In the first English-language edition of a general, synthetic
history of French Jewry from antiquity to the present, Esther
Benbassa tells the intriguing tale of the social, economic, and
cultural vicissitudes of a people in diaspora. With verve and
insight, she reveals the diversity of Jewish life throughout
France's regions, while showing how Jewish identity has constantly
redefined itself in a country known for both the Rights of Man and
the Dreyfus affair. Beginning with late antiquity, she charts the
migrations of Jews into France and traces their fortunes through
the making of the French kingdom, the Revolution, the rise of
modern anti-Semitism, and the current renewal of interest in
Judaism.
As early as the fourth century, Jews inhabited Roman Gaul, and
by the reign of Charlemagne, some figured prominently at court. The
perception of Jewish influence on France's rulers contributed to a
clash between church and monarchy that would culminate in the mass
expulsion of Jews in the fourteenth century. The book examines the
re-entry of small numbers of Jews as New Christians in the
Southwest and the emergence of a new French Jewish population with
the country's acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine.
The saga of modernity comes next, beginning with the French
Revolution and the granting of citizenship to French Jews. Detailed
yet quick-paced discussions of key episodes follow: progress made
toward social and political integration, the shifting social and
demographic profiles of Jews in the 1800s, Jewish participation in
the economy and the arts, the mass migrations from Eastern Europe
at the turn of the twentieth century, the Dreyfus affair,
persecution under Vichy, the Holocaust, and the postwar arrival of
North African Jews.
Reinterpreting such themes as assimilation, acculturation, and
pluralism, Benbassa finds that French Jews have integrated
successfully without always risking loss of identity. Published to
great acclaim in France, this book brings important current issues
to bear on the study of Judaism in general, while making for
dramatic reading.
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