A stone plaque commemorating a donation to a synagogue in Strasbourg in the 12th century
The history of the Jews in Alsace is one of the oldest in Europe. It was first attested to in 1165 by Benjamin of Tudela, who wrote about a "large number of learned men" in "Astransbourg";[1] and it is assumed that it dates back to around the year 1000.[2] Although Jewish life in Alsace was often disrupted by outbreaks of pogroms, at least during the Middle Ages, and reined in by harsh restrictions on business and movement, it has had a continuous existence ever since it was first recorded. At its peak, in 1870, the Jewish community of Alsace numbered 35,000 people.[3]
The language traditionally spoken by the Jews of Alsace was a dialect of Yiddish, Judeo-Alsatian (Yédisch-Daïtsch),[4][5] originally a mixture of Middle High German, Old Alsatian, Medieval Hebrew and Aramaic, and largely indistinguishable from Western Yiddish. From the 12th century onwards, due among other things to the influence of the nearby Rashi school, French linguistic elements were incorporated as well; and from the 18th century onwards, due to immigration, some Polish elements were blended into Yédisch-Daïtsch too.[6] Judeo-Alsatian went extinct around 1930 though documentation goes back to the 18th century.[5]
Medieval antisemitism and massacre of 1349
A kettle full of Jews (with white, pointed hats) burning in hell, an illustration from the 12th century Hortus deliciarum
Several disparaging representations of Jews in medieval Alsatian art, usually showing them with the characteristic three-pointed hat, have survived and can still be seen in situ, notably on the tympanum of the RomanesqueÉglise Saints-Pierre-et-Paul in Sigolsheim, on the roof of the Église Saints-Pierre-et-Paul in Rosheim and the Église Saint-Léger in Guebwiller (both Romanesque as well, and showing a seated Jew holding a money purse), on Strasbourg Cathedral and on the gothicCollégiale Saint-Martin in Colmar, which shows two different representations of a Judensau. Other medieval representations have survived through copies of the Hortus deliciarum and as architectural fragments in the Musée de l’Œuvre Notre-Dame.[7] Stained glass windows in the Niederhaslach Church, frescoes in the Église Saint-Michel of Weiterswiller and a tapestry in the Église Saints-Pierre-et-Paul of Neuwiller-lès-Saverne also show disparaging representations of Jews in traditional attire.[8]
In 1286, Rabbi Meir of Rothenburg, one of the leading Jewish figures of his day, was imprisoned by the German king in a fortress near Ensisheim.
In 1349, Jews of Alsace were wrongfully accused of poisoning the wells with plague. On February 14, Saint Valentine's day, several hundred Jews were massacred during the Strasbourg pogrom.[9] Jews were subsequently forbidden to settle in the town and were reminded every evening at 10 o'clock by a Cathedral bell and a municipal herald blowing the "Grüselhorn" to leave. Alsatian Jews then settled in the neighbouring villages and small towns, where many of them became cloth merchants ("Schmatteshendler") or cattle merchants ("Behemeshendler").
Early modern times
An important political figure for the Jews of Alsace and beyond was the long-serving "shtadlan" Josel of Rosheim. In 1510 he was made the parnas u-manhig (sworn guide and leader) of the Jewish communities of Lower Alsace, before becoming the Holy Roman emperor's favourite interlocutor on Jewish matters and the most influential intercessor on the Jews' behalf.
French rule until 1871
With the annexation of Alsace to France in 1681, Catholicism was restored as the principal Christian current. However, the prohibition against Jews settling in Strasbourg, and the special taxes Jews were subjected to, were not lifted. In the 18th century, Herz Cerfbeer of Medelsheim, the influential merchant and philanthropist, became the first Jew to be allowed to settle in the Alsatian capital again. The French Revolution then admitted Jews back into the town.
By 1790, the Jewish population of Alsace was approximately 22,500, about 3% of the provincial population. Another 7500 Jews lived in neighboring Lorraine. Together they comprised three-fourths of the 40,000 Jews who lived in France at the time. The Jews were highly segregated, subject to long-standing anti-Jewish regulations. They maintained their own customs, language, and historic traditions within the tightly-knit ghettos; they adhered to Jewish law. Jews were barred from most cities and instead lived in hundreds of small hamlets and villages. They were also barred from most occupations, and concentrated in trade, services, and especially in moneylending. They financed about a third of the mortgages in Alsace. Leading philosophers of the French Enlightenment, such as Denis Diderot and Voltaire, ridiculed and condemned French Jews as misanthropic, rapacious, and culturally backward. In 1777, a local judge forged hundreds of receipts, which he gave to Catholic peasants, to "prove" they had repaid their debts to Jewish moneylenders. The Jews protested, and a Prussian official, Christian Wilhelm von Dohm, wrote a highly influential pamphlet "On the Civic Improvement of the Jews" (1781), which advanced the cause of Jewish emancipation in both Germany and France.
Religious tolerance grew during the French Revolution, with full emancipation given to Protestants in 1789, Sephardic Jews in 1790, and the Ashkenazi Jews of Alsace and Lorraine in 1791. When Napoleon created the "Grand Sanhedrin" in 1806, he appointed the Chief Rabbi of Strasbourg, Joseph David Sinzheim, as its first President. However, local antisemitism also increased, and Napoleon turned hostile in 1806, imposing a moratorium on repaying all debts owed to Jews. In 1808 Napoleon imposed tight limits on Jewish money-lending, capping interest rates at 5%. Napoleon's decrees collapsed after he fell from power, but an undercurrent of antisemitism remained. In the 1830–1870 era, urban middle-class Jews made enormous progress toward integration and acculturation, as antisemitism sharply declined. By 1831, the state began paying salaries to official rabbis, and in 1846 a special oath required for Jews in court was discontinued. Antisemitic riots occasionally occurred, especially during the Revolution of 1848. In 1854, Isaac Strauss became director of the orchestra of the bals de l'Opéra and then of the bals des Tuileries, before the empress Eugénie de Montijo replaced him with Émile Waldteufel in 1867. During this era before 1870 many Jews converted to Christianity, including David Paul Drach (1823), Francis Libermann (1826) and Alphonse Ratisbonne (1842). After Alsace was incorporated into Germany in 1871 (until 1918) antisemitic violence diminished.[10]
While the Dreyfus affair (1894–1906) by and large played out in France, and Alsace was a part of Germany at the time, it had immediate repercussions for the Jews in Alsace. Alfred Dreyfus was by birth a citizen of Mulhouse and thus suspected by French conservatives of innate sympathy with the German enemy by virtue of his being Alsatian and Jewish, which put him under suspicion of being doubly disloyal. One of the alleged traitor's strongest advocates was fellow Mulhousian Auguste Scheurer-Kestner, a (non-Jewish) chemist, industrialist, politician and philanthropist.[11] Another main player in the Affair, and advocate of Dreyfus' cause, was the Strasbourg-born army general Georges Picquart.
In 1939, there were about 20,000 Jews living in Alsace and Lorraine. Immediately following the start of World War II on 3 September 1939, the French government started evacuating Jews from Alsace and Lorraine. About 14,000 Jews were evacuated to Périgueux and Limoges in southwest France, and far from the German border. About 5,000 more Jews fled to southern France after the German invasion and defeat of France in May 1940.[13][14]
Under the terms of the Armistice of 22 June 1940, Alsace became part of the German occupation zone. On 15 July 1940, most of the remaining Alsatian Jews (about 3,000) were evicted from their homes by the German authorities and deported to Vichy France.[15] The Germans declared Alsace and Lorraine to be Judenrein (lit: cleansed of Jews).[16]
Unlike most of the German-occupied region of France, Alsace was effectively annexed by Germany by 1942, when Alsatians became German citizens by decree, and Alsace formally became part of the administrative unit (Gau) of Baden-Elsaß.[17] During World War II, Germany established the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in Alsace. August Hirt became an institute director at the Nazi University of Strasbourg; he is notorious for his experiments with concentration camp prisoners and for his efforts to establish a Jewish skull collection.
Many Alsatian Jews who had been relocated to western regions of the country were ultimately arrested and deported. It is estimated that 2,605 Jews from Bas-Rhin[18] and 1,100 from Haut-Rhin[19] were murdered during the Holocaust.
Businessmen such as Théophile Bader, founder of the Galeries Lafayette; Pierre Wertheimer, founder of the French cosmetics company Bourjois and partner of Coco Chanel; and Albert Kahn, banker and philanthropist would have faced confiscation of their properties and/or deportation to a death camp if they had not managed to flee in time.
Jews in Alsace today
After the Algerian war, beginning in 1962, Sephardic Jews arrived in Alsace from North Africa. In the year 2000, roughly 4,000 Jews in Strasbourg were Sephardic, making up a little over 25% of the total Jewish population.[20] In the year 2001, roughly 25% of the 500 Jewish families of Mulhouse were Sephardic.[21]
During modern times the distinct dialect and culture of the Alsatian jews has been in decline amongst Alsatian Jews. This is due to the priority of the community on assimilating into French culture and the lack of priority on preserving their own culture.[22]
Presentation of Alsatian Jewish history and heritage
Ingwiller's now abandoned synagogue was built in 1822 over the ruins of a medieval castle, and enlarged in 1891.
Alsace is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,919,745. Alsatian culture is characterized by a blend of German and French influences.
Haut-Rhin is a département in the Grand Est region, France, bordering both Germany and Switzerland. It is named after the river Rhine. Its name means Upper Rhine. Haut-Rhin is the smaller and less populated of the two departments of the former administrative Alsace region, the other being the Bas-Rhin. Especially after the 1871 cession of the southern territory known since 1922 as Territoire de Belfort, although it is still rather densely populated compared to the rest of metropolitan France. It had a population of 767,083 in 2021.
Alsace–Lorraine, officially the Imperial Territory of Alsace–Lorraine, was a former territory of the German Empire, located in modern day France. It was established in 1871 by the German Empire after it had occupied the region during the Franco-Prussian War. The region was officially ceded to the German Empire in the Treaty of Frankfurt. French resentment about the loss of the territory was one of the contributing factors to World War I. Alsace–Lorraine was ceded to France in 1920 as part of the Treaty of Versailles following Germany's defeat in the war, although already annexed in 1918.
Colmar is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace, it is the seat of the prefecture of the Haut-Rhin department and of the subprefecture of the Colmar-Ribeauvillé arrondissement.
Haguenau is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department of France, of which it is a sub-prefecture.
The November 1918 insurgency in Alsace-Lorraine is a series of events which occurred when the region of Alsace–Lorraine passed from German to French sovereignty at the end of World War I. During this month, international events were linked to domestic troubles, particularly the German Revolution.
Bouxwiller is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department, Alsace, Grand Est, northeastern France. Likely meaning "Bucco's land", Bouxwiller is the capital of the Bouxwiller canton and is located within the Saverne arrondissement about 34 kilometres (21 mi) northwest of Strasbourg.
Herrlisheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in north-eastern France. The town dates from the 8th century. Herrlisheim was the scene of very heavy fighting during Operation Nordwind, an offensive launched by the German Army during World War II that inflicted considerable damage to the town.
Mommenheim is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department. The department is in the historic Alsace region of France, and is itself within the Grand Est administrative region of north-eastern France.
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme or mahJ is the largest French museum of Jewish art and history. It is located in the Hôtel de Saint-Aignan in the Marais district in Paris.
The Judeo-Alsatian Museum is a museum in Bouxwiller in the Bas-Rhin department of France. Housed in a former synagogue, the museum describes the Jewish culture and history of the Jews of Alsace.
The Musée alsacien is a museum in Strasbourg in the Bas-Rhin department of France. It opened on 11 May 1907, and is dedicated to all aspects of daily life in pre-industrial and early industrial Alsace. It contains over 5000 exhibits and is notable for the reconstruction of the interiors of several traditional houses. It also features a rich collection of artifacts documenting the everyday life of Alsatian Jews.
The Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine is a Calvinist denomination in Alsace and northeastern Lorraine, France. As a church body, it enjoys the status as an établissement public du culte.
Grand Est is an administrative region in northeastern France. It superseded three former administrative regions, Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine, on 1 January 2016 under the provisional name of Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine, as a result of territorial reform which had been passed by the French Parliament in 2014.
The flag of Alsace is the original red and white flag of the region, and can be traced to the red and white banner of Gerard, Duke of Lorraine in the 11th century.
The Alsace independence movement is a cultural, ideological and political regionalist movement for greater autonomy or outright independence of Alsace.
The Place de la République is one of the main squares of the city of Strasbourg, France. It is surrounded on three sides by five buildings only, of which none is residential: the Palais du Rhin, the National and University Library, the Théâtre national de Strasbourg, the Préfecture of Grand Est and Bas-Rhin, and the tax center Hôtel des impôts. All of these buildings are classified as monuments historiques. The fourth side of the square is devoid of buildings.
The synagogue of Guebwiller is a synagogue in Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin, France.
The Mikvahof Strasbourg is a historic site in Strasbourg, in the French department of Bas-Rhin.
The Province of Alsace was an administrative region of the Kingdom of France and one of the many provinces formed in the late 1600s. In 1648, the Landgraviate of Upper-Alsace was absorbed into the Kingdom of France and subsequently became the Province of Alsace, which it remain an integral part of for almost 150 years. In 1790, as a result of the decree dividing France into departments, the province was disestablished and split into three departments: Bas-Rhin, Haut-Rhin, and part of Moselle.
↑ Jäckel, Eberhard (1966). "L'annexion déguisée". Frankreich in Hitlers Europa – Die deutsche Frankreichpolitik im Zweiten Weltkrieg (in French). Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalg GmbH. pp.123–124.
Dreyfus, Jean-Marc[in French] (2015). "Alsace-Lorraine". In Gruner, Wolf; Osterloh, Jörg (eds.). The Greater German Reich and the Jews: Nazi Persecution Policies in the Annexed Territories 1935-1945. Bernard Heise (translator). Berghahn. pp.316–339. ISBN978-1782384434. OCLC903803958.
Halff, Sylvain (September 13, 1920 – October 2, 1921). "The Jews of Alsace-Lorraine (1870–1920)". The American Jewish Year Book. 22. American Jewish Committee: 53–79. JSTOR23601103. The recovery of Alsace by France was nevertheless welcomed by a majority of the Jews living there. Even some former representatives of Alsace in Berlin were incorporated into the French democracy and decorated by the French government.
Hyman, Paula E. (1991). The Emancipation of the Jews of Alsace: Acculturation and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century.
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