User:OnBeyondZebrax/sandbox/History of the Jews in France

Jews were first mentioned in a document in a 425 decree to the prefect of Gaul prohibiting Jews from practising law and from holding public offices. In 629 King Dagobert proposed to drive from his domains all Jews who would not accept Christianity.The presence of Jews in France under Charlemagne is documented, with their position being regulated by law. There were widespread persecutions of Jews in France beginning in 1007 or 1009. During this period, which continues until the First Crusade, also saw the awakening of Jewish culture in the south and north of France. The great Jewish figure which dominated the second half of the 11th century, as well as the whole rabbinical history of France, was Rabbi Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki) of Troyes (1040–1106). The Jews of France suffered during the First Crusade (1096). The First Crusade led to nearly a century of accusations (blood libel) against the Jews, many of whom were burned or attacked in France. The Inquisition took action against the Jews of southern France who converted to Christianity.

In 1394, Charles VI ordered that no Jew should dwell in his domains. In the beginning of the 17th century Jews began again to re-enter France. This resulted in a new edict of 23 April 1615 which forbade Christians, under the penalty of death and confiscation, to shelter Jews or to converse with them. By the 1780s there were about 40,000 to 50,000 Jews in France, who had very limited rights and opportunities. In the course of the 18th century the attitude of the authorities toward Jews changed for the better. Though the Revolution had begun the process of Jewish emancipation in France, Napoleon also spread the concept in the lands he conquered across Europe, liberating Jews from their ghettos and establishing relative equality for them. After their Emancipation in 1791, Jews in France had new freedoms. The Dreyfus affair was a major political scandal that convulsed France from 1894 until its resolution in 1906, and then had reverberations for decades more. The issue was blatant antisemitism as practiced by the Army.

Antisemitism declined during the 1920s, in part because the fact that so many Jews died fighting for France during World War I made it more difficult to accuse them of not being patriotic. When France came under occupation by Nazi Germany in June 1940, there were probably about 350,000 Jews living in France, less than half of them with French citizenship; the others being foreigners, mostly exiles from Germany during the 1930s. In 1940, the first anti-Jewish ordinances were set in place. The first roundup of Jews took place on 14 May 1941, involving 4,000 foreign Jews. Another roundup took place on 20 August 1941, involving both French and foreign Jews, who were sent to the Drancy internment camp and other concentration camps in France. Deportations from France to death camps commenced, the first one taking place on 27 March 1942. Deportations would continue until 17 August 1944, by which time nearly 76,000 Jews (including those from Vichy France) were deported. Antisemitism was particularly virulent in Vichy France. Rises in antisemitism in modern France have been linked to the intensifying Israeli–Palestinian conflict.