Bastille Day and the Jews of France

Bastille Day (July 14), which marks the anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789, carried much significance for the Jews of France since it meant the end of their status as near pariahs from when they had been expelled from France in the thirteenth century. By virtue of the “Declaration of Human Rights,” the founding document of the Revolution, the Jewish question was raised immediately and, despite some initial obstacles, citizenship was eventually granted to the forty thousand Jews who lived in the various parts of the country.

Jews had been living in France since the early Middle Ages. One need only mention the famous Talmudic schools which existed in the North and the South of France and the towering figure of Rashi (1040-1105), the great expounder of the Bible and the Talmud. His concern to elucidate difficult Hebrew terms by translating them into French (they are called laazim) gave rise to an overall trove of 2475 words in medieval French that antedate The Song of Roland (1100), considered the earliest French literary text.

Despite the expulsion, one finds a presence of various Jewish communities in France. Jewish refugees of the Spanish Inquisition were able to resettle in the Southwest of France. Jews found some degree of protection by the popes who had moved to the Comtat Venaissin, an area in central France in the fourteenth century, and Jews continued to live there for several hundred years. Colbert, the resourceful finance minister of Louis the fourteenth known as “The Sun King,” knew how to appreciate the financial skill of Jews and granted them permits to conduct business in Paris.