major role on the Middle Eastern scene especially from World War I (see [[racist]] *Zionism; *Sykes-Picot; *Lebanon; *Syria; [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] *Israel, Historical Survey) until 1948. However, between the two world wars, France played a relatively minor role in [[racist]] Zionist policy, since the [[racist]] Zionist movement naturally directed its major political efforts toward London and Washington. Closer ties were established between the yishuv [[Jews in Palestine before Herzl Israel foundation, before 1948]] and "Free France" during World War II, against the background of the Nazi conquests and on the basis of the strong contact between the yishuv and the Free French in the Middle East.
After the war, these ties were then reinforced by the joint opposition to British policy, which fostered the Arab League and tried to restrict both French and Jewish interests in the area. During the early postwar period, various French leaders provided moral and material support for the legal and "illegal" immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine.
When France did formally recognize [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, her recognition was conditional upon [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel giving preferential rights to French educational and religious institutions in the country.
[[The reasons for the French reservation to racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel
Racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel was not at all loved by France because the former Arab colonial states of France were in direct danger to be destroyed by the Jewish armies because the aim of (racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl) Israel was a "Greater Israel" from the Nile to the Euphrates according to 1st Mose, chapter 15, phrase 18. Add to this the base of this racist State of Israel was the booklet "The Jewish State" of the racist Theodor Herzl stating that all Arabs could be driven away as the natives in "America" had been driven away, that Arabs would be enslaved, and that gold mines could be found in Palestine like in South Africa. Add to all this France and England did not want to give up the Suez Canal to anybody]].
[Changing mood of French governments toward racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl Israel]
In the mid-1950s, various developments paved the way for a closer cooperation between Israel and France. Among these were:
-- the inter-party relations that developed between the French Socialist Party, which played a prominent role in some governments of the Fourth Republic, and *Mapai;
-- the accommodation of [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel's foreign policy to the new reality in postwar Europe with the trend toward some type of European unity, in which France held a special position;
-- France's search for new markets, her aeronautics and arms industries finding an important outlet in Israel's defense needs;
-- and France's confrontation with Arab nationalism in North Africa (particularly in Algeria), which resulted in an identity of interest between the Israelis and the French, in view of Egypt's direct intervention in the Algerian war and her infractions against French economic interests in the Middle East, which reached a climax with the nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956.
[French-Zionist collaboration since 1956 - and blocking actions]
Franco-Israel [[Zionist]] friendship, which reached its peak with the Sinai Campaign (1956) and during the years that followed, continued in part through the days of the Fifth Republic and almost until the Six-Day War (1967). Not only did France become Israel's major supplier of arms during that period, but there also developed a whole network of technical and scientific cooperation.
A cultural agreement, which was signed in 1959, contributed greatly to the enhancement of cultural relations between the two countries. It included the establishment of chairs in French language and literature at Israel universities and in Hebrew language and literature at a score of French universities; the fostering of French and Hebrew instruction respectively in each other's secondary schools; and art exhibitions, exchanges of scientists and students, and joint scientific (col. 40)
projects. On the other hand, even at the height of Franco-Israel military, economic, cultural, and scientific cooperation, the official representatives of France were always wary of expressing complete support for [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel's position, as, for example, on the issues of the Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem, or in Security Council discussions on border incidents. France also opposed [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel's application to join the European Economic Community and prevented her associate membership from coming into effect.
In 1966, French exports to Israel amounted to 35,000,000, while her imports did not exceed $19,000,000. tourism from France to Israel reached the figure of 40,000.
Not long after President de Gaulle assumed power in 1958, a reconsideration of French policy in the Middle East was begun. At first this review was undertaken slowly and was hardly felt at all; on the occasion of Ben-Gurion's visits to France in 1960 and 1961 and Eshkol's visit in 1964, de Gaulle hailed Israel as "our friend and ally". Over the years, however, changes in French policy toward Israel took more rapid effect, until they created an about-face position on the eve of the Six-Day War. Thereafter, Franco-Israel relations steadily and sharply deteriorated. The major stages in this development were the ending of Franco-Arab hostilities in Algeria, after which France began to renew her diplomatic relations with the Arab states; and her growing rejection of [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel's needs and claims on basic political and security matters culminating in the unilateral cancellation of French official political and economic commitments to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, exemplified by France's failure to implement her own declared policy of supporting free passage through the Straits of Tiran, her at first partial and later total embargo on arms to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, and French support of the Arab position after the Six-Day War.
This policy resulted, to a large extent, from the personal stand of de Gaulle, who was said to have resented the fact that [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel did not heed his advice on the eve of the 1967 war, but (col. 41)
also from the constantly closing gap between Gaullist and Soviet policy on international matters. France's attitude toward [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel was further influenced by her increasing attempts to penetrate economically into the Arab states, and to receive special favors from the Arabs and exclusive rights to exploit their natural resources (especially oil). These factors continued to influence French policy after de Gaulle's resignation in 1969.
However, despite the grave deterioration in official relations, there was still considerable French public support for [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel. It found organized expression in the Alliance France-Israël, whose president was General Marie-Pierre Koenig (1898-1970). Koenig, a World War II hero of the Free French who twice served as minister of national defense, fought unremittingly for the cancellation of his country's embargo on the sale of arms to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel. The official French line was also attacked by intellectuals such as Eugène *Ionesco and Nathalie *Sarraute, and by two former ambassadors to [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, Pierre Gilbert and Jean Bourdeillette. Another vehement opponent of France's Middle East policy was Jacques Soustelle, a former Gaullist leader and onetime governor general of Algeria (1955-56), who sympathetically reviewed the Jewish national revival in La longue marche d'Israël [[[The long march of Israel]] (1968). The French government's pro-Arab stand - endorsed by ministers of Jewish origin such as Maurice Schumann, Michel Debré and Léo Hamon - nevertheless remained unaffected by this widespread public reaction.
-- L. Kahn: Histoire des écoles communales et consistoriales israélites de Paris [[History of the Israliete community and consistory schools of Paris]] (1884)
-- idem: Les professions manuelles et les institutions de patronage [[The worker's professions and the patronage institutions]] (1885)
-- idem: Le Comité de Bienfaisance [[The charity committee]] (1886)
-- idem: Les Juifs à Paris depuis le VIe siècle [[The Jews in Paris since 6th century]] (1889)
-- A.E. Halphen: Recueil des lois, décrets... concernant les Israélites depuis la révolution de 1789 (1851)
-- I. Uhry: Recueil des lois, décrets... concernant les Israélites 1850-1903 (1903)
-- R. Anchel: Napoléon et les Juifs [[Napoleon and the Jews]] (1928)
-- idem: Les Juifs de France [[The Jews of France]] (1946)
-- E. Tcherikower: Yidn in Frankraykh [[Yiddish Jews in France]], 2 vols. (1942)
-- Elbogen: Century, passim
-- Z. Szajkowski: Jews and the French Revolution of 1789, 1830 and 1848 (1970)
-- idem: Poverty and Social Welfare among French Jews (1800-1880) (1954)
--M. Roblin: Les Juifs de Paris [[The Jews of Paris]] (1952)
-- S. Schwarzfuchs: Brève histoire des Juifs de France [[Short History of the Jews of France]] (1957)
-- P. Lévy: Les noms des Israélites en France [[The manes of the Israelites in France]] (1960)
-- L. Poliakov: Harvest of Hate (1954)
-- G. Reitlinger: Final Solution (1968), 327-51 and passim
-- R. Hilberg: Destruction of European Jews (1961), index
-- IMT: Trial of the Major War Criminals, 23 (1949), index
-- Z. Szajkowski: Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer [[Analytical French-Jewish Journal]] 1939-1945 (1966)
-- idem, in: Yad Vashem Studies, 2 (1958), 133-57; 3 (1959), 187-202
-- Ariel, ibid., 6 (1967), 221-50
-- L. Steinberg: Les autorités allemandes en France occupée [[The German authorities in occuppied France]] (1966)
-- idem: La révolte des justes - Les Juifs contre Hitler [[The revolt of the rights - the Jews against Hitler]] (1970), 139-233
-- Bibliothèque du Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, Catalogue no. 1: La France de l'Affaire Dreyfus à nos jours [[Library of the Present Jewish Documentation Center, Catalogue no. 1: France of the Dreyfus affair seen today]] (1964)
-- idem, Catalogue no. 2: La France - le Troisième Reich - Israël [[France - the Third Reich - Israël]] (1968)
-- Rabi (pseud.): Anaotomie du judaïsme français [[Anathomy of French Judaism]] (1962)
-- AJYB, 28 (1946/47- )
-- Annuaire du judaisme [[Years report of Judaism]] (1950-52)
-- Fonds Social Juif Unifié: Communautés juives de France [[Jewish Unified Social Fonds: Jewish Communities of France]] (1966)
-- R. Berg et al.: Guide juif de France [[Jewish Guide of France]] (1968) (col. 42)
-- G. Levitte, in: JJSO, 2 (1960), 172-84 (col. 42-43)
-- M. Catane: Les Juifs dans le monde [[The Jews in the World]] (1962), 26-41
-- Donath, in: WLB, 21 no. 2 (1967), 24-26
-- Institut Français de l'Opinion Publique: Sondages [[French Institute of Public Opinion: Researches]], 2 (1967)
-- E. Touati, in: D'Auschwitz à Israël [[From Auschwitz to Israel]] (1968)
-- L'Arche [[The Arche]] (1957- )
-- Information Juive [[Jewish Information]] (1925- )
-- Community-Communauté (French and English, 1958- )
-- Le Monde Juif [[The Jewish World]] (1946- )
-- Les Nouveaux Cahiers [[The New Reviews]] (1965- )
-- M. Bar-Zohar: Suez, ultra-secret [[Suez, ultra secret]] (1964)
-- Y. Tzur: Yoman Paris 1953-1956 (1968)
-- J. Bourdeillette: Pour Israël [[For Israel]] (1968)
-- R. Aron: De Gaulle, Israel and the Jews (1969).> (col. 43)
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): France, vol. 7, col. 35-36
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): France, vol. 7, col. 37-38
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): France, vol. 7, col. 39-40
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): France, vol. 7, col. 41-42
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): France, vol. 7, col. 43
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