Mor Ballagi

BLOCH, BLOCHIN Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birth place, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

Bloch is based on the German word Welsch, which means "alien" (a term applied to persons and things from Romance-language countries, particularly Italy and France) and on the Slavic Vlach, which also means "foreigner". Frequent among Jews in Alsace and Germany who had emigrated from France in the 14th and 15th centuries, Welsch became Vlach/Vallach/Wallich when Jews moved from Central to Eastern Europe, and Bloch - when they immigrated to Germany from Poland. Bloch families are recorded in Europe since the mid 17th century. the Slavic word form Blochin means "son of Bloch". The numerous Distinguished bearers of the Jewish family name Bloch include the 17th century Polish-born preacher and leader of the Shabbatean movement, Mattathias Ben Benjamin Ze'ev (Wolf) Ashkenazi Bloch; the German physician and zoologist, Marcus (Mordecai) Eliezer Bloch (1723-1799); the French author and journalist, Jean Richard Bloch (1884-1947); the 20th century Swiss-born American physicist, Felix Bloch, awarded the Nobel Prize in 1952; and the 20th century German-born American biochemist, Konrad Bloch, who won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1964.

Szarvas

A town in the district of Bekes, south-east Hungary.

21st Century

Szarvas is home to a successful international Jewish summer camp which was established in 1990 by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. It services some 1,600 campers from over twenty countries. The camp is kosher, pluralistic and focuses on strengthening Jewish knowledge, identity and leadership. It has had a very important impact on Jewish identity of the campers and staff.

 

History

Jews settled in Szarvas in 1842. They engaged in trade, crafts and light industry. The first synagogue was built in 1850 with the support of the general community and prayed in the Neolog tradition. The community was organized in 1855. Following the dispute between the Orthodox Jews and the Reform movement in the General Jewish Congress of Hungary (1868-1869), the community of Szarvas was split into an Orthodox community and a Neolog community, each with its own synagogue, rabbi, hevra kaddisha (burial society) and educational institutions. The Neolog community also had a women’s society and a large cultural hall in which cultural events were held for welfare purposes. In 1863 there was an elementary school for children and boys and girls studied in separate classes.

In 1930 there were 787 Jews in the community. In 1941 the numbers fell to 686.

The Holocaust Period

In 1930 Jewish young men were removed from the Hungarian army and transferred to labor camps. In 1941 they were sent to the Ukrainian front, where the Hungarians fought on the side of Germany. Many were killed in mine fields. In April 1944, about two weeks after the German army entered Hungary, the Jews were ordered to wear the yellow star. On May 15 all the Jews were crowded into a ghetto that was demarcated in the town and to which Jews from neighboring places were also taken.  At this point, most of the men and older boys had been taken to labor camps. Five weeks later they were moved to the ghetto of Szolnok, from which some were sent to the extermination camp of Auschwitz and the majority to labor camps in Strasshof, Austria.

 

Postwar

After the war, six survivors of Auschwitz and most of those who had been sent to Austria, returned to Szarvas. The synagogue and the schools were renovated. A Zionist movement was organized and offered social activities. But, at the end of the 1940s and in the 1950s most of the Jews left Szarvas. The institutions of both communities were liquidated and in the 1960s only a few Jews remained in Szarvas.

Tubingen

Tübingen 

A university city in central Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.

Tubingen is located between the Neckar and Ammer Rivers, 19 miles (30km) south of Stuttgart, the state capital. The University of Tubingen, one of the oldest and most renowned universities in Germany, was established in 1477.

The Synagogenplatz Memorial is located where Tubingen's synagogue once stood, before it was destroyed in 1938. The memorial commemorates both the destroyed synagogue, as well as the Jews of Tubingen who were killed during World War II. It includes the names of the Jews from Tubingen who perished during the war, as well as information about the history of the synagogue and Jewish life in Tubingen.

Guided tours are available that focus on Jewish life in Tubingen. The Judengasse (Jewish street), which is marked with a sign, is among the locations featured on the tour.

HISTORY

Jews began living in Tubingen during the 13th century, when they worked mostly as merchants and money changers. A Jewish quarter was established that included approximately 30 houses. The neighboring town of Detenhausen contains a Jewish cemetery dating from the same period. During the period of the Black Death (1348-1349) the Jews of Tubingen were expelled, but they returned to the city shortly thereafter. Another expulsion took place in 1477.

The University of Tubingen is a central feature of life in the town and many Jews, both native to Tubingen and from other areas, studied at the university when they were able. In 1842 the university enrolled 54 Jewish students. In 1904, when the number of Jewish students had increased, permission was granted for the Jewish students to form their own student organization.

Other Jews with no connection to the university began to settle in Tubingen in 1848; most arrived from nearby Zackenheim. Among the arrivals from Zackenheim was Leopold Hirsch, the chairman of the Zackenheim Jewish community and one of the central founders of the Jewish community of Tubingen. The Jewish communities of Zackenheim and Tubingen were merged at the end of the 19th century, with Hirsch as the community's chairman. In addition to the Jews living in Tubingen, the community also included 82 Jews from neighboring towns.

The community had a synagogue, a cemetery in Wachenheim and five community funds. There were branches of Jewish youth groups and Zionist organizations. A women's choir sang in the synagogue. Fourteen children participated in a religious study group organized by Dr. Wachenmark, who served as the community's rabbi and cantor.

The Jews of Tubingen were active in town life. Albert Weill worked as the editor of the newspaper "Tubingen Chronicles" before emigrating to Switzerland. Dr. Simon Heim, a lawyer, was a leader of the local Social Democratic Party, a member of the auditing committee of the city council, and served as a member of the council between 1919 and 1925; beginning in1930 he was a member of the council's Upper House. Two members of the community were killed in action during World War I.

During the Weimar Republic relations between the local Jews and Christians were good—to the extent that a number of Jews converted to Christianity or intermarried. Nonetheless, during the 1920s there were signs of anti-Semitism within the university, with Christian students demanding that the Jewish instructors be fired. In fact, in April 1933, after the Nazis rose to power, the Jewish lecturers were fired from their university jobs. Anti-Semitism increased; Jews were beaten in the streets and Jewish-owned shops were vandalized. Jewish firms were closed, among them the bank owned by the Weil family, which was closed in 1934 in spite of the fact that it was the bank that represented the local council. A sign forbidding the entrance of Jews and dogs was placed at the entrance of the swimming pool.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933 there were 82 Jews in Tubingen, as well as 43 others who had either converted to Christianity or who were the children of mixed marriages.

THE HOLOCAUST

During the Kristallnacht pogrom (November 9-10, 1938), the synagogue was damaged and the Torah scrolls were desecrated and destroyed. Five Jews were sent to the Dachau concentration camp; they were released after their families managed to acquire visas for their emigration. In 1939 the Jewish community was officially dissolved. Of the 82 Jews living in Tubingen and the nine Jews who joined the community during this period, 43 Christians of Jewish origin emigrated to the United States, 34 Jews emigrated to Mandate Palestine, and 15 left for other countries. Twenty-one remaining Jews were deported to Riga, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz between 1942 and 1943.

POSTWAR

After the war, only two Jews returned to Tubingen.

Budapest

The capital of Hungary, became a city in 1872, following the union of the historic towns of Buda, Obuda, and Pest.

CONTEMPORARY BUDAPEST

Approximately 80,000 to 100,000 Jews live in Hungary, making it central Europe's largest Jewish community. More than 80% of Hungarian Jews live in the capital city of Budapest. Smaller Jewish communities can be found in the neighboring areas of Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged and Nyiregyhaza. Of the ten thousand Holocaust survivors living in Hungary, the vast majority live in Budapest. Since 2013, hundreds of Jews have left Hungary due to a rise in anti-Semitism, many of whom then settled in Vienna. The traditional Jewish Quarter of Budapest is located in District VII. Within it are several Jewish historical sites, stores and kosher restaurants.

Following the collapse of communism in 1989, several Jewish organizations were reopened. The largest organization serving the Jewish community of Budapest is MAZSIHISZ, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary. A variety of social services are provided by the Joint Distribution Committee, as well as the Lauder Foundation. Healthcare and medical services are provided by the Charity Jewish Hospital and Nursing Facility and two centers for elderly care. The city's many religious institutions include a historic mikvah (ritual bath) and a variety of kosher restaurants. Budapest also has over ten kosher butcher shops, bakeries, and even a matza factory.

Each year Budapest hosts several Jewish social and cultural events. The Jewish Summer Festival puts on a variety of shows including concerts, dance performances, and films. The Jewish community has also established many social and educational programs for children and young adults. The most popular organizations are B'nei Brith, WIZO, UJS, Bnei Akiva, and the Maccabi athletic club. Each summer, an estimated 1,500 campers from more than twenty countries attend Camp Szarvas.

Since the fall of communism, there has been a revival of Jewish religious life in Budapest. As of the beginning of the 21st century, there are as many as twenty synagogues throughout the city, representing a variety of movements including Orthodox, Chabad Lubavitch, Neolog (similar to the Conservative Movement) and Liberal. There are also synagogues located in the provincial cities of Miskolc and Debrecen. In 2003, Slomo Koves became the first Orthodox rabbi to be ordained in Hungary since the Holocaust.

Budapest boasts many Jewish kindergartens, elementary schools, and high schools. The three Jewish high schools are Lauder Javne, Wesselenyi, and Anna Frank. Lauder Javne is located on a five-acre campus and was opened in 1990. It is non-denominational and is sponsored by the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation. The Budapest University of Jewish Studies was established in 1877 as a Neolog Rabbinical seminary. Jewish studies programs are offered at several universities including Eotvos Lorand University, the largest school of higher education in Hungary, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and the Central European University which was established by Hungarian-born George Soros. Jewish educational programming is also offered at the Beth Peretz Jewish Education Centre Foundation, the American Foundation School, and the Hillel Jewish Educational and Youth Center.

The capital city of Budapest is rich with culture and history, and is home to several buildings, monuments, and cultural centers, including several points of Jewish interest. One such place is the Holocaust Memorial Center, which commemorates the victims of the Holocaust during World War II. The Center is situated outside the traditional Jewish quarter and is housed by the Pava Synagogue where it has been since 2004. In 2005, the institution was awarded the Nivo Prize of Architecture for the restoration and rehabilitation of a historic monument.

The city's Jewish Museum is the second-largest in all of Europe. It operates under the auspices of the Alliance of Jewish Communities in Hungary. In 1942, two employees hid valuable museum artifacts in the cellar of Budapest's National Museum. During the German occupation, the building served as an escape passage as its gate was situated outside the borders of the ghetto. Additionally, Theodor Herzl was born in the building which once stood at the present site of the museum.

One of the most significant Jewish cultural sites in Budapest is the Emanuel Holocaust 'Tree of Life' Memorial sculpture in Raoul Wallenberg Park. Engraved on the thirty thousand leaves are the names of Jews who were killed or had disappeared during the Holocaust.

Two other important sites which memorialize the victims of the Holocaust and the events of World War II are the statue of Raoul Wallenberg and the Shoes on the Danube Embankment. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved many Jewish lives by helping them escape deportation. The Shoes on the Danube Embankment is a memorial comprised of sixty pairs of metal shoes set in concrete. Created in 2005, it commemorates the Hungarian Jewish victims killed by militiamen of Arrow Cross, the pro-German national socialist party which was active in Hungary between 1944 and 1945.

In addition to cultural centers and memorials, Budapest contains a number of Jewish landmarks. Located in the heart of Budapest is the King's Hotel –one of the first private Jewish three-star hotels in Budapest. While the hotel has been renovated and modernized, the building itself is more than one hundred years old.

Northern Budapest contains the Medieval Jewish Chapel, a small Sephardic house of prayer which had been rebuilt from ruins in the 18th century. During the 1686 siege of Budapest many of the city's Jewish buildings were completely destroyed. The chapel's original function was not revealed until an excavation in the 1960s when the synagogue's keystone and tombstones engraved in Hebrew were unearthed. Another historic religious site is the Dohany Street Synagogue. Inaugurated in 1659, the synagogue is designed in a Moorish style and is the second-largest synagogue in the world.

Still serving the Jewish community of Budapest is the Kozma Street Cemetery. It is the largest Jewish cemetery in Budapest, and among the largest in Europe. Its unique monuments and mausoleums have drawn many visitors since it opened in 1891.

There are three major publications which serve the Jewish community of Budapest and Hungary. The biweekly Uj Elet (New Life) is the official journal of MAZSIHISZ; the Szombat (Saturday) provides news and information about Jewish life in Hungary as well international issues, and the Mult es Jovo (Past and Future) is a cultural and intellectual journal.


HISTORY

BUDA (also known as Ofen, Oven, Boden, Bodro)
The first Jewish settlers came to Buda from Germany and various Slavic countries during the second half of the 12th century. In 1279 they were isolated in a ghetto, and forced to wear a red badge. Over the course of the 14th century, the Jewish community was expelled twice: first in 1349 following anti-Semitic allegations that arose after the Black Death had swept through the region, and again in 1360 as a result of hostility from the church. In 1364 Jews were permitted to return, though with some restrictions imposed on them. After the establishment of Buda as the royal residence in the late 14th century, its Jewish community became prominent within the larger Hungarian Jewish community. During the 15th century, the Jewish community was recognized as an autonomous government, and the community leader of Buda became the leader of Hungarian Jewry at large. At this time, the Jews of Buda were mainly engaged in commerce and in exports to the German lands and Bohemia.

In 1526 the Turks captured Buda. The majority of the Jews, about 2,000 people, were expelled to the Ottoman Empire, while a minority escaped to communities in western Hungary which had not fallen to the Turks. Jews were able to resettle Buda in 1541 and despite the heavy taxes, the community grew and became the wealthiest and most important in Hungary. Jews occupied influential positions in the management of the treasury and were generally employed in commerce and finance. By 1660 the Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities numbered about 1,000 Jews.

In 1686, the Austrians and their allies conducted a siege of Buda and subsequently defeated the Turks and conquered the town. The Jewish population had sided with the Turks and nearly half of them perished over the course of the fighting and its aftermath. The Jewish Quarter was ransacked, and the Torah scrolls were set on fire. Half of the remaining Jews, approximately 250 people, were taken as prisoners and exiled. These events are mentioned in Megilat Ofen, by Yitzhak ben Zalman Schulhof.

The new Austrian administration, in response to church demands, placed restrictions upon the Jews and the Jewish community was consequently subject to more restrictions and expulsions. The Jews of Buda were exiled in 1746 by Empress Maria Theresa, and were permitted to return in 1783, when Emperor Josef II allowed the Jews to reenter and settle in Hungarian towns. The community did not regain its former stature and prominence until the second half of the 19th century, at which time there were 7,000 Jewish families living in Buda.

During these turbulent times, Buda saw the formation of a number of Jewish institutions and the rise of several prominent figures. The latter half of the 18th century saw the establishment of a Hevra Kadisha. By 1869 four synagogues had been built, and were joined by two more at the end of the 19th century. The first known rabbi of the community was Akiva Ben Menahem Hacohen, also called "Nasi," who led the community during the 15th century. In the second half of the 17th century, during the lifetime of Rabbi Ephraim Ben Yaakov Hacohen, Buda was a focal point of the messianic movement of Shabbetai Zvi in Hungary. Moshe Kunitzer, a pioneer of the Haskalah movement in Hungary, was the chief rabbi from1828 until 1837.

OBUDA (also known as Alt-Ofen in German, and Oven Yashan, Old Buda, in Hebrew)
The Jewish community in Obuda vanished after the Turkish conquest in 1526 and was not resettled until 1712, under the leadership of Yaakov Lob. After the return of the Jewish community, by 1727 there were 24 Jewish families living in Obuda under the protection of the counts of Zichy. In a document recognized by the royal court in 1766, the Jews were granted freedom of religion, trading rights relating to the payment of special taxes, and permission to live anywhere in the town. This was a privilege granted in Obuda only.

The Jews of Obuda practiced agriculture, commerce and various trades. Textile factories established by the Jews of Obuda, among them the Goldberger Company, enjoyed favorable reputations throughout Hungary.

The first synagogue was built in 1738, a Hevra Kadisha was founded in 1770, and a Jewish hospital was established in 1772. In 1820 The old synagogue of Obuda underwent significant renovations. That same year, The Great Synagogue on Lajos Street was consecrated, and became one of the most well-known synagogues in the Habsburg Empire. Additionally,during the year 1820 an ultimately short-lived school was built at the demand of Emperor Josef II; since, however, Jewish parents did not want Christian teachers educating their children, the school was consequently closed. However, in spite of these impressive community projects, by the middle of the 19th century many Jewish families were moving to Pest.

PEST
Jews are first mentioned as living in Pest in 1406, and in 1504 there is mention of several Jewish home and landowners. Yet after the Austrian conquest in 1686 Jewish settlement in Pest ended. Although some sources mention a sporadic Jewish presence in Pest, it was not until 1746, when Jews expelled from Buda were looking for alternate places to live, that Jews once again began living in Pest in significant numbers. This community, however, was officially recognized only in 1783, when Emperor Josef II began allowing Jews into Hungarian towns, though they had to pay a special "tolerance tax" to the town. The first synagogue was opened in 1787 in Kiraly Street and later several more synagogues were built, including a Sephardi synagogue. The Great Synagogue on Dohany Street, which remains one of the largest in Europe, was built later, in 1859.

After the emperor’s death in 1790, limitations on Jewish settlement were re-imposed, and only a few Jews chosen by the town’s authorities were permitted to remain in Pest. The rest moved into the Erzsebetvaros Quarter, which maintained a large Jewish population until the Holocaust. During this period, the Jews set up factories and were engaged in commerce and trade.

In spite of the reimposition of restrictions on the Jewish community, they nonetheless were able to open the first Jewish school in Pest, in 1814. This school taught both religious and secular subjects in German. Additionally, there were several private Jewish schools. In later years, a girls’ school was opened in 1814 and a Jewish Teachers' training college was opened in 1859. The Orthodox community opened its first school in 1873.

The restrictions imposed after the death of Emperor Josef II were repealed in 1840. During the Hungarian National Revolution of 1848-1849, also known as the Revolution of Liberty against the Habsburg rule, many of the Jews from Pest volunteered to fight, and the community contributed considerable sums of money to the revolution. When the revolution failed, however, heavy taxes were imposed upon the Jews of Pest because of their participation. In 1867, following the formation of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary, the new Hungarian government granted equal rights to the Jews of Hungary. This prompted a fruitful period of community-building; that same year the Jewish community of Pest opened an orphanage for girls, the first of its kind in Hungary, followed by a second orphanage for boys in 1869. In later years, several hospitals and welfare institutions for the elderly and sick were opened, as well as a home for the deaf and dumb, which was inaugurated in 1876.
Judaism was officially recognized as one of the accepted religions of Hungary in 1895.

The year 1867 also saw a new initiative from the Pest community: The Hungarian Jewish Congress. Its aim was to prompt a discussion of the schisms in the Jewish community, particularly between the Orthodox and the Neolog congregations. Following the first meeting of the congress in December 1868, the Orthodox appealed to the Hungarian government and in 1871 they were legally recognized as a distinct community. In 1889 Rabbi Koppel Reich was elected to be the head of the Hungarian Orthodox community; he later became a member of the upper house of the Hungarian parliament in 1927, when he was nearly 90 years old.

In 1877, the Rabbinical Seminary was opened in Budapest. Its aim was to integrate rabbinical studies with general education, and it became one of the world’s leading institutions for rabbinical training. Its founders and faculty members were well-known researchers and instructors. The seminar’s publications included journals such as the Magyar Zsido Szemle (Hungarian Jewish Review). In spite of opposition and boycotts from the Orthodox community, the seminary played a central role in shaping modern Hungarian Jewry.

BUDAPEST
In 1873, Buda and Pest were officially merged with Obuda, creating the city of Budapest. Concurrently, the second half of the 19th century was a period of economic and cultural prosperity for the Jewish community of Budapest. The beginning of the 20th entury saw Budapest become an important center for Jewish journalism. The weekly Magyar Israelita became the first Jewish newspaper in Hungarian. In the broader community, Jews also assumed an important role in the founding and editing of leading newspapers in Hungary, such as Nyugat (West). During the interwar period, non-Orthodox Jewish educational institutions included 15 schools with 3,600 students. Meanwhile, the Orthodox community had a population of approximately 10,000 and was establishing its own welfare and educational institutions.

1919-1921 was the period of The White Terror in Hungary. After the fall of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic, the new regime of Admiral Miklos Horthy organized army gangs to suppress and destroy any lingering communist elements in the country. Because a number of the communist leaders were Jewish, Hungarian Jews became the main victims of this “purification." From the time Admiral Horthy entered Budapest on November 14, 1919, Jewish officials in the army and government service were dismissed, Jews were forbidden to trade in tobacco and wine, and scientific institutions were closed to them. In 1920, the Numerus Clausus law was imposed, which determined admission to universities on a national basis and effectively established a quota for the number of Jews permitted to enter Hungarian universities.

In spite of government-endorsed anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic violence, by 1935 there were 201,069 Jews living in Budapest making it one of the largest Jewish communities in the world.

BUDAPEST JEWS OF NOTE
• Ignaz Goldziher (1850-1921), the founder of the Academy for the Study of Modern Islam. He was the secretary of the Budapest Neolog community from 1874 to 1904. Goldziher helped found the Jewish-Hungarian Literary Society which worked to spread Jewish culture by means of lectures and publications. Among the Society's publications was the first Jewish translation of the Bible into Hungarian. Goldziher also founded the Jewish-Hungarian museum. He was a teacher in the Rabbinical Seminary of Budapest.

• Arminius Vambery (1832-1913), a famous traveler and researcher. He was instrumental in introducing Theodor Herzl to the Sultan of Turkey.

• Ferenc Molnar (1878-1931), an outstanding dramatist and novelist. Molnar is best known today as the author of the famous children’s book The Paul Street Boys, published in 1927.

• Lengyel Menyhert (1880-1974 ), a dramatist and scriptwriter. His credits include Ninotchka (1940) and To Be or Not to Be (1942), celebrated films for which he wrote the screenplays.

• Professor Alexander (Sandor) Scheiber ( 1913-1985) was the director of the Rabbinical Seminary during the 1950s. He published research on the history of Hungarian Jewry, and in his last years was actively involved in the consolidation of communal life in Budapest.

ZIONISM
Budapest was the birthplace of Theodor (Binyamin Ze'ev) Herzl (1860-1904), the father of modern Zionism. The writer and physicist Max Nordau (1849-1932), a founding member of the World Zionist Congress and author of the Basel Platform at the First Zionist Congress (1897), was also born in Budapest. It is not surprising, therefore, that Budapest was a hotbed of Zionist activity at the turn of the 20th century. In 1903 the student Zionist association Makkabea was established; its first group of pioneers immigrated to Palestine before the end of World War I.The Zionist press in Budapest began in 1905 with the publication of Zsido Neplap (Jewish Popular Paper), which closed down two years later. Magyar Zsido Szemle (Hungarian Jewish Review), another Zionist publication, began operating in 1911, the same year as the quarterly Mult es Jovo.

The Zionist activity in Budapest was strengthened by the arrival in the city in 1940 of Zionist leaders from Transylvania, among them Rudolf Kasztner (who would later play a controversial role during the Holocaust) and Erno Marton. The worsening situation of the Hungarian Jewry during the late 1930’s and during the Holocaust period led to a rise in the popularity of Zionism.

Another Budapest Zionist of note is Hanna Szenes (1921-1944), a native of Budapest who emigrated to Palestine. Szenes was a poetess and paratrooper in the Haganah an underground Jewish military organization in Palestine. During World War II, Szenes was sent on a mission to Hungary to help organize Jewish anti-Nazi resistance. Tragically, she was captured and executed by the Nazis.

Although Zionist organizations reemerged and were active after World War II, the Communist regime banned their activities after 1949, and a number of Zionist leaders were put on trial having been accused of “conspiracy”.

THE HOLOCAUST
Following the Discriminatory Laws of 1938-41, which limited Jewish participation in the economy and society, certain large institutions and factories were required to dismiss their Jewish employees. In 1940, Jews began to be drafted to be forced laborers, which meant that many families were left without any means of support. On November 20, 1940, Hungary signed a treaty with Italy and Japan, thereby officially joining the Axis Powers led by Nazi Germany. During the period that followed Hungary's entry into the war against the Soviet Union in 1941, until the occupation of Hungary by the German army on March 19th, 1944, more than 15,000 Jews from Budapest were killed during deportations and in forced labor camps.

In March 1944, Adolph Eichmann ordered that the Jewish communal organizations be dissolved, and replaced by a Jewish council, Zsido Tanacs. Jews were forced to wear the yellow badge. Freedom of movement was restricted and many buildings were seized. The licenses of Jewish lawyers and newspapers were suspended. On June 30, 1944, the Germans started to concentrate the Jews in certain parts of the city and plans were made to begin their deportation.

The anti-Semitic Arrow Cross Party, led by Ferenc Szalasi, came to power in October 1944. The new government immediately began carrying out attacks against the Jews, killing 600 people during the first days. Papers and certificates that could allow Jews to stay and work in the city were no longer valid. On October 20th 1944 Eichmann ordered that all men aged 16-60 were to be sent to dig fortifications against the approaching Soviet army. 50,000 men marched on that Death March. Three days later the women and children were forced to join the men. These Jews were later transferred by the Germans at the border station at Hegyeshalom. The remaining Jews were concentrated into two ghettos.

At the end of December 1944 there were about 70,000 people in the central ghetto in Budapest; tens of thousands of others found shelter in the international ghetto, where diplomats of neutral nations, such as Carl Lutz of Switzerland and Raoul Wallenberg of Sweden, were issuing protective papers for Jews. Zionist organizations also forged documents in order to save Jews. The number of protective certificates, legal and forged, issued in Budapest was around 100,000; meanwhile, approximately 2,748 Jews were hidden in monasteries and in church cellars. By the time the Soviet army entered and occupied the city on January 17th, 1945, 76,000 Jews were handed over to the Germans, a number which includes victims of deportation and death marches. At the end of World War II there were approximately 90,000 Jews in Budapest. Meanwhile, over 100,000 Jews from Budapest, a majority of the population, perished.

THE COMMUNIST REGIME
After the Holocaust, many survivors emigrated to Palestine. Others remained in Hungary, where a large number abandoned the Jewish tradition and identity, either due to their traumatic experiences during the war, or due to the influence of the atheist government in Hungary. In 1956, after the Hungarian anti-Soviet uprising, about 25,000 Jews left the city.

During the communist period, the Jewish community of Budapest was controlled by the Department of Religious Affairs within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Starting in1968, each of the 18 administrative districts of Budapest contained at least one synagogue, a rabbi, a Talmud Torah, and a lecture hall. Additionally, there was a Jewish high school in the capital, with a student population of about 140 and the Orthodox community founded a yeshiva with 40 students. The Rabbinical Seminary, which was reconstructed after the war and was the only institution of its kind in any communist country, continued to be active thanks to the support of the Neolog movement.

Uj Elet (New Life), was a biweekly newspaper published by the Budapest Jewish community which reflected the changing ways in which the Jews of Hungary understood their identity. Other Jewish communal services included a Jewish hospital, an old age home, a kosher restaurant, the availability of kosher meat, and a matza bakery.

Oradea

Formerly known as Oradea Mare. Hungarian: Nagyvarad, Varad. German, Yiddish, and Hebrew: Grosswardein

A city in northern Transylvania, Western Romania, the capital city of Bihor County and Crisana Region. Part of Hungary until 1918 and between 1940-1944, now part of Romania.

There are several popular legends that refer to a Jewish presence in the city during the 10th century. Historically, although there are documents dating from 1407 and 1489 that mention several Jews in connection with the town, the only reliable evidence of Jews living there dates from the early 18th century. In 1722 four Jews are listed as being residents of the city. Ten Jewish families were registered in 1736, including one chazzan. As the Jewish population grew, the Jewish residents of Oradea tended to be immigrants from Moravia, Bohemia, and Poland.

A Chevra Kadisha was established in the 1730s. In 1787 the Jews were permitted to build a synagogue; a second synagogue was built in 1812. There was also a Jewish hospital.

The entire town, including the Jewish population, began expanding rapidly at the end of the 18th century. The number of Jews increased from 104 taxpayers in 1830 to 1,600 people in 1840, 10,115 (26.2% of the total population) in 1891, 12,294 (24%) in 1900, 15,115 (23.6%) in 1930, and 21,337 (22.9%) in 1941.

The Jews of Oradea adopted the Hungarian language and Hungarian culture earlier than any other Jewish community in Hungary, and the local Hungarian population saw their Jewish neighbors as potential allies in their struggle against Romanian nationalism. Many Jews from Oradea actively participated in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848-1849.

A short-lived Reform congregation was established in Oradea in 1847, and was disbanded in 1848. Conflicts between the Orthodox and Reform within the Oradea community characterized the latter half of the 19th century. In 18790, after the schism following the Hungarian Jewish Congress of 1868, the Oradea community divided into Orthodox and Neolog congregations, each of which developed their own, separate, institutions. A Neolog Temple was built in 1878, and an Orthodox synagogue was built in 1891. Both congregations were led by well-known rabbis. Leaders of the Orthodox community included Rabbi Aaron Isaac Landsberg, and Rabbi Moses Tzvi Fuchs and his son Benjamin. The Neolog congregation was led by rabbis including Alexander Kohut, Lipot Kecskemeti, and the community's last Neolog rabbi, Istvan Vajda; Rabbi Vajda perished in Auschwitz along with the rest of his community. During World War I several Chasidic rabbis of the Vizhnitsa and Zhidachov dynasties from Bukovina and Galicia found refuge in Oradea. They, in turn, attracted chasidim from the district to the city.

Culturally and economically, the Jews of Oradea were the most active of all of the communities in Hungary or Romania. There were Jewish merchants, physicians, farmers, lawyers, and merchants. In 1902 the chief of police was Jewish, and Jews were represented on the municipal council. They also established a number of communal institutions. Early in the 19th century a number of Jewish public schools were opened. An Orthodox high school was founded in 1888; it had four classes, and remained open until the Holocaust. There was also a Neolog high school which opened in 1920 and ran until the Holocaust. There were Hebrew printing houses operating in the city. The leading Jewish newspaper was the religious Zionist weekly "Nepunk" ("Our People"). Zionist movements were active in Oradea between the World Wars. The National Jewish Party had supporters in Oradea, although some Jews supported the party of the Hungarian nationalists. Some Jews joined the communist party and were even elected as city councilors.

Life was difficult for the Jews of Oradea under Romanian rule, and then under the regime of Nicholas Horthy. In 1927 Romanian nationalist student leaders organized anti-Jewish riots, in which synagogues were looted and several Jews were killed, and there were a number of other outbreaks of anti-Semitic violence before World War II.

Hungarian authorities forced the Jewish residents of the city into the Oradea ghetto in 1944; they were subsequently deported to Auschwitz. A total of 25,000 Jews were deported from Oradea and its district.

After the end of the war, in 1947, the Jewish population numbered approximately 8,000, including survivors from the camps and Jews who had arrived from other areas. In 1946 these survivors dedicated a monument to those who had been lost during the war. Nonetheless, the communist regime imposed new hardships on the Jewish community. Zionist organizations were suppressed, and their leaders were often arrested. Many Jews lost their jobs, or were imprisoned.

During the 1950s, Romania began "selling" its Jewish citizens to Israel; in exchange for money or services, the Romanian government would grant Jews travel permits to immigrate to Israel. Many of the Jews remaining in Oradea emigrated to Israel, North America, Australia, and Western Europe and the population fell to 2,000 in 1971. The only Jewish institutions still functioning then were the three synagogues, which held services on Shabbat and the holidays. There was also a kosher restaurant in the town.

By the 21st century, there were only a few hundred Jews still living in Oradea. Since 2001 the community has been supported by the Lempert Family Foundation, a North American organization dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jewish community of Oradea.

Papa

A town in the Veszprem district, North West Hungary.

Documents from 1698 indicate the presence of Jews in the place. Since then Jewish settlement grew rapidly. The census of 1736 shows the town had the largest number of Jews in the area.

Relations of the inhabitants towards the Jews were generally good, although there were occasional anti-Semitic outbursts; such as in 1830 following a plague, again in 1848 during the national War of Liberation and in 1882 after the Tiszaeszlar blood libel. However, none of these was of long duration. In the Tiszaeszlar incident, the Jews (particularly the butchers and tanning workers) defended themselves.

In the main the Jews made a living from commerce and small-scale industry. In the first half of the 19th century over 100 Jewish families worked in the tanning industry. There were also land lease-holders and important industrialists.
The community was officially founded in 1748 when the Jews received the protection of the estates owner, count Eszterhazy, who permitted them to settle there; to build a synagogue and to erect a cemetery. The community had a 100 dunam parcel of land at its disposal and with the proceeds thereof, the institutions that were founded were able to operate.

The Hevra Kadisha was established in 1739; the protocol of its establishment was written in Hebrew at the beginning, followed later by Yiddish and Hungarian. In 1850 the Hevra Kadisha opened a hospital. There were charitable institutions which assisted the needy and visited the sick, and an old-aged home. The synagogue was consecrated in 1846; count Eszterhazy donated the bricks for the building. Because of differences between the Haredim (orthodox) and Maskilim (enlightened) at the Jewish congress in 1868, the community joined the orthodox stream which refused to accept the decisions of congress. In 1875 a small group broke away and established a Neolog (reform) community which advocated integration into Hungarian society and amendments to the religious way of life.

In 1845 a school, for which the building materials were donated by count Eszterhazy, was opened. It was closed temporarily during the national war of liberation. It later became a state school with over 500 pupils. There were also religious educational institutions.

In 1904 a "Hovevei Zion" society was founded. Later on Zionist activities increased and in the 1930s there was a branch of the Zionist youth movement and also of the Hungarian Zionist organization (which had 120 members), as well as others such as "Hashomer Ha'tsair".

During World War I 20 Jews were killed in action.

During the period of the "white terror" (pogroms against the Jews instigated by right wing military elements, 1919-21, after the fall of the communist regime), two Jews were murdered together with a group of communists.

In 1930 the community numbered 2,567 (12% of the total). The comparative figures in 1880 were 3,550 and 24.2%.


The Holocaust Period
In 1938, after the publication of "discriminatory laws" which aimed at limiting Jewish participation in the economic and cultural fields, the majority of the Jews lost their means of livelihood. In 1939 Papa became a center for forced labor workers from the area. They were organized in labor battalions together with other Hungarian citizens whom the authorities would not permit to join the armed forces. The young people were sent to various places, some within the country and others to the Ukraine. Of the latter group, only a few survivors returned after the war.

In the spring of 1944, after the German occupation, several leading members of the community were arrested and taken to concentration camps in Sarvar and Nagykanizsa. From here they were sent to Auschwitz where they all perished.
In the second half of May a ghetto was set up in the area around the synagogue, which comprised 6-8 streets.

Together with Jews from the surroundings, there were about 2,800 people in the ghetto. At the beginning of June all the fit young people were conscripted for forced labor. The wealthy Jews were interrogated under torture in order to make them reveal where they had hidden their valuables. The Christian residents of the town expressed resentment against the use of this violence. One member of the gendarmerie was charged on these grounds after the war and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.

In the ghetto there was a communal kitchen and the inmates did not suffer from hunger. The ghetto police were Jewish and doctors attended to the sick.

In the middle of June they were removed from the ghetto and held in a chemical fertilizers factory, without food or sanitary facilities. The municipality sent small supplies of food.
At the beginning of July they were loaded into cattle cars and transported to Auschwitz. 51 Jews, who were included in the Kastner "Bergen-Belsen train", were removed and sent to Budapest; the majority remained alive.

After the war about 500 people returned to Papa; communal life was renewed. The synagogue and cemetery were renovated and a memorial was erected to the martyrs. After the 1956 anti-Russian revolt, the people began to leave the town by degrees - the majority went overseas, including a few who went on aliyah to Israel. In 1972 there were only 50 Jews left in the place.

Surany

Known as Velke Surany until 1927; Hungarian: Nagysurany; German: Schuran

A town in the Nitra Region, southern Slovakia

Surany was part of Hungary until 1920, and between 1938 and 1945. Between 1920 and 1938, and after World War II until 1993, it was part of the Republic of Czechoslovakia.

The building that once housed the synagogue has been converted into the Surany Municipal Museum. The museum's exhibits include fragments from a Torah scroll that was hidden in the synagogue's attic. The permanent exhibition is located in what was once the women's gallery, and the sanctuary is used for concerts and other events. The location where the ark was once located contains a Holocaust memorial.

HISTORY

The Jewish community of Surany was one of the oldest in Slovakia. While it is unclear precisely when the Jewish community was first established, it is known that there were Jews living there by the beginning of the 16th century. The Turks, who ruled the region between 1526 and 1666, forbade the Jews from living in Surany, so a number settled in the nearby town of Lipova. In 1686, when the restriction on Jewish settlement in Surany was lifted, the Jews established a community and were joined by Jews from Turdosovce, Komjatice and Palarikovo.

The first rabbi to serve in Surany was Rabbi Moshe Yonah, who died in 1784. The community's last rabbi was Rabbi Meir Yehuda Frey, who also served as the head of the yeshiva.

During the 17th century the community of Surany was already fairly big, and began to become known for its yeshiva and the rabbis who taught there. Indeed, Surany's yeshiva was one of the biggest in Slovakia, and its students came from Hungary, Austria, Romania, Germany, Yugoslavia, and even England and Switzerland. The town had also a beit midrash, a Talmud Torah, and an elementary Jewish school that also attracted non-Jewish students (in 1930 Shmuel Kosch was appointed as the school's principal). After five years at the Jewish school, Jewish students generally continued their studies at the Talmud Torah along with continuing the required general education curriculum. Other communal institutions included a chevra kaddisha and a women's society.

The Jewish Street included a number of synagogues, the last of which was founded in 1918. Other buildings housed the yeshiva, the elementary school, the slaughterhouse, as well as the residences of the kosher butcher, the rabbi, the cantor, and the teachers. In 1930 the local council shared in the cost of building the two-story mikva.

During the middle of the 19th century, after the 1867 emancipation of Hungarian Jews and following the removal of residence restrictions on the Jews of Hungary, many Jews from Surany moved to the neighboring town of Nove Zamky.The community of Surany later became affiliated with Nove Zamky.

The Republic of Czechoslovakia, which was established at end of World War I, recognized the Jews as a national minority with concurrent rights, which prompted an interest in Jewish nationalism in general, and Zionism in particular. In 1926, prior to the elections to the 15th Zionist Congress, the Jews of Surany purchased 22 shekels (membership and voting rights). They purchased 43 shekels in 1937, prior to the elections to the 20th Congress. In the early 1940s the Zionist youth group Maccabi Hazai became active, in spite of the efforts of the local rabbi to discourage their interest in Zionism. Agudas Yisroel was also active in Surany, in addition to the various Zionist groups.

In 1921, around 600 Jews were registered in the community, which by then had become affiliated with the Orthodox movement. The head of the community at that time was David Ehrenfeld. The local Jews spoke Slovak, German, and Hungarian. Most of the town's Jews worked as traders and craftsmen; the founders of the local sugar factory were Jews from Poland.

In 1930 there were 722 Jews living at Surany.

Notable figures from Surany include the Bible commenter, Rabbi Professor Maurice Niederman, who was born in Surany.

THE HOLOCAUST

The Munich Agreement of September 1938 resulted in the dissolution of the Republic of Czechoslovakia. After the First Vienna Award of November 2, 1938 part of southern Slovakia, including Surany, was annexed to Hungary. Hungary's pro-German government imposed restrictions on Jews working in education and business, and many lost their jobs during this period. Jews with no Hungarian citizenship documents were expelled from the country.

The number of the Jews at Surany in 1940 was around 1000.

The Germans occupied Hungary on March 19, 1944. In May of that year Jewish men between the ages of 20 to 45 were mobilized as forced labor within the Hungarian Army. The Jews remaining in Surany and the region were concentrated in a ghetto in the town of Komarom. From there they were deported to Auschwitz.

POSTWAR

At the end of the war in 1945 only a small number of Jews from Surany returned to the town; in 1948 Surany's Jewish population was 50. The synagogue building was used as a timber store and then as a school. Most of the tombstones in the cemetery that had been damaged during the war were repaired. Eventually most of the Jews emigrated, and by the 1970s there were only two Jewish families left in Surany.

Paris

Capital of France

In 582, the date of the first documentary evidence of the presence of Jews in Paris, there was already a community with a synagogue. In 614 or 615, the sixth council of Paris decided that Jews who held public office, and their families, must convert to Christianity. From the 12th century on there was a Jewish quarter. According to one of the sources of Joseph ha- Kohen's Emek ha-Bakha, Paris Jews owned about half the land in Paris and the vicinity. They employed many Christian servants and the objects they took in pledge included even church vessels.

Far more portentous was the blood libel which arose against the Jews of Blois in 1171. In 1182, Jews were expelled. The crown confiscated the houses of the Jews as well as the synagogue and the king gave 24 of them to the drapers of Paris and 18 to the furriers. When the Jews were permitted to return to the kingdom of France in 1198 they settled in Paris, in and around the present rue Ferdinand Duval, which became the Jewish quarter once again in the modern era.

The famous disputation on the Talmud was held in Paris in 1240. The Jewish delegation was led by Jehiel b. Joseph of Paris. After the condemnation of the Talmud, 24 cart-loads of Jewish books were burned in public in the Place de Greve, now the Place de l'Hotel de Ville. A Jewish moneylender called Jonathan was accused of desecrating the host in 1290. It is said that this was the main cause of the expulsion of 1306.

Tax rolls of the Jews of Paris of 1292 and 1296 give a good picture of their economic and social status. One striking fact is that a great many of them originated from the provinces. In spite of the prohibition on the settlement of Jews expelled from England, a number of recent arrivals from that country are listed. As in many other places, the profession of physician figures most prominently among the professions noted. The majority of the rest of the Jews engaged in moneylending and commerce. During the same period the composition of the Jewish community, which numbered at least 100 heads of families, changed to a large extent through migration and the number also declined to a marked degree. One of the most illustrious Jewish scholars of medieval France, Judah b. Isaac, known as Sir Leon of Paris, headed the yeshiva of Paris in the early years of the 13th century. He was succeeded by Jehiel b. Joseph, the Jewish leader at the 1240 disputation. After the wholesale destruction of
Jewish books on this occasion until the expulsion of 1306, the yeshivah of Paris produced no more scholars of note.

In 1315, a small number of Jews returned and were expelled again in 1322. The new community was formed in Paris in 1359. Although the Jews were under the protection of the provost of Paris, this was to no avail against the murderous attacks and looting in 1380 and 1382 perpetrated by a populace in revolt against the tax burden. King Charles VI relieved the Jews of responsibility for the valuable pledges which had been stolen from them on this occasion and granted them other financial concessions, but the community was unable to recover. In 1394, the community was struck by the Denis de Machaut affair. Machaut, a Jewish convert to Christianity, had disappeared and the Jews were accused of having murdered him or, at the very least, of having imprisoned him until he agreed to return to Judaism. Seven Jewish notables were condemned to death, but their sentence was commuted to a heavy fine allied to imprisonment until Machaut reappeared. This affair was a prelude to the "definitive" expulsion of the Jews from France in 1394.

From the beginning of the 18th century the Jews of Metz applied to the authorities for permission to enter Paris on their business pursuits; gradually the periods of their stay in the capital increased and were prolonged. At the same time, the city saw the arrival of Jews from Bordeaux (the "Portuguese") and from Avignon. From 1721 to 1772 a police inspector was given special charge over the Jews.
After the discontinuation of the office, the trustee of the Jews from 1777 was Jacob Rodrigues Pereire, a Jew from Bordeaux, who had charge over a group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews, while the German Jews (from Metz, Alsace, and Loraine) were led by Moses Eliezer Liefman Calmer, and those from Avignon by Israel Salom. The German Jews lived in the poor quarters of Saint-Martin and Saint-Denis, and those from Bordeaux, Bayonne, and Avignon inhabited the more luxurious quarters of Saint Germaine and Saint André.

Large numbers of the Jews eked out a miserable living in peddling. The more well-to-do were moneylenders, military purveyors and traders in jewels. There were also some craftsmen among them. Inns preparing kosher food existed from 1721; these also served as prayer rooms. The first publicly acknowledged synagogue was opened in rue de Brisemiche in 1788. The number of Jews of Paris just before the revolution was probably no greater than 500. On Aug. 26, 1789 they presented the constituent assembly with a petition asking for the rights of citizens. Full citizenship rights were granted to the Spanish, Portuguese, and Avignon Jews on Jan. 28, 1790.

After the freedom of movement brought about by emancipation, a large influx of Jews arrived in Paris, numbering 2,908 in 1809. When the Jewish population of Paris had reached between 6,000 and 7,000 persons, the Consistory began to build the first great synagogue. The Consistory established its first primary school in 1819.

The 30,000 or so Jews who lived in Paris in 1869 constituted about 40% of the Jewish population of France. The great majority originated from Metz, Alsace, Lorraine, and Germany, and there were already a few hundreds from Poland. Apart from a very few wealthy capitalists, the great majority of the Jews belonged to the middle economic level. The liberal professions also attracted numerous Jews; the community included an increasing number of professors, lawyers, and physicians. After 1881 the Jewish population increased with the influx of refugees from Poland, Russia, and the Slav provinces of Austria and Romania. At the same time, there was a marked increase in the anti-Semitic movement. The Dreyfus affair, from 1894, split the intellectuals of Paris into "Dreyfusards" and "anti-Dreyfusards" who frequently clashed on the streets, especially in the Latin Quarter. With the law separating church and state in 1905, the Jewish consistories lost their official status, becoming no more than private religious associations. The growing numbers of Jewish immigrants to Paris resented the heavy hand of a Consistory, which was largely under the control of Jews from Alsace and Lorraine, now a minority group. These immigrants formed the greater part of the 13,000 "foreign" Jews who enlisted in World War 1. Especially after 1918, Jews began to arrive from north Africa, Turkey, and the Balkans, and in greatly increased numbers from eastern Europe. Thus in 1939 there were around 150,000 Jews in Paris (over half the total in France). The Jews lived all over the city but there were large concentrations of them in the north and east. More than 150 landmanschaften composed of immigrants from eastern Europe and many charitable societies united large numbers of Jews, while at this period the Paris Consistory (which retained the name with its changed function) had no more than 6,000 members.

Only one of the 19th-century Jewish primary schools was still in existence in 1939, but a few years earlier the system of Jewish education which was strictly private in nature acquired a secondary school and a properly supervised religious education, for which the Consistory was responsible. Many great Jewish scholars were born and lived in Paris in the modern period. They included the Nobel Prize winners Rene Cassin and A. Lwoff. On June 14, 1940, the Wehrmacht entered Paris, which was proclaimed an open city. Most Parisians left, including the Jews. However, the population returned in the following weeks. A sizable number of well-known Jews fled to England and the USA. (Andre Maurois), while some, e.g. Rene Cassin and Gaston Palewski, joined General de Gaulle's free French movement in London. Parisian Jews were active from the very beginning in resistance movements. The march to the etoile on Nov. 11, 1940, of high school and university students, the first major public manifestation of resistance, included among its organizers Francis Cohen, Suzanne Dijan, and Bernard Kirschen.

The first roundups of Parisian Jews of foreign nationality took place in 1941; about 5,000 "foreign" Jews were deported on May 14, about 8,000 "foreigners" in August, and about 100 "intellectuals" on December 13. On July 16, 1942, 12,884 Jews were rounded up in Paris (including about 4,000 children). The Parisian Jews represented over half the 85,000 Jews deported from France to extermination camps in the east. During the night of Oct. 2-3, 1941, seven Parisian synagogues were attacked.

Several scores of Jews fell in the Paris insurrection in August, 1944. Many streets in Paris and the outlying suburbs bear the names of Jewish heroes and martyrs of the Holocaust period and the memorial to the unknown Jewish martyr, a part of the Centre de documentation juive contemporaire, was erected in in 1956 in the heart of Paris.

Between 1955 and 1965, the Jewish community experienced a demographic transformation with the arrival of more than 300,000 Sephardi Jews from North Africa. These Jewish immigrants came primarily from Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt. At the time, Morocco and Tunisia were French protectorates unlike Algeria which was directly governed by France. Since their arrival, the Sephardi Jews of North Africa have remained the majority (60%) of French Jewry.

In 1968 Paris and its suburbs contained about 60% of the Jewish population of France. In 1968 it was estimated at between 300,000 and 350,000 (about 5% of the total population). In 1950, two-thirds of the Jews were concentrated in about a dozen of the poorer or commercial districts in the east of the city. The social and economic advancement of the second generation of east European immigrants, the influx of north Africans, and the gradual implementation of the urban renewal program caused a considerable change in the once Jewish districts and the dispersal of the Jews throughout other districts of Paris.

Between 1957 and 1966 the number of Jewish communities in the Paris region rose from 44 to 148. The Paris Consistory, traditionally presided over by a member of the Rothschild family, officially provides for all religious needs. Approximately 20 synagogues and meeting places for prayer observing Ashkenazi or Sephardi rites are affiliated with the Consistory, which also provides for the religious needs of new communities in the suburbs. This responsibility is shared by traditional orthodox elements, who, together with the reform and other independent groups, maintain another 30 or so synagogues. The orientation and information office of the Fonds social juif unifie had advised or assisted over 100,000 refugees from north Africa. It works in close cooperation with government services and social welfare and educational institutions of the community. Paris was one of the very few cities in the diaspora with a full-fledged Israel-type school, conducted by Israeli teachers according to an Israeli curriculum.

The Six-Day War (1967), which drew thousands of Jews into debates and
Pro-Israel demonstrations, was an opportunity for many of them to reassess their personal attitude toward the Jewish people. During the "students' revolution" of 1968 in nearby Nanterre and in the Sorbonne, young Jews played an outstanding role in the leadership of left-wing activists and often identified with Arab anti-Israel propaganda extolling the Palestinian organizations. Eventually, however, when the "revolutionary" wave subsided, it appeared that the bulk of Jewish students in Paris, including many supporters of various new left groups, remained loyal to Israel and strongly opposed Arab terrorism.

As of 2015, France was home to the third largest Jewish population in the world. It was also the largest in all of Europe. More than half the Jews in France live in the Paris metropolitan area. According to the World Jewish Congress, an estimated 350,000 Jews live in the city of Paris and its many districts. By 2014, Paris had become the largest Jewish city outside of Israel and the United States. Comprising 6% of the city’s total population (2.2 million), the Jews of Paris are a sizeable minority.

There are more than twenty organizations dedicated to serving the Jewish community of Paris. Several offer social services while others combat anti-Semitism. There are those like the Paris Consistory which financially supports many of the city's congregations. One of the largest organizations is the Alliance Israélite Universelle which focuses on self-defense, human rights and Jewish education. The FSJU or Unified Social Jewish Fund assists in the absorption of new immigrants. Other major organizations include the ECJC (European Council of Jewish Communities), EAJCC (European Association of Jewish Communities), ACIP (Association Consitoriale Israelité), CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions), and the UEJF (Jewish Students Union of France).

Being the third largest Jewish city behind New York and Los Angeles, Paris is home to numerous synagogues. By 2013, there were more than eighty three individual congregations. While the majority of these are orthodox, many conservative and liberal congregations can be found across Paris. During the 1980s, the city received an influx of orthodox Jews, primarily as a result of the Lubavitch movement which has since been very active in Paris and throughout France.

Approximately 4% of school-age children in France are enrolled in Jewish day schools. In Paris, there are over thirty private Jewish schools. These include those associated with both the orthodox and liberal movements. Chabad Lubavitch has established many educational programs of its own. The Jewish schools in Paris range from the pre-school to High School level. There are additionally a number of Hebrew schools which enroll students of all ages.

Among countless cultural institutions are museums and memorials which preserve the city's Jewish history. Some celebrate the works of Jewish artists while others commemorate the Holocaust and remember its victims. The Museum of Jewish art displays sketches by Mane-Katz, the paintings of Alphonse Levy and the lithographs of Chagall. At the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation (CDJC), stands the Memorial de la Shoah. Here, visitors can view the center's many Holocaust memorials including the Memorial of the Unknown Jewish Martyrs, the Wall of Names, and the Wall of the Righteous Among the Nations. Located behind the Notre Dame is the Memorial of Deportation, a memorial to the 200,000 Jews who were deported from Vichy France to the Nazi concentration camps. On the wall of a primary school on rue Buffault is a plaque commemorating the 12,000 Parisian Jewish children who died in Auschwitz following their deportation from France between 1942 and 1944.

For decades, Paris has been the center of the intellectual and cultural life of French Jewry. The city offers a number of institutions dedicated to Jewish history and culture. Located at the Alliance Israélite Universalle is the largest Jewish library in all of Europe. At the Bibliothèque Medem is the Paris Library of Yiddish. The Mercaz Rashi is home to the University Center for Jewish Studies, a well known destination for Jewish education. One of the most routinely visited cultural centers in Paris is the Chabad House. As of 2014, it was the largest in the world. The Chabad House caters to thousands of Jewish students from Paris and elsewhere every year.

Located in the city of Paris are certain districts, many of them historic, which are well known for their significant Jewish populations. One in particular is Le Marais “The Marsh”, which had long been an aristocratic district of Paris until much of the city’s nobility began to move. By the end of the 19th century, the district had become an active commercial area. It was at this time that thousands of Ashkenazi Jews fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe began to settle Le Marais, bringing their specialization in clothing with them. Arriving from Romania, Austria, Hungary and Russia, they developed a new community alongside an already established community of Parisian Jews. As Jewish immigration continued into the mid 20th century, this Jewish quarter in the fourth arrondissement of Paris became known as the “Pletzl”, a Yiddish term meaning “little place”. Despite having been targeted by the Nazis during World War II, the area has continued to be a major center of the Paris Jewish community. Since the 1990s, the area has grown. Along the Rue des Rosiers are a number of Jewish restaurants, bookstores, kosher food outlets and synagogues. Another notable area with a sizeable Jewish community is in the city’s 9th district. Known as the Faubourg-Montmarte, it is home to several synagogues, kosher restaurants as well as many offices to a number of Jewish organizations.

With centuries-old Jewish neighborhoods, Paris has its share of important Jewish landmarks. Established in 1874 is the Rothschild Synagogue and while it may not be ancient, its main attraction is its rabbis who are well known for being donned in Napoleonic era apparel. The synagogue on Rue Buffault opened in 1877 and was the first synagogue in Paris to adopt the Spanish/Portuguese rite. Next to the synagogue is a memorial dedicated to the 12,000 children who perished in the Holocaust. The Copernic synagogue is the city’s largest non-orthodox congregation. In 1980 it was the target of an anti-Semitic bombing which led to the death of four people during the celebration of Simchat Torah, the first attack against the Jewish people in France since World War II. In the 1970s, the remains of what many believed to have been a Yeshiva were found under the Rouen Law Courts. Just an hour outside of Paris, this site is presumed to be from the 12th century when Jews comprised nearly 20% of the total population.

Serving many of the medical needs of the Jewish community of Paris are organizations such as the OSE and CASIP. While the Rothschild hospital provides general medical care, the OSE or Society for the Health of the Jewish Population, offers several health centers around the city. CASIP focuses on providing the community social services include children and elderly homes.

Being a community of nearly 400,000 people, the Jews of Paris enjoy a diversity of media outlets centered on Jewish culture. Broadcasted every week are Jewish television programs which include news and a variety of entertainment. On radio are several stations such as Shalom Paris which airs Jewish music, news and programming. Circulating throughout Paris are two weekly Jewish papers and a number of monthly journals. One of the city’s major newspapers is the Actualité Juive. There are also online journals such as the Israel Infos and Tribute Juive.