Use this search box to search all Jewish Web Index pages

Some graphics are from other sites without
permission but with a link to the site

Please note that not all links will work mostly because the
link has been changed or deleted by their respective owner.

French Medieval Jews' costumes
http://www.biblediscovered.com/jewish-hebrew-people-in-the-world/french-jews/

Jews were living from the 1st, 4th and from the early 5th centuries in Arles, Bordeaux and Lyon. In 1309, France expelled all Jews. 

Though the edict was not really absolute, Toulousin communities respouted several times during the 14th century. After the French Revolution, equal rights were granted to the Jewish population giving them equal rights as citizens of France. 
http://www.norbyhus.dk/calendar.html  

For lots of information on when various places switched calendars." From a posting by Robert Israel israel@math.ubc.ca

Before WW II, there were over 300,000 French Jews. About twenty five percent of the Jews of France ( 72,320) were sent to Auschwitz and other extermination camps, meaning that 75% were saved by non-Jewish people.  A decree was issued stating that all Jews in France and Belgium must wear the Yellow Star on May 27, 1942.

Today, including some 300,000 North African Jews who immigrated to France during the 1950s, there are about 750,000 Jews in a population of approximately 58, 333,000. 

France is now home to the largest Jewish population in Europe ( and the world's fourth largest Jewish population) mostly due to the massive migration from the late 1950s to the early 1970s of Sephardic Jews from the former North African colonies -- Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

  Books  
             

"A Guide to Research in Paris"
Published by The Archives de Paris, is a guide to biographical and genealogical research in Paris.  It covers public records, cemeteries, censuses, electoral lists, military archives, almanacs and directories.  There is also a map of the Arrondissements (districts) prior to 1860 and those of the present day.
Archives de Paris
18 Bd. Serurier
75019 Paris, France.

"The Algeria Hotel: France, Memory and the Second World War"
The title comes from the Jewish commissariat building that became the nerve center for the French regime's collaboration in genocide - Authored by Adam Nossiter and published by Houghton Mifflin, 288 pages $26

"Andre Citroen"
Authored by Jacques Wolgensinger and published in January 1991
ISBN: 208-066484-0

"Annuaire de Rapprochement des Familles"
A family finder is available, but  only for members of the Cercle de Genealogie Juive Society. E-mail office@genealoj.org  For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org

http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Annuaire des Juifs du Comtat Venaissin 1808 to 1890"
Authored by Jean-Claude Cohen
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Assignment Rescue"
Authored by Varian Fray - an informative book about rescue efforts of Jews in southern France in 1940-41.  Varian also authored "Surrender on Demand".

"At the Edge of the Forest, Schirroffen, Schirroffen"
Published in 1995 in French 
ISBN 2-84208-000-9

"Being Jewish in France"
This two-disc set is a documentary by Yves Jeuland and Michal Rotman
www.jewishfilm.org

"Between France and German: The Jews of Alsace-Lorraine 1871-1918"
Authored by Vicki Caron and published by Stanford University Press in 1988

"Catalogue du Fonds de Documentation du"
Authored by Basile Ginger, is a catalog of all documents filed at the Cercle's Library in Paris - a practical guide (in French) to Jewish Genealogy in France and elsewhere
E-mail office@genealoj.org  For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html  

"Contrats de Mariage Juifs en Moselle avant 1792"
Authored by Jean Fleury. A table of 2,021 Marriage Contracts deposited with the Royal Notaries; 80% in Metz and the remainder in other places, mostly between 1705-1792.  A must for genealogical research before 1793. 
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Departement du Bas-Rhin", 4 volumes,
ISBN 2-9510092-1-6, 2-4, 3-2, 4-0
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Departement du Haut-Rhin", 2 volumes,
ISBN 2-950092-6-7, 7-5
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Departements de Moselle et Meurthe-et-Moselle"
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Dictionary of Genealogy and Biography"
Authored by Claude Geudevertt, the book contains about 10,000 individuals from the 18th century until WW II.  The names are of Jews from Western and Eastern Europe, North Africa, Greece, Turkey and American and Australia. 
http://asso.genami.free.fr/v2/en/index.html

"The Emancipation of the Jews of Alsace"
Authored by Paula Hyman and published by Yale University Press in 1991. 
ISBN 0-300-04986-2

"Etat Civil des Juifs de Nimes et de Pont-Saint-Espirit" 
Lists all civil records of these two towns except living individuals, a work by the specialist of the history of the Jews in Nimes.  
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"French Children of the Holocaust, Death Books from Auschwitz"
Published in 1995

"Index du Denombrement des Juifs d'Alsace de 1784"
A reprint of Dan Leeson's index, includes the index by name and given names. http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Index de Memoire Juive en Alsace, Contrats de Mariage au XVIIIe Siecle"
2 volume set of a searchable marriage database created by Dan and Rosanne Leeson.  It includes listings of contracts of marriages in the 18th century.  According to a French law of 1701, these 'contracts de marriage' had to be registered by an official notary.  These contracts are as a matter of fact not "k'tuvot" but "t'na'im acharonim" (literally "later {or last} conditions"). Some of these 'contracts de marriage' (contracts of marriage) have actually the title  't'na'im acharonim' others are referred to as t'na'im, be'scha'at ha'chupa [e.g. conditions {agreed on} at the time of the wedding).  From a posting by Daniel Teichman Daniel.Teichman@vsao.ch
http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/fr-1.txt

"Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II"
History, names and burial places of the Jewish soldiers in the Polish armies, including those who fought in France, Norway, North Africa and Switzerland.  Authored by Benjamin Mertchak - a 5 volume set.

"Jews in France During the Second World War"
Authored by Renee Poznanski, she cites information from the National Archives. During the school year 1942-43, more than 7,700 Jewish children were attending school in the Academy of Paris and these were divided among  kindergarten, grammar schools and further (Cours Complementaire) College and Vocational schools.  Almost half of the Jewish children were in the 11t, 18th and 20 Arrondissement.  Many of the adolescent boys were at the college Voltaire and the girls at Victor Hugo.  From the summer of 1943, if one of the members of the family was stopped, the others would have to go into hiding immediately to escape the rounding up of families.

"Jews of France: A History From Antiquity to the Present"
Authored by Esther Benbassa and translated by M. B. DeBevoise. Published by Princeton University Press.

"Journey to Alsace"
Updated and printed in the GenAmi Newsletter. 
http://asso.genami.free.fr 

"The Language of the Jews in the Four Communities of Comtat Venaissin, Michel Alessio"
Authored by Zosa Szajkowski

"L’orfevrerie Algerienne et Tunisienne" (Jewish jewelers in Algiers))
Authored by Paul Eduel who has gathered information about jewelers in Algiers from around 1830 to the early 20th century ’s book (Algiers, 1902). He displays them in a table where many readers might find ancestors.

"Le Cimetiere Israelite Regional de Luneville (1759 - 1998)"
Authored by Françoise and Sylvain Job.  An inventory of some 1,000 tombstones of Jews from Luneville and surrounds.
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Le Denombrement des Juifs d'Alsace de 1784"
A reprint of the comprehensive census of Jews in Alsace.
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"La Deportation des Juifs de la Marne"
Authored by Jocelyne Husson

"Les Fils et Filles de Deportes Juifs de France"
President:  Maitre Serge Klarsfeld.  Contact M. Helbronner for more details at jlhelbro@noos.fr

"Le Juifs d'Afrique du Nord: Demographie et Onomastique"
Authored by Maurice Eisenbeth
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Le Livre d'Or du Judaisme Algerien" - first edition 1919.
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Marriages Religieux Juifs a Paris, 1848 - 1872"
A table of 2,304 marriages from the records of the Paris Consistoire, cross-referenced with those of the 1872 census.  Authored by Anne Lifshitz-Krams 
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Memorial de la Deportation des Juifs de France", (Memorial to the Jews Deported from France 1942-44) This large sized book lists more than 80,000 names of Jews deported to Eastern Europe (mostly to Auschwitz) or killed in France.  Each entry includes name, birth date and birth place.

The main transit camp at Drancy alone came from 37 countries including:

France -     22,193
Other   -    16,354
Poland -     14,459
Germany -    6,222
Russian   -   3,290
Romania -    2,958
Austria    -   2,217

Source: Table p. xxxvi

The book has no index.  A research aid is available (microfiche index) from
http://www.avotaynu.com/microf.html 

The book may be obtainable via Interlibrary loan.  The microfiche may be obtainable from Jewish Genealogical Society library collections.  The Index is an alphabetic list of 40,000 surnames that appear in the book and shows surname and convoy number. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum offers a similar database on the Internet that includes maiden names of women.
http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_form/frdeport

"Paris Cemeteries - Jewish Sections"
Authored by Gilles Plaut. Cimetiere de Montmartre (Division 3); Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise (Division Israelite).  Names and data are copied from the gravestones are indexed alphabetically.

"Proceedings of the International Seminar on Jewish Genealogy - 1997"
Includes many useful and practical information for genealogists researching in and about France.
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Recueil des Declarations de Prise de Nom Patronymiques des Juif"
Authored by Pierre Katz. The Jews living in France in 1808, were forced to adopt permanent family and given names.  Each person's name was registered in the town hall. 
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Sarah's Key"
Authored by Tatiana de Rosnay.  The book recalls a dark day in Paris in July 1942, when French police arrested more than 8,000 Jews, corralled them into the Velodrome d'Hiver and ultimately sent them to die at Auschwitz.  The book came about because of the author's stroll down a cheerless street not far from the Eiffel Tower to the site where the Velodrome d'Hiver had once stood.  She instantly knew that the place held terrible memories.  The book was made into a movie which the webmaster has seen and who came away with total sadness of the despicable way the French Police and some of the French citizens encouraged this action.

"Scenes of Jewish Life in Alsace"
Authored by Daniel Stanben.  Contains drawings, descriptions and stories of Jewish life in Alsace in the 1860s.

"Stammbuch der Frankfurter Juden"
Authored by Alexander Dietz and published in 1988 by Vanderher Publications in Cornwall, UK.    The Cercle de Genealogie Juive E-mail office@genealoj.org  For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
http://www.genealoj.org  

The Society bought it in 1999 and that it can be useful not only for members of Frankfurt Jewish families but French researchers, as well.   Leo Baeck Institute is one of the holders of this book. The one feature of the English translation that adds to its utility is that, unlike the German original, it has an index.
ISBN 0-95141580-8

"Surrender on Demand"
Authored by Varian Fray - an informative book about rescue efforts of Jews in southern France in 1940-41.  Varian also authored "Assignment Rescue".

"Tables du Registre d'etat Civil de la Communaute Juive de Metz (1717 to 1792)"
A reprint of the 1987 edition is the earliest civil vital records in Metz, following an order of the Metz bailiff. The author is Pierre-Andrè Meyer.
http://www.genealoj.org/english/publication.html 

"Vital Records for the Jews of Algeria"
Authored by Roland Gozland.  The author, together with Fernand Deray and Annick Forgens, have created a record project of all the existing microfilms of civil state of Algeria kept at the "Archives d' Outre-mer" (Overseas archives) at Aix-en-Provence according to a note in the Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society and Review, Issue 4, Vol. 2, Spring 1999

General
French Jewish Genealogy

An excellent site to find information about most European countries is at
http://searcheurope.com  

Type in the name of the country you wish to research in the search field.  This site is a great source to find information for almost every European country. 

Another valuable site to help find a person, maps, etc. - and type in the name of any country you wish to research. This service is free.
http://www.webhelp.com/home  

Global Gazetteer
A great web site. It is a directory of  2,880,532 of the world's cities and towns, sorted by country and linked to a map for each town.  A tab separated list is available for each country. 
www.calle.com/world/

Open Street Maps
The crowd-sourced mapping project OpenStreetMap has amassed a million contributors since its inception in 2005 and, according to navigation app maker Skobbler, boasts greater accuracy in England, Russia and Germany than rivals such as Google Maps.  I tried the site and found an accurate drawing of my father's ancestral town Tal'ne, Ukraine.  Almost every country is available as is most towns
http://openstreetmap.org

Phone Numbers

On-line directory of France
http://www.infobel.com/france/wp/search/default.asp

http://www.numberway.com/phone-numbers/17/

http://paris.angloinfo.com/countries/france/phonebooks.asp

http://world.192.com/europe/france

Search Sites that also may be of value include 
www.pageszoom.com

www.teldir.com  

www.world-address.com/francetres

Aki Estamos-Les Amis de la Lettre Sepharade (Friends of the Sephardic Letter Society)

Founded in 1998, the society is devoted to Judeo-Spanish culture
http://www.sefaradinfo.org/

Alliance Israelite Universelle

(Located at 45 rue La Bruyere, Paris, 9e) offers Jewish Genealogy courses. Contact is Mrs. Laurence Abensur-Hazan Laurphil@wanadoo.fr
http://www.aiu.org/ANGLAIS/index_ang.htm

http://www.aiu.org/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0001_0_00834.html

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/1264-alliance-israelite-universelle

Alsace - History of

http://c.voila.fr/Errors/error404.html

Alsace and Lomza Genealogy

http://berniehirsch.freeservers.com/famtree/fam-main.html

Alsace-Lorraine-German Empire West 1882 

http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html

Cemetery  

http://flickrhivemind.net/Tags/jewishcemetery/Interesting

1784 Census of Jews in Alsace
http://www.genami.org/en/lists/alsace/census-1784.php

Census of 1836 of the district of Wissembourg (Alsace)
A CD is available. Lots of links at this site.
http://www.census1836.com/index.html

1836: by order of King Louis-Philippe 1st, town’s mayors carry out the first official registration list on their town, by applying ministerial orders. Therefore, residents are grouped into families, names, first names, age, religion, profession, civil status, addresses are noted for each resident.
http://boutique.geneanet.org/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=35605&language=en

The Jewish Division of The New York Public Library has a Census (in French) of the
"Jews of Alsace from 1784"
http://www.cjh.org/pdfs/France09.pdf

http://www.genealoj.org/New/ENtexte/page06.php

http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/fr-2-3.txt

http://www.avotaynu.com/subindex/indexf.htm

http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page06.html

Jewish Communities
http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=79

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/bestehende_juedische_gemeinden.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_France

http://www.jewishlink.net/community.html

Jews in Ensisheim (Alsace) in the 18th century
Denis INGOLD describes in detail how Jews came back to Ensisheim after the Habsburg possessions in Alsace were returned to the King of France after the Thirty Years' War (1648). Later, the Jews migrated again to more attractive and welcoming cities like Breisach and Metz
http://www.genealoj.org/New/ENrevue/revue101.html

Archives

Note: most sites are in French.

Micheline Gutmann michelinegutmann@free.fr stated on 12/13/01 in the JewishGen forum that "Indeed, death records less than 100 years old are accessible without restriction."   "I am afraid the information I saw there is not correct.  The official limit to get death certificates is 50 years.  Until recently, the death records were easily given, without condition in practice, but not following the law."  "Something which is also new since a few months ago; it is necessary to always give the reason of your request even if you are a descendant.  We give the following advice: don't speak of genealogy.

For Paris, you may now ask for records on-line at:   
https://www.mairie-paris.fr/   

The site is in French.  It is better if you give the arrondissement, but it is not obligatory.  It is also better to give a date, but they can find it if it is not precise.  They send you the copies of the original documents.  It is free in France.

Service des Archives Departmentales
18 Boulevard Serurier
75019 Paris

Telephone: 01 53 72 41 28

Alliance Israelite Universelle
45 Rue La Bruyere
75009, Paris, France
Phone 67 68 74
Further information may be available from Mrs. Laurence
Abensur-Hazan Laurphil@wanadoo.fr
http://www.aiu.org/

Archives Departmentales
Nantes, France
http://www.archives.nantes.fr/

http://www.SephardicGen.com/

Archives de France
In Paris; Reglementation, evaluation et controle de la collecte, description, conservation et communication des archives publiques autres que celles des ministeres des Affaires estrangeres et de la Defense.  English version available.
http://www.archivesdefrance.culture.gouv.fr 

Archives de Paris
Mainly vital records from Paris some more than 100 years old
18 Boulevard Serurier
75019 Paris. 
Phone 01 53 72 41 23 
http://www.paris.fr/portail/politiques/Portal.lut?page_id=149

Archives Nationales (aka CARAN)
11 rue des Quatre Fils, 75003 Paris (until July 2002: 58 rue de Richelieu 75002 Paris after)
Phone: 01 40 27 60 00 
The Reading Room is 01 40 27 65 55
address for mail:
60 rue des Francs-Bourgeois,
75041 Paris cedex 03. 

Archives Centrales de la France depuis les Merovingiens jusqu'en 1958, among them: Notarial Files for Paris; Options for French citizenship in 1871 of people born in Alsace-Lorraine, Naturalization files until 1930.  Though the archives discourage personal research help, if you have sufficient details to offer them, they will consider researching on your behalf; if you are out of the country, enclose two International Reply Coupons (IRC) for the reply.  Sites below are in French.
http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/chan 

Archives Nationales
Centre des archives du monde du travail
http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/cnm/fr/

Archives Nationales Centre national du microfilm (CNM)
http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/cnm/fr/

Bension Collection of Sephardic Manuscripts

Records of French colonies an excellent summary descriptions of the manuscripts are at the
AIU (Alliance Israelite)
Universelle, 45 Rue La Bruyere
75009, Paris, France  
http://www.SephardicGen.com/ 

http://www.millennialstar.org/ew/

http://www.umass.edu/sephardimizrahi/past_issues/060115.html

Bibliotheque Genealogique

Located at
3 rue de Turbigo
Paris, 1e
Offers a Jewish Genealogy meeting twice a month on  Tuesday afternoon.
http://www.bibgen.org/

http://www.bgo.atmedia.fr/home.php?num_niv_1=2

Business Directory

Les Pages Jaunes - French Yellow Pages -
http://wge.pagesjaunes.fr/pj.cgi?lang=en

http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/

CARAN - French National Archives
French Naturalization Records

Registered before 1930, are kept in the National Archives. If you have an accurate date to have looked up, requests for information may be made  from "une consultation de dossier par extrait" to
CARAN
11 rue des 4 fils
75003, Paris, France
with an International Reply coupon enclosed for the reply.
http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/

http://www.genealogylinks.net/europe/france/

Cemeteries

http://isurvived.org/TOC-IV.html

Research in Jewish Cemeteries in France
http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page08.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_cemeteries

An explanation about the repossession of graves by Paris authorities.  Includes some photos of Bagneux cemetery.  
http://www.bassatine.net/bassa2.php

Montparnasse cemetery
Available at The Jewish cemetery of l'Isle sur la Sorgue.
http://dagtho.blogspot.com/2010/03/cimetiere-du-montparnasse-
paris-france.html

http://www.provence-hideaway.com/214.html

http://www.isle-sur-sorgue-antiques.com/ISLE/presentation/isle_en.htm 

http://www.french-at-a-touch.com/French_Regions/Ile-de-France/montparnasse.htm

Centre des Archives d'Outre-mer, Aix en Provence 

http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/anom/fr/

http://www.SephardicGen.com/. 

Records of more than 100 years old of former French colonies and especially of Algeria.  They do not accept requests for lookup by mail  
http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/caom/fr

The Centre d'Entraide Genealogique

The Centre does not do individual research but offers free help within the limits of French law.  Site is in French, but by using the "Translate" feature of Google, you can read the site in English
http://www.cegf.org/

http://www.cegf.org/genealogie/pages/0001.htm

Cercle de Genealogie Juive, (French JGS in Paris) aka CGJ Jewish Genealogy site  

E-mail office@genealoj.org
http://www.genealoj.org/

For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
Mail Address: 14, Rue Saint Lazare
75009 Paris
Phone/Fax: 01 40 23 04 90 
For anyone seeking help in France, the Cercle, as it is known, is very willing to help, if they can, with no strings. 

Jewish Cemeteries
http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page08.html

Museum of Family History
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/links.htm

Centre Historique (CHAN)

Archives Centrales de la France depuis les Merovingiens jusqu'en 1958 (archives des organismes et etablissements d'Ancien Regime supprimes a la Revolution, archives des administrations centrales de l'Etat, archives privees, minutes des notaires paris 
http://www.archivesnationales.culture.gouv.fr/chan/

CGQJ

General Office for Jewish Affairs
Created to enforce anti-Semitic policies and to assist in deportation to death camps.  The files include deportation lists, collaboration names and letters from collaborators denouncing Jews.  

These records are in 6,500 cartons and the CGQJ does not do any individual research.  Contact
Paul Rene Bazin
Archives Curator
Federation Francaise de Genealogie
3, rue Turbigo, 75001, Paris
Phone: 01 40 27 60 00 
http://www.maurice-papon.net/Bibliographie/cgqj.htm 

http://http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=100397178

Chambon Foundation

In and around Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, France, 5,000 Jews, many of them children, were sheltered from the Nazis by  5,000 Christians, as recounted in Piere Sauvage documentary,  
"Weapons of the Spirit"
http://www.chambon.org/

http://www.chambon.org/index_en.htm

The Prize for Humanity
Presented to Mayor Francis Valla of this mountain village in recognition of the courageous villagers of  this mountain town and surrounding area in Southern France.  The townspeople hid and saved some 5,000 mostly Jewish refugees from deportation and extermination during the period of 1940-1945.

The villagers, mostly Huguenot Christians, were inspired by their pastor's appeal to use "weapons of the spirit" to fight the inhumanity of the Nazis.
www.jewishfilm.org

http://immortalchaplains.org/Prize/prize.htm

Chastel

In medieval France, this word meant castle. 
http://www.templiers.org/safita-eng.php

COMTAT VENAISSIN

COMTAT VENAISSIN, former papal territory in S.E. France, corresponding approximately to the present department of Vaucluse. Ceded in 1274 to the Holy See, to whom it belonged until the reunion with France in 1791, it became a distinct territory along with the town of Avignon (though the later remained independent in local administration). Apart from Avignon, Jews do not seem to have settled in the Comtat earlier than the 12^th century. The major Jewish communities, known as the "four holy communities," were those of Avignon, Carpentras, Cavaillon, and L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue. There were, however, smaller communities of a more ephemeral nature in Caromb, Entraigues-sur-la-Sorgue, Malaucène, Monteux, Mormoiron, Mornas, Pernes-les-Fontaines, and Vaison-la-Romaine. The Comtat became a haven of refuge for the Jews of the two provinces of Languedoc and Provence after various expulsions – in 1306, 1322, and 1394, and later around 1500. The Jews of the Comtat spoke a Judeo-Provençal dialect, which they also employed in some semi-liturgic poetry, and had their own synagogue rite, now fallen into disuse (see Liturgy). The reconstituted communities of the region, e.g., at Carpentras, were formed in the mid-20^th century, mainly by Jews of North African origin
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_04553.html

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110426200840AAyLJHP

http://www.genami.org/en/countries-of-your-roots/research-guides/Comtat.php

http://www.carpentras-ventoux.com/en/carpentras-city-art-history/comtat-venaissin-papal-lands.cfm

Colmar  (Kolmar)

Chief town of Upper Alsace, Germany, on the Lauch and the Fecht. At the beginning of the thirteenth century Colmar had a large community of Jews, who enjoyed the favor of the municipal authorities. They occupied a special quarter, where they had a synagogue. The building was destroyed by fire in 1279.

Jewish Community
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4548-colmar

Research
A Meyer Marc Haas was born here in 1797.  His sons, Jacques, Nathan, Leopold and Benjamin founded two watch making companies in 1848, one in New York, the other in Paris and Geneva Switzerland.  The French company closed in 1938, but the Swiss company is still active.

Synagogue
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/POSEN/2003-02/1044241985

CRIF

The umbrella group of secular French Jewish organizations - Richard Prasquier is the President
http://tinyurl.com/24vpwov

Death Certificates: Requesting Form

Messieurs,

Veuillez avoir l'obligeance de me faire parvenir la photocopie de l'acte de deces de mon grand-pere (Name of grandparent in English here) qui est mort a  l'Hospital Americian de Neuilly au mois de juin 1971.  Avec mes remerciements anticipes, veuillez agreer, Messieurs, me salutations distinguees. From a posting by Micheline Guttmann
http://paris.angloinfo.com/countries/france/pacs.asp

Declaration of Nationality

The 1889 French law for obtaining nationality states that one must have been living in France for 10 years (from the declaration of arrival in the local council of the town of residence).  It was possible to shorten the delay by requesting first "admission a domicile" after one or two years of residence and then 3 years later asking for "naturalization".  

For further information about French Naturalization, and how to obtain files, see the paper written by S. Toublanc, in the Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive, nº57, Spring 1999, Pages 25 - 28. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_nationality_law

http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/html/codes_traduits/code_civil_textA.htm 

The "Denombrement General des Juifs Toleres en la Province d'Alsace en 1784"

An invaluable genealogical tool for the reconstruction of the Jewish families at the end of the 18th century.  This information is located in the Revue du Cercle de Genealogies Juive #68
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Bushwiller/

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Rixheim/

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Dornach/

Dorot | Association d’histoire

15 avenue de Gadagne
FR-69230 St Genis Laval - France
Manuela Wyler manuela@dorot.fr
http://www.iamh-aimh.org/

http://www.acjs-aejc.ca/about.html

ETSI - Sephardi Genealogical and Historical Society  

The purpose of "ETSI" is to help people interested in Jewish Genealogical and Historical Research in the Sephardi World.  "ETSI's" field of study covers the Ottoman Empire (Turkey, Greece, Palestine, Syria, Libya, Egypt); North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia); Spain, Portugal, Italy and Gibraltar.  The study of every Sephardi community or family who lived in other regions is equally within the society's aim.  
email laurphil@wanadoo.fr

http://www.oocities.org/etsi-sefarad/

http://www.sephardim.com/

http://www.hsje.org/Genealogy.htm

http://www.sephardicstudies.org/cal.html

http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com/2009/10/france-new-issue-sephardic-gen-journal.html

Europages

Business 2 business company directory and business in Europe, yellow pages access, international and European business directory (professional services, addresses and business classifieds
http://www.europages.net

Fonds Social Juif Unifie

F-75005 Paris, France
http://www.fsju.org/

http://www.cjp.org/IR/Listing.aspx?id=154 

Marseille Provence
http://www.crif-marseilleprovence.org/associations/fonds-social-juif-unifie/

French Alumni Organization - Les Enfants Caches

17 rue Geoffroy
l'Asnier
75004 Paris, France. 
Phone/Fax: (33) 1 42 78 60 30 
http://nflrc.iastate.edu/news/200706/homepage.html

French Deportee Information

May be obtained from CDJC, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris.
http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page17.html

http://www.genealoj.org/New/ENtexte/page17.php

http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/FR-klars.txt

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/17/france-admits-deporting-jews

French-English Dictionary

This might be of some use to you and it is freeware
http://www.dictionaries.travlang.com/ 

Additional Dictionaries may be found at my link to Amazon.com

French Federation Francaise de Genealogie

They do not do any individual research.  It is an organization which reunites several French genealogical societies together.
http://www.genefede.org/

http://www.leparticulier.fr/jcms/c_34015/federation-francaise-de-genealogie

French Genealogy Help Sites

Some sites are in French.  It looks like it may be of value, but then I can't read French. 
http://genealogy.about.com/od/france/a/french_ancestry.htm

www.notrefamille.com  

http://noms.voila.fr/s/f1/welcome/default.asp 

French Migration Information

This site encourages a worldwide exchange of genealogy information about French emigrants and immigrants from 1600 to 1950.  Also Germany, Ireland, England, Italy and Spain links at  
http://www.migrationinformation.org/resources/france.cfm

http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=266

http://migrationinformation.net/feature/display.cfm?ID=165

French Military Archives

Located in Vincennes (Service Historique de l'Armee).  There is an article about the work performed to date by author Pierre Lautmann about the Jews in the armies of the French Revolution and the Empire including statistics between 1791 and 1815.  1350 individuals are listed in his database. This information located in Revue du Cercle de Genealogies Juive #68  E-mail office@genealoj.org For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
http://genforum.genealogy.com/napoleonicwars/messages/71.html

http://genealogy.about.com/od/france/a/french_ancestry_5.htm

http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie/2010/04/french-military-records-les-recensements-militaires.html

French pamphlets published in the late 18th century

The University of Maryland is digitizing 300 French pamphlets published in the late 18th century. “The pamphlets reveal valuable information about French society during the upheaval of the Revolution (June 1788-December 1804) and provide cultural historians, linguists and political scientists with important source material to study history, language, politics, government and social issues”
http://www.lib.umd.edu/news/2013/french-pamphlet-project

French Underground or Resistance

These Frenchmen are digging graves for the victims of German atrocities. Photo from Prologue Magazine, Fall 1992.

This association may be able to offer some information:

Union des Résistants et Déportés Juifs de France
35 Place Saint-Ferdinand - 75017 PARIS
email : urdf@noos.fr
Fax : 33-1 45 72 11 70
Director : Adam Rayski
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/natzweiler /History/FrenchResistance.html 

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FRresistance.htm

http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/french_resistance.htm

FrenchSIG

A discussion group - and there is a lot of information about Jewish genealogical research in France, French Colonies and French-speaking areas including Alsace, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. 
http://www.jewishgen.org/french

There are links, travel information and documents available at this site and it is in English.  The FrenchSIG also covers other French-speaking areas, such as Belgium, Luxembourg and the Swiss-Romande!

GenAmi (Association de Genealogie Juive Internationale)

The genealogical society, located in Paris. The primary purpose is to provide a forum for questions, exchange of information and discussion of matters involved in conducting Jewish genealogical research in France, other French-speaking areas i.e. Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and in former French colonies including Tunisia, Algeria, etc. 
http://www.jewishgen.org/french/

http://www.genami.org/
  
http://www.francegenweb.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36

All The Titles of the GenAmi Review
http://www.genami.org/en/for-all/genami-review-titles.php

Issue number 10, of the Associations publication,  has a chapter about cemeteries and an explanation about the repossessing of graves by Paris authorities.  Some photos of Bagneux Cemetery.  Information about Montparnasse cemetery and the Jewish cemetery of I'Isle sur la Sorgue.  

In Issue 8, the older and most complete collection of Paris Phone Directories
is the Didot-Bottin.  It is an almanac of Commerce, existing since 1805
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Didot-Bottin-1924.jpg

The collection can be reviewed at the Hotel de Ville at the Bibliotheque Administrative de la Ville de Paris.  Some records are not available due to their being in a bad state and require restoration. 
http://www.paris.fr/portail/loisirs/Portal.lut?page=equipment&template=equipment.template.popup&document_equipment_id=17

After 1812, not only are there Paris addresses, but elsewhere in France, England, Germany and even the US.  Since 1841, there were two volumes published; one for Paris and another for other towns.  And since 1881, each ten years, a volume has been published for other countries.
www.chez.com/genami 

Forum of GenAmi
A forum for Jewish Genealogy.  For genealogical information in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and to exchange of information in several languages.  Only available for members of the JGS GenAmi as there is no moderator, but laws to respect.
http://www.genami.org/en/news/100925-genea_2010.php

GenAmi
Publishes many interesting stories, including:
"A Genealogical Journey from London to Amsterdam, Hamburg, Metz, Sierentz and Prague" 
GenAmi number 19 
http://www.genami.org/

GenAmi
Contact is Micheline Guttmann
76 rue de Passy
75016, Paris  
asso.genami@free.fr 

GerSIG

A list on the JewishGen system that deals exclusively with the Jews of German speaking countries
www.jewishgen.org/GerSig  

There is also some information available for French speaking German areas at
http://www.jewishgen.org//french/

Resources
http://www.jewishgen.org/gersig/resources.htm

Hegenheim

The Jewish cemetery of Hegenheim exists since 1673 and has 2850 tombs.
"Der juedische Friedhof in Hegenheim/Le Cimetiere Israelite de Hegenheim (Haut- Rhin)" ("The Jewish Cemetery In Preserving Home Le Ciemtiere Israelite de Hegenheim" (Haut Rhin) - Authors: Gil Huettenmeister and Lea Rog - with a colored folding plan and an inventory of all Hebrew gravestone inscriptions with German translation on CD Rome. Bound. Published by Schwabe Verlag Basel (Switzerland) in 2004 in French. 144 pages. Included in the book is a CD ROM with the translation from Hebrew to German of all the inscriptions and a "map, where all the graves are located".  From a posting by Ariane Mil Zurich, Switzerland
ISBN 3-7965-1899-0 

http://www.aaronphotoarchive.com/Archives-Pre-1950/Archive-Adler-Family-Germany/3565529_9yCfT/1/202171553_smrjr/Small

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/swiss.html

Cemetery
An exhibition in Soultz (Haut-Rhin) displayed a tax register of 1612 where the name Moyses Dreyfues appears and the picture of a nameless gravestone of 1624 from the Jungholtz (Haut-Rhin cemetery recognized as Moise Dreyfus's (viz. reproductions or analyses) according to an article appearing in the issue 88 of Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Jive dated October-December 2006.

http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/mulhouse-haut-rhin-departement-alsace-region-see-hegenheim.html

Salomon Schüler (1870-1938), a prominent rabbi from Hegenheim to Saint-Louis (Alsace)
Lea Rogg presents the life and actions of Salomon Schuler.  He was born in Berlin and became the first titular rabbi of the Jewish community of Saint-Louis (Upper Rhine, next to the Swiss border).  He represented a traditional judaism having been educated in the Yeshivah Hildescheimer in Berlin, an orthodox rabinic seminar where he has received a rigorous education
http://www.genealoj.org/New/ENrevue/revue101.html

Heraldry - Jewish

http://www.heraldica.org/topics/jewish.htm

http://www.4crests.com/jewishheraldry.html

http://www.ourjewishidentity.com/

Hidden Children ("Engants caches")

Located in Paris.  Irene Savignon is Secretary-General of the organization.  Frederique Imer-Loup has discovered a trail of children hidden directly or indirectly though a private adoption charity called Adoption Francaise.  However, none of these children were reunited with their biological family after the war.  Since they were placed in the care of these families at a very young age between 1939 and 1944 (often younger than 4), they have no knowledge of their name at birth; this makes 'my' research very problematic.  Frederique Imer-Loup has discussed this problem in his personal web site
http://www.ushmm.org/museum/exhibit/online/hiddenchildren/index/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/hidden.html 

http://d-d.natanson.pagesperso-orange.fr/appel_a_temoins.htm

Holocaust Encyclopedia - France  (Note: In France it is referred to as Shoah)

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005429

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005298

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:The_Holocaust_in_France

IMMAJ (Institut Mediterranean Memoires and Archives of Jews)

The site is in English, French, Italian and Spanish  
www.immaj.org
   
John Patrick Fano jpfano357@aol.com has offered on 12/12/01 to help search for French buried in Nice, Marseille, Nimes, Montpellier, Avignon and Perpignan.   

He needs the name and any information, i.e. Birth date and place, Wife's name, etc.   He further states that he has personally worked on the "Cimetiere Juif du Chateau" de Nice.  Under French regulations, there are no problems to obtain burial certificates as the cemetery is public.

Further information about obtaining assistance in Nice may be found in Ernest Kallmann' s article for the Cercle de Genealogie Jive.  This is an excellent description of the regulation for obtaining French records, according to a posting in the 12/12/2001 JewishGen Digest by Jan Bousse.  He further states that 'It also completes and partly corrects 'your' information.  

Indeed, death records less than 100 years old are accessible without restriction.  As for birth and marriage certificates, the ones that are delivered only to direct descendants are the "copies integrales".  

Any person can request "des extraits d'actes de naissance ou de mariage".  The difference with the "copies integrales" is that "les extraits ne comportent aucun renseignement sur les parents de l'enfant (acte de naissance) ou des epoux (actes de mariage)".   In brief, my opinion is that even for records less than 100 years old, there is considerable scope in the information available.  

Death records are fully accessible, birth and marriage extracts can give you dates of the event, if not details about parents, which of course, is an important restriction.  For further information on the subject of obtaining French records, the FrenchSIG has an excellent article on its site, written by Ernest Kallmann of the Cercle de Genealogie Juive  E-mail office@genealoj.org 
For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org 
www.jewishgen.org/french

If you click on the link to Documents you will find it there.

http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=610&FID=385&PID=0&IID=1433

Jeweler's Register of Addresses

France from 1928 to 1940.  Request the link information.  
http://www.genami.org/

Jewish Heritage

A web site in both French and English 
http://www.jewishtravelagency.com/JewishTravel/FranceSights.htm 

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/France.html 

Jewish History

A description of the 1784 census of all Alsatian Jews and the 1808 family name-choosing list for all the Jews of France and a lot more of interest to anyone researching the Jews of Alsace
http://judaisme.sdv.fr/histoire/historiq/anglais/history.htm

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Strasbourg.html

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/history/Modern_History/1700-1914/Emancipation_and_Enlightenment/In_the_West/French_Jewry.shtml  

http://www.travel-watch.com/alsace.htm

Jewish Journal

www.//jewishjournal.com

Jewish Tribune

An influential French Jewish bi-monthly - Editor-in-Chief is Olivier Guland
http://www.jewishaustralia.com/newspapers.htm#FRANCE

http://www.mavensearch.com/subjects/280/1/6/

Kehillat Gesher

An English, French and Hebrew speaking synagogue which prides itself on "bridging the gap" between cultures - French and Anglophone, Sephardi and Ashkenazi, modern and traditional.  The synagogue is located in the Seventeenth District of Paris.
http://www.kehilatgesher.org/

Klarsfeld

Information on Beate Klarsfeld, and the French Holocaust (Shoah)
http://www.holocaust-history.org/klarsfeld/

http://www.klarsfeldfoundation.org/intro2.htm

http://tinyurl.com/3gfhbr

http://www.massviolence.org/Chronology-of-Repression-and-Persecution-in-Occupied-France?artpage=6

Legal Databases

Juricaf is a free, searchable, francophone database of primarily Supreme Court decision from over 40 countries. Developed with the support of the International Organisation de la Francophonie and the French Ministry of Justice, its objective is to make supreme court decisions, particularly those of African countries, freely available. Coverage varies country to country. The database includes over 700,000 French court decisions, over 4,000 decisions of the Canadian Supreme Court, and a handful of decisions from a number of African countries. You can browse case law by country or search across multiple jurisdictions
http://hastingslawlibrary.wordpress.com/2012/11/07/new-database-for-researching-case-law-in-francophone-countries/

"List of Jews deported from France in 1942-1944"  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/feb/17/france-admits-deporting-jews

(From the original French deportation lists)
A searchable database compiled by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_form/frdeport 

http://www.jewishgen.org/databases/holocaust/

      Maps  

Map of France showing the partitions under the 1940 armistice
http://www.oradour.info/appendix/francez1.htm

Map of France
http://www.europeetravel.com/maps/

http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-maps/world-war-ii-map-of-europe.html

http://www.cyberlearning-world.com/lessons/ushistory/ww2/europeantheater.htm

http://lib.utexas.edu/maps/map_sites/hist_sites.html

Museum of Jewish Art & History

Located at 71 Rue du Temple, Paris 3e.  Entrance fee is 40 francs including an audio guide.  The museum traces the history of Jews in Western Europe (mostly France) from the middle ages onward.  There is a meeting held every first Thursday in the month on Jewish Genealogy.
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/paris-museum-of-jewish-art-and-history.htm 

Musee d'Arts et Traditions Populaires de Marmoutier

6 rue du General Leclerc
Telephone 333-88-71-46-84
This half-timbered Alsatian house built in 1590 boasts an eighteenth-century mikve, Judaica and Alsatian art and pottery.  When Jews occupied this house, the oriel window boasted a removable roof to accommodate a sukkah.
http://www.musees-alsace.org/Pages/Fiche.php?NumMusee=269000022&Langue=Fr

Naturalization Files

Copies of records, for a charge, are available at the National Archives. 
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12315461

http://france.visapro.com/Citizenship-by-Naturalization.asp

http://www.jewishgen.org/french/kallmann.htm

Orphanages

Oeuvre Nationale de L'Enfance (O.N.E)
Contact Mr. Dennis Hayman.  A reunion was held in September 2004. For the complete story about the American Pilots and the Orphans of Le Chateau Dongelberg
http://www.ordomedic.be/fr/avis/themes/O/oeuvre-nationale-de-lenfance-o.n.e 

http://vlex.be/vid/instituant-oeuvre-nationale-enfance-30529612

Saint-Mande
UGIF  (Jewish orphanage
5 rue Granville
Paris
http://www.mairie-saint-mande.fr/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=292&Itemid=177

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/our_collections/until_the_last_jew/
03.asp 

Orthodox Judaism

http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/features2/392-judaism---france/7040-the-forgotten-jews-of-france

http://www.ambafrance-au.org/france_australie/spip.php?article462

Commercial Site with links to eleven French Jewish Communities with Synagogue information
http://www.walk2shul.com/page-b1372.html#mlIAmwDCDzHNb590 

Plaques' and other documents concerning France and Algeria

In the Winter, 1999 issue of Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive, there are some research documents for those who had ancestors in France including: The Jews and the Plague in Metz in 1636

Information about these documents are available by contacting Anne Lifshitz  Krams at  Cercle de Genealogie Juive, aka CGJ Jewish Genealogy site 
http://www.genealoj.org/New/ENtexte/page01.php

and by reviewing her announcement in the archives of JewishGen of 2/16/00  page 12
http://www.jewishgen.org 

E-mail office@genealoj.org
For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org

http://www.cdc.gov/eid/content/16/10/1639.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Plague

Postal Information

Give this site a try for all kinds of postal information for most countries including France
http://www.postinfo.net/server/

Rabbinical Personalities

http://www.jewishgen.org/rabbinic/infofiles/biblio5.htm

http://www.springerlink.com/content/27104280556r1647/

http://www.jcpa.org/dje/articles2/jewrelorg.htm

Regulations for Obtaining French Records

Death records less than 100 years old are accessible without restriction.  As for Birth and Marriage Certificates, the ones that are delivered only to direct descendants are the "copies integrales."  Any person can request "des extraits d'actes de naissance ou de mariage."  The difference with the "copies integrales" is that "les extrits ne comportent aucun renseigement sur les parents de l'enfant (acte de naissance) ou des epoux (actes de mariage)". Even for records less than 100 years old, there is considerable scope in the information available.  Death records are fully accessible, birth and marriage extracts can give you dates of the event, if not details about parents, which of course is an important restriction.

For further information on the subject of obtaining French records the FrenchSIG has an excellent article on its site, written by Ernest Kallmann of the Cercle de Genealogie Juive (Click on the link to Documents)
www.jewishgen.org/french

Book Reviews
Odette CARASSO
A biography of Arthur Meyer, newspaper tycoon, Jew, royalist and anti-Dreyfus. Michèle BITTON : outstanding Jewish women in France during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Dictionary of French Righteous among the Nations, published by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and Fayard in Paris.  From a posting by Ernest Kallmann Cercle de Genealogie Juive 
http://www.paperbackswap.com/Odette-Carasso/author/

Death certificates
In the Paris Department Archives, for Jewish soldiers and officers in the Armies of the French Revolution and Empire.  Pierre LAUTMANN The author continues preparing a dictionary of the Jewish military personnel in the Armies of the French Revolution and Empire. He has discovered a new source of information in the Paris Departement Archives : their death certificates. He describes the files he has found, connects their data with those of other sources, and intends to exploit similar documents from the other Department Archives.
http://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/links.htm

Families
Origin and dissemination of the family name Gugenheim, part 3. John E. BERKOWITCH The third and last part of this contribution presents an outline of the Gugenheim family tree covering some eleven generations, extending from the early XVth century to the period of the French Revolution. The first four generations precede the adoption of the surname by a Joseph (ca. 1555-1615), born in Frankfurt on the Main, who made at least one stay in a locality formerly named Gugenheim (today Jugenheim), situated 25 km southwest of Mainz. No reference whatsoever supports the hypotheses, frequently put forward, which tie the origin of the surname to either of two similarly named localities at the time, one northwest of Strasbourg, the other south of Darmstadt. The children and grandchildren of this Joseph settle primarily in the region of the middle Rhine valley, especially in and around Frankfort, Bingen and Worms. The following generations scatter over Western Germany, Switzerland, Alsace and Lorraine. At the time of the French Revolution, the surname can been found from Hamburg in the North to Aargau in the South, and from Berlin and Vienna in the East to Metz in the West.
http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/g/u/g/Alan-A-Guggenheim-CO/BOOK-0001/0004-0008.html

A Ketubbah
From Avignon in the Cecil Roth collection in Toronto Max POLONOVSKI This document can be linked by no
family relation whatsoever to the Ketubot of families in Nimes, originating in Carpentras, previously analyzed in issues 67, 69 and 70 of Revue du CGJ. It comes from Avignon, records the marriage of Jassuda de Saint-Paul and his cousin Liotte de Saint-Paul on Friday, Nisan 13, 5514 (April 5, 1754) and obeys the usual rules of the contracts in this region. It bears 12 signatures, their authors are all identified.
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/handlists/164MSRoth.pdf

"J'ai du bon tabac"
(a popular French rhyme), says Mr. Henle. Eliane ROOS-SCHUHL The author describes the tobacco pot, presently in the Museum of Israel, of El'hanan Henle, a jeweler from Fuerth and deciphers its inscription.  The given name Nethanael prompts her to search its origin as well as the origin of the father's name in this case. This leads to the history of the town Fuerth and of its Jewish population, and to the portrait of significant outstanding individuals from the Henle and Dispeck families. Family trees illustrate the text.
http://tinyurl.com/25hhwko

*Miscellaneous*
Eliane ROOS-SCHUHL reveals her discovery of a Dutch mohelbuch, hidden in a book filed in the library of the Alliance Israelite Universelle in Paris.
http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=147427

Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive
Issue # 73 of Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive. Here is a summary
http://www.genealoj.org/New/texte/page03.php

Research Information and Documentation Links

Lots of valuable information available at this site
http://www.genami.org/en/countries-of-your-roots/

http://www.genami.org/en/countries-of-your-roots/research-guides/France.php

Sephardic Sites

http://www.sephardicgen.com/france_sites.htm

http://www.sephardicgen.com/sefpage2.htm

http://www.dinur.org/resources/resourceCategoryDisplay.aspx?categoryid=484&rsid=0

Telephone Books for France

http://www.numberway.com/phone-numbers/17/

http://paris.angloinfo.com/countries/france/phonebooks.asp

http://www.infobel.com/en/world/WorldTeldir.aspx?page=/eng/euro/fr

Translation Service   Languages

A commercial site offering many language translating programs
http://www.worldlanguage.com

http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-french/sig

French English Dictionary on-line at
http://www.dictionaries.travlang.com/FrenchEnglish/ 

 
French Cities and Towns

  
    Strasbourg

Alsace area

Arnold, Behra, Fuchs, Grunewald, Koller, Knecht, Pering and more Family names, but all information is displayed in French 
http://perso.libertysurf.fr/fallot/ 

In 1689, there were 522 Jewish families in the region.  By 1716, their numbers had doubled and by 1740, there were 2,215.  The Jews could not own property and were excluded from guilds.  Jews became grain brokers, cattle and horse dealers, peddlers and money lenders.  

During the French Revolution, about 22,500 Jewish villagers, more than half the Jewish population of France, were scattered throughout Alsace.  A great article about the Alsatian Jews can be found in the May, 2003 Hadassah Magazine.

Personalities from Alsace
Leon Blum, the first Jewish French prime minister.  Captain Alfred Dreyfus.  Andre Maurois, writer.  The Marx brothers.  Mime Marcel Marceau. Cerf-Berr, ancestor of publisher Bennet Cerf, was the brother-in-law of Rabbi David Sintzheim, who was appointed president of the Sanhedrin by Napoleon in 1807
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0002_0_00885.html

http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/F/EncJud_juden-im-Elsass-ENGL.html

Regional Special Interest Groups
have Alsace information and links.  The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, 
http://www.jewishgen.org/BohMor/index.html  

http://www.jewishgen.org/jewishgen/sigs.htm

Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html 

"Scenes of Jewish Life in Alsace" 
Authored by Daniel Stauben (pen name for Augste Eidal).  Published by Joseph Simon/Pangloss Press. The book captures Jewish country life.

Tourists can see more than 200 Jewish sites by contacting the Agence de Development Touristique du Bas-Rhin (ADT) in Strasbourg. 
http://www.tourisme67.com/en/jewish-heritage-alsace.htm

http://tinyurl.com/2bcm8cz

The GenAmi French Genealogy Society has quite a number of documents ever printed for Alsace and a lot for Lorraine; all the documents about Jews of Vaucluse (Provence) and also Paris and they offer to answer questions.  For research in France, especially in Paris for 20th century, members may be helped by professional genealogists if they wish, whose work they can guide and follow.  Contact: Micheline Guttmann, GenAmi
http://www.genami.org/

Jews had to be authorized to live in France and had to pay special taxes.  So there are official papers in the Archives concerning them.  For instance, the Ghetto of Cavaillon was opened in 1453, the one in Carpentras in 1461.  In 1600, 450 Jews were living in Carpentras.  In Bordeaux, the oldest naturalization papers (lettres de naturalite) are dated 1550 (see G. Nahon)Another source are cemeteries. Other sources include Notarial archives (Notarial acts concerning the Jews of Orange from the 14th century exist in Rome)

In Portugal, a source is the Inquisition proceedings.

Concerning the fact that Jews could not write or read: very few Jewish registers have been preserved, but the reason is not that they were illiterate.  Most of the male Jews could read in Hebrew; they had to do so for their Bar Mitzvah.  Communities were organized and each had a rabbi, a court, a treasurer.  All these people, at least, could read and write.

The 10th to 16th centuries are for the Jews, the great period of intellectual movements from Rashi to Isaac Louria, a lot of texts influencing not only the Jews have been written. A lot of books have been published concerning the organizations of the communities as well as concerning the intellectual movements.  Some titles are in English (there are a lot of others, if you can read French):

Books  
             

"The Heroic Age of Franco German Jewry"
Authored by A. Agus and published in New York by Yeshiva University Press in 1969
http://www.klinebooks.com/cgi-bin/kline/21867

"Medieval Jewry in Northern France: A Political and Social History" 
Authored by R. Chazan and published in Baltimore by The John Hopkins University Press in 1973; J. Edwards, "The Jews in Christian Europe", 1400-1700 published in London, N.Y. by Routledge in 1988. 

"Zellwiller, La petite Communaute dans la Prairie"
(the little community in the fields) which names many of the families who once lived in Zellwiller.  Some came from other places of Alsace, Lorraine, Baden, etc.  Contact GenAmi should you be doing research in Alsace.  The publication is 170 pages and last quoted price was 20 Euros (about $20) + shipping.  E-mail: asso.genami@free.fr
http://www.genami.org/ 

http://www.genami.org/en/library/library-results.php?code=F-ALS&display=1000

Avignon

In the 15th century, the Jews of Cavaillon were forced to live in a ghetto of a few streets ("carriero" in Provençal), closed each evening for the night. In the 17th century, with the Counter-Reformation, this measure intensified. Exclusion, insecurity, promiscuity and hygiene problems were part of every day life for the inhabitants.

http://www.avignon-et-provence.com/history-jews/synagogue-cavaillon/history-jews.htm#.UOn-VKzW0wM

Bas-Rhin, Alsace

History of the Jews of Alsace; Site of Alsatian Judaism; Some note on Schirrhoffen, Cemetery information; Reichshoffen history and its Jewish Community and nearby Hagenau village plus photos and maps.
http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/balbronn_synagogue.htm

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/strasbourg-bas-rhin-departement-alsace-region-region.html

History of Jews in Alsace
http://www.cinqueterreliguria.net/Lerici/Lucca/Colmar/History%20of%20Jews%20in%20Alsace.htm?iframe=true&width=100%&height=100%

Synagogue
http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/balbronn_synagogue.htm

http://www.alemannia-judaica.de/obernai_synagogue.htm

Bayeux

In Bayeux, the Normandy Battle Memorial Museum, Boulevard Fabian-Ware ... Europe's largest Jewish museum, it covers the entire panorama of German- Jewish history
http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/paris-and-bayeux-a-trip-report.cfm 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/bayeux-memorial-some-corner-of-a-foreign-field-793589.html

http://www.culture-routes.lu/php/fo_index.php?lng=en&dest=bd_ac_lst  

Belfort

A story of the Jews of Belfort by Laurence Tourot, Professor of History at Belfort and Jewish Genealogy in Belfort, Some Families Studied by Micheline Guttmann - is available in GenAmi, number 19
http://www.genami.org/en/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource /judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_02346.html

http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/belfort-90000.html

Bischheim

Three miles from Strasbourg. 
Musee du Bain Rituel Juif
Cour des Boecklin
17 rue Nationale
Telephone: 333-88-81-49-47. 
There is a sixteenth century restored mikve with 48 spiraling steps leading down to the ritual bath.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_03020.html

http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/bischeim-67800-bas-rhin-departement-alsace-region.html

"Le Memorbuch"
http://www.deathcamps.org/reinhard/memorbook.html

Bondoufle

http://nona.net/features/map/placedetail.659874/Bondoufle/

http://www.ville-bondoufle.fr/site/

http://infotrue.com/pgsix.html

Bordeaux

Bordeaux - Circumcisions from 1706 to 1793

Bordeaux - Births from 1738 to 1792

Bordeaux - Marriages from 1775 to 1792

Bordeaux - Deaths from 1739 to 1792

http://www.genami.org/listes/bordeaux/en-bordeaux.php

Bouxwiller

Located 28 miles from Strasburg.  There is the Musee Judeo-Alsacien 62a grand-rue;  Telephone 333-88-70-97-17;  Open mid-March to mid-September, Tuesday to Friday 10-12 and 2 to 5, Sundays 2 to 6; closed on Jewish holidays.  In winter, open for groups by appointment.  This small town has a synagogue
http://judaisme.sdv.fr/today/musee/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouxwiller,_Bas-Rhin

Bushwiller

Contact Terry Zakine-Cerf.

Regional Special Interest Groups
have Alsace information and links.  The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html 

http://www.dinur.org/resources/resourceKeywordManual.aspx?letter=

Caen

William the Bastard aka William The Conqueror - (inscribed as such on a Memorial at the Caen Castle) has his name inscribed on a plaque there.  The Castle is located across the street from a shul.
http://us.franceguide.com/Discover-the-Jewish-heritage-in-Western-France.html?NodeID=1&EditoID=217186

Books  
             

"A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe"
Authored by Ben G. Frank ... "and in Caen, almost entirely rebuilt after the war, there are about 100 Jewish families."

Forgotten Camps
http://www.jewishgen.org/ForgottenCamps/Witnesses/RichardEng.html

http://travel.earthtimes.org/travel-to-Caen-France,76.html

Holocaust (Shoah)
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/wieviorka-annette

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/85/a2524385.shtml

Synagogues
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesCaen.htm

Cahors

The Pertuis FFI gave Helene Deschamps this permanent Underground pass for her trek through southern France during WW II.  Photo from Prologue Magazine of Fall, 1992.

North of Moissac has a Resistance Museum on the Place General de Gaulle. Its second floor is devoted to refugees and displaced persons. 
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005213

http://lotbook.blogspot.com/

"Bad Faith: A Forgotten History of Family Fatherland and Vichy France"
available noting those who disappeared from Cahors as well as those transported to Auschwitz.

Carpentras

Carpentras Synagogue

Located south and near Nimes. (Papal-controlled France) Jewish community. Gentiles resented the Jews who displayed their wealth, mostly because of their dress. On March 22, 1740, in the town of Carpentras, an ordinance was passed dictating what Jews could wear.  Jewish men were forbidden to wear wigs with few exceptions.  Jews, traveling great distances, were permitted to dress in a special wig making it less possibility for them being singled out for harassment.
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=190&letter=C

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource /judaica/ejud_0002_0004_0_04000.html

"The Carpentras Affair" 
Authored by Jane Krame and published in The New Yorker, November 6, 2000 (Page 58-75).  This is an interesting article about "the oldest Jewish cemetery in use in Europe.", French Anti-Semitism, French politics, "the Pope's Jews", North African Jews, etc.  The story concerns a horrible desecration in the cemetery in 1990 and follows what happened to the cemetery, the town, France, Jews, etc. afterwards.  From a posting by Alex Skolnick

History
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902673,00.html

Synagogue
The Synagogue was built in 1367 and restored in the 18th century by architect Antoine D’Allemand. It is the oldest synagogue in France still in activity. It stands as testimony to the Jewish community which sought pontifical protection after being persecuted in the Kingdom of France, and settled here in the Comtat Venaissin in the 13th century.

The Jewish neighborhood, called carrière, was set up in 1461 in the heart of the city by the Consuls, and was abandoned after the Comtat became part of France. This Synagogue remains, mute testimony to past and present Judeo-Provencal culture.

The discreet façade dates from 1909. The prayer room has an 18th century Baroque décor, with pillars and faux marble. The ground floor holds the oldest parts of the building, the ritual baths and 2 bakeries, one reserved for daily bread, the other for the preparation of the unleavened azyme bread, and a room dedicated to Jerusalem within the prayer space.

Open Monday to Thursday: 10-12 and 3-5. Friday: 10-12 and 3-4.
Doors open every 30 minutes.
Closed on Saturday, Sunday and Jewish holidays.
Guided visits during the school holidays.
Contact: Tel : +33 (0)4 90 63 39 97

Not to be missed: The Jewish Music Festival in early August, in the special setting of the Synagogue and the Hôtel-Dieu interior courtyard. A unique event in France, presenting all the various influences of Jewish music
http://www.carpentras-ventoux.com/en/carpentras-city-art-history/synagogue-jewish-community.cfm?p=14

http://www.carpentras-ventoux.com/en/carpentras-city-art-history/synagogue-jewish-community.cfm?p=14  

http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesCarpentras.htm

Cernay

Genealogical research between 1550 and 1730 is discussed in an article in the "Abstract of GenAmi number 22" mentioned in a posting to JewishGen
http://www.genami.org/en/countries-of-your-roots/Alsace/Hagenthal-le-Bas.php 

http://www.ordiecole.com/gen/cimetieres/cimetieres_israelites_de_france.mht

Colmar

In Alsace and the provinces wine capital and second largest city.  It has the Musee Bartholdi featuring the sculptures of Auguste Bartholdi, creator of the Statue of Liberty.  The Katz Room contains Jewish ritual objects.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0005_0_04523.html

The synagogue conducts a daily service.
1 rue de la Cigogne
Phone: 333 - 89- 41 - 38 - 29 
E-mail - consistoireisraelite.colmar@wanadoo.fr 
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesColmar.htm

Correns

The Mayor, Michael Latz in 2008, is Jewish.

Cemetery
http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page08.html

  Maps

http://www.maplandia.com/france/provence-alpes-cote-dazur/var/brignoles/correns/  

Creteil

A southeastern Paris suburb with a Jewish school
http://ruchel.livejournal.com/214887.html

http://www.crossroad.to/Persecution/testimonies/jews-france.htm 

Cronenbourg

http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Natzweiler/nat001.html

Cemetery
There is a Jewish cemetery which was recently desecrated.
http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc10/EDOC12152.pdf

Dornach

A village in the south of Mulhouse. In 1899, there were 12,701 inhabitants of whom half were Jewish.
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Dornach/

Books  
             

"Lippincott's New Gazetteer: A Complete Pronouncing Gazetteer"
Authored by Angelo and Louis Heilprin

Contact Terry Zakine-Cerf. 

Regional Special Interest Groups
have Alsace information and links.  The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG at
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html 

Drancy  (See also Holocaust page)

Jews were assembled here for deportation by convoy.  A Paris suburb where a memorial to the tens of thousands of French Jews who were shipped to Auschwitz stands today in their memory. There were a number of convoys (around 50) that departed for Auschwitz in 1943 including Convoy No. 62 consisting of 1,199 Jews.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005215

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentration_camps_in_France

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Drancy-internment-camp/134535479912362

Photo
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DrancyConcentrationCamp.jpg

Goersdorf

There was a Jewish presence here including a synagogue. A website that provides the perimeter town's distances around the area.
http://cdip.com/cv/  

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~fraalsac/alsaceaz/alsaceg.htm 

Guide to the Alsace and Lorraine; Jewish Communities Collection, 1809-2000
http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=475467

Goussainville

A synagogue is located in this Paris suburb.  
http://www.pere-lachaise.com/

http://tinyurl.com/24g8tus

Hasttatt, Upper-Rhine

A list of circumcisions of the Lazare Hess translated from Hebrew is available in GenAmi number 19 
http://www.genami.org/pour-tous/titres_fr.php

http://www.genami.org/en/for-all/genami-review-titles.php

http://www.jewishjournal.com/nation/article/world_briefs_20040507/

Herrlishelm

There was a Jewish presence here and there is a Jewish cemetery.  Some tombstones were spray-painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans in 2004.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrlisheim

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/hattstatt-68420.html

Ingwiller

Located in Alsace

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0009_0_09535.html

http://www.edwardvictor.com/Ingwiller_France.htm

Lens

http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/our_collections/until_the_last_jew/
index.asp   

Lyon Region

"Presence Juive dans la Cite"
A booklet on the history of the Jewish Communities in this area is described in Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive #68 E-mail office@genealoj.org
For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
http://www.genealoj.org/New/texte/page03.php

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_12918.html

Synagogue
There is a synagogue in the Jewish neighborhood of La Duchere. In April, 2002, a car was driven through the large wooden doors of the synagogue by 15 hooded men.  The President of this Jewish community is Maurice Obadia.
http://lyonfeuj.free.fr/syna_orat_com.htm

Marmoutier

35 Km in the NW of Strasbourg

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/marmoutier-bas-rhin-departement-alsace-region.html

Marseilles

The second largest city in France and the third metropolitan area is France's largest commercial port. Marseille is the capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, as well as the capital of the Bouches-du-Rhône department. Population: 800,000 with large North African immigrant population. A Jewish Genealogy meeting is held every month at the Centre Edmond Fleg (Daniele Fareau).  There are four SIGs now available in Marseille:  Northern Africa, Ottoman Empire, Spain and Comtat Venaissin.  Contact cgjgenefr@aol.com for further information.
http://www.bh.org.il/database-article.aspx?48710

http://us.franceguide.com/Provence.html?NodeID=1&EditoID=86633

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/marseille-bouches-du-rhone-departement.html

Holocaust (Shoah)
Hiram (or Harry) Bingham, IV
For over fifty years, the U. S. State Department resisted any attempt to honor Bingham. For them he was an insubordinate member of the US diplomatic service, a dangerous maverick who was eventually demoted. Now, after his death, he has been officially recognized as a hero. defiance of his bosses in Washington, he granted over 2,500 USA visas to Jewish and other refugees, including the artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst and the family of the writer Thomas Mann. He also sheltered Jews in his Marseilles home, and obtained forged identity papers to help Jews in their dangerous journeys across Europe. He worked with the French under ground to smuggle Jews out of France into Franco's Spain or across the Mediterranean and even contributed to their expenses out of his own pocket. In 1941, Washington lost patience with him. He was sent to Argentina, where later he continued to annoy his superiors by reporting on the movements of Nazi war criminals.

Synagogue
An arson fire in April, 2002, completely destroyed the 4,800 square foot Or Aviv synagogue.
http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3387Y41555RX

http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesMarseille.shtml

Metz

Alphonse Levy, the cattle dealer
http://judaisme.sdv.fr/histoire/historiq/anglais/histy2.htm

Located in the province of Lorraine, Metz is an ancient city in France. Jews came to live there more than a thousand years ago. There are records of Jewish inhabitants in Metz dating back to the 9th century..  Jews lived here from the sixteenth century or in the Comtat Venaissin, and records are known to exist.
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/112381/jewish/The-Martyr-of-Metz.htm

http://judaisme.sdv.fr/histoire/historiq/anglais/history.htm

Cemetery
http://www.ww1cemeteries.com/ww2_cemeteries/metz_jewish_cem.htm

Jewish Surnames
http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page15.html

Moissac

Located in southwest France (due west of Albi) a Jewish couple  saved some 150 Jews by hiding them in a children's home run by France's Jewish Scout movement.  Between 1939 and 1943, more than 500 non-French speaking Jewish children passed through the home. The Abbey houses an untitled Marc Chagall piece.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_individuals_and_groups_assisting_Jews
_during_the_Holocaust 

Montparnasse

Cemetery
Information is available at The Jewish cemetery of lisle sur la Sorgue.  
http://www.genealoj.org/ENtexte/page08.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fugue/381549738/

http://asso.genami.free.fr 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montparnasse_Cemetery

http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/confer/prague04/papers/Pinto.pdf

Montpellier

There is a building that contained a synagogue.  It is located just outside of Paris.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0014_0_14154.html

History
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=750&letter=M

http://www.jewishhistory.org.il/history.php?startyear=1190&endyear=1199

Mikvah
http://www.jeremyjosephs.com/mikva.htm

Synagogue
http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3387Y41556RX

http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesMontpellier.htm

Moselle (Metz)

http://www.genami.org/en/countries-of-your-roots/research-guides/Lorraine.php 

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0012_0_11315.html

"Jewish Cemeteries in Moselle"
700 pages showing in detail the 50 Jewish Cemeteries of the Moselle Departement.  14,500 names are indexed, making research easy.  This information is located in the
Revue du Cercle de Genealogies Juive #68 
E-mail office@genealoj.org For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
http://www.genealoj.org  

http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/metz-moselle-lorraine.html

Mulhouse (Mühlhausen)

 
Mulhouse Synagogue

Located in Alsace and founded in 803 AD.
http://www.cimulhouse.com

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/mulhouse-haut-rhin-departement-alsace-region-see-hegenheim.html

History
http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/F/EncJud_juden-in-Mulhouse-ENGL.html

Rabbi Salomon Moock
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com

Synagogue
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesMulhouse.htm

http://www.vosizneias.com/52922/2010/04/11/mulhouse-france-shul-burns-down-locals-suspect-arson/

Nancy

Nancy is the capital of Meurthe-et-Moselle department, northeastern France and the former capital of the duchy of Lorraine.  Jews acquired a cemetery at nearby Laxou.

http://www.geschichteinchronologie.ch/eu/F/EncJud_juden-in-Nancy-ENGL.html

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/nancy-meurthe-et-moselle-lorraine.htm l 

Holocaust  (Shoah)
http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/righteous/about.asp

Synagogues
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesNancy.htm

Nice

The towns of the French Riviera, such as Nice, shown here, changed from quiet resorts in peacetime to crowded military bases in wartime.  From Prologue Magazine, Fall, 1992 issue.

There are about 30,000 Jews in the city. A Jewish Genealogy meeting is held every first Thursday from 3 to 5 pm in FSJU, 6 rue d'Angleterre.

Death Certificates
(even request copies of birth and marriage documents if they occurred in Nice) can be obtained by writing. You can write in English, if your French isn't good enough.

Marie de Nice
5, rue Hotel de Ville
06000 NICE France

Jewish Community
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/France.html 

Jewish Resistance
There is a memorial in Nice, honoring Raymond Fresco, who was captured by the Nazis in November, 1943, tortured for 15 days and executed when he refused to reveal any information.

Synagogues
http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3387Y41559RX

Travel
http://www.jewishtraveladvisor.com/jewish-kosher.php?ac=Nice

Niederhagenthal

This town, and the Riss family name is mentioned in the Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive, Issue 89, January-March 2007.
http://www.genealoj.org/

Nimes List

Capital of the Gard département, the city has a population of 130,000 and derives its name from Nemausus 'Fro' The Source''. Denim fabric gets its name from this city (de Nîmes).
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_14851.html

A list of people's names available for free to members of GenAmi.  This list concerns people who were born or married in Nimes and the Provence before the year 1900.  Information available from 
http://asso.genami.free.fr 

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/nimes-gard-departement-languedoc.html 

Synagogues
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesNimes.htm

Obernai

Only 20 minutes south of Strasbourg, there is a street known as the rue des Juifs,  a street that contains wood-framed houses with doorposts lined with timber.  They were once filled with mezuzot.  The synagogue is on rue de Selestat.  Before WW II, there were over 100 Jews here; about 40 died in the holocaust  (Shoah).  There are 26 living here now, the rest moved or assimilated.
http://www.obernai.fr/fr/Alsace-as-you-like-256.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obernai

Paille (Strohstadt)

The city called "City of Paille", or Strohstadt in German, had a very ephemeral existence. Situated on an island in the Rhine, it was built in 1680 by the French after they took possession of the fortress of Breisach. Its real name was at first Ville-Neuve-de-Brisach, then later on Saint-Louis-les-Brisach. In 1697, under the Treaty of Rijswijk, it was entirely destroyed and dismantled: Omni no fragmented and solo aequabitur. See GenAmi No. 17 (September 2001). Jews settled there, mostly coming from nearby villages on both banks of the river, and a community was founded in 1692.

Research
List of Families
http://www.genami.org/en/countries-of-your-roots/research-guides/liste-des-Juifs-de-la-ville-de-Paille-en.php

 Palatinate (A region)

Books  
             

"Juedisches Leben in der Pfalz" (Jewish life in Palatinate)
Authored by Bernhard KUKATZKI is an

Paris                            

There are 20 numbered districts (Arrondissements) that start in the city's geographic center and swirl out counterclockwise.

Walks in Parris in the German language   
http://www.paris-zu-fuss.com/

The 19th district is the heart of the Sephardic community located in the northeastern section with some 30,000 mostly low-income Jews. 

Paris & French Telephone Directories
A collection, dating from 1805, exists at the Hotel de Ville, at the Bibliotheque administrative de la ville de Paris. 

From 1813, the collection's directories expand out into France, Germany and the US.  From 1841, there were two volumes, one for Paris and one for the other towns.  Since 1881, each ten years, a volume for other countries is published.

Check out  this web site where you will find one of the most complete indexes of on-line phone books from over 150 countries around the world.
http://www.teldir.com/eng/  

Nazareth Synagogue
Vice President is Jack-Yves Bohbot, a city councilor
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesParis.shtml

http://en.structurae.de/structures/data/index.cfm?ID=s0038133

Poitiers

Poitiers (French pronunciation: [pwatje]) is a city on the Clain river in west central France. It is a commune and the capital of the Vienne department and of the Poitou-Charentes region.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poitiers

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/poitiers-vienne-departement-poitou-charentes-region.html

Synagogues
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesPoitiers.htm

Reims

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reims

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16701.html

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/reims-champagne.html 

Synagogue
The site of the Synagogue would have been in the medieval time period no 18 rue des Elu. Some Jewish families arrived in Reims in 1820, but the community really organized only after 1870 with the arrival of Jews from Alsace and Lorraine. During the 1960s, Jews from North Africa came to establish in Reims. In 1979, the Community celebrated the centenary of its Synagogue and acquired a Mikvah in 1991.

Synagogue - Association Culturelle Israélite
Centre Communautaire
49, rue Clovis
51100 Reims
Tél: 03-26-47-68-47
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesReims.htm

Rixheim

Located in Alsace web page at:
http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/rixheim/rixheim.html  

http://www.ejewish.info/resources/resourceSearchResults.aspx?sText=Rixheim%20(France)&keywordid=545&rsid=0

Regional Special Interest Groups
have Alsace information and links.  The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG
http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html 

Rosenwiller (Rosheim)

There is an old Jewish cemetery. As you probably know, Rosenwiller Jewish cemetery is very big and it goes back far in time (perhaps back to 1366). Moreover it has suffered desecration on several occasions, most notably perhaps during the French Revolution; and also pillaging of monumental stone by local villagers for building use. All of these factors suggest that there is no completely reliable list of graves. To obtain the most complete and reliable information available, I suggest that you contact:
Association pour la Conservation du Cimetiere Israelite de Rosenwiller,
Consistoire Israélite du Bas-Rhin,
23 rue Sellénick,
67000 Strasbourg,
FRANCE.

But, if you can read French, there is a book that could contain the information you are seeking:
"Registre du cimetière israélite de Rosenwiller (1753-1980)". The blurb for this book says that it contains registration details for 5,588 Jewish graves at Rosenwiller, over the period 1753-1980. The price (including shipping and handling) varies according to where you live: in France = 36 euros; Western Europe + Israel = 42 euros; rest of the world = 49 euros.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070526112148AAiOY5f

http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/rosheim-see-rosenwiller.html

Rosheim

The 1784 census of the Jews of Rosheim - authored by Jean-Pierre Kleitz and published in the Revue du Cercle de Genealogie Juive #68 
E-mail office@genealoj.org For French speaking secretariat@genealoj.org
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10295.html

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/510015/Rosheim

www.genealoj.org   

Savigny (Savoy)

Spanish and Jewish prisoners of the camp from 1940 - 1942 is discussed from the review "Echos Saleviens" in the "Abstract of GenAmi number 22".  Savigny is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savigny-sur-Orge  

Museums in Savigny-le-Temple
Security is tight, but it's worth the effort. In the Hôtel de St-Aignan, dating from the 1600s, this museum of Jewish history has been handsomely and impressively installed. The development of Jewish culture is traced
http://attractions.uptake.com/museums/france/ile-de-france/savigny-le-temple/679488795.html

Schirrhoffen, Bas-Rhin

There is a discussion group devoted exclusively to this town 
http://www.egroups.com/group/Schirrhoffen

Schirrhoffen Today;
The mayors of Schirrhoffen; Schirrhoffen cemetery status, photo of the synagogue and more
http://home.sprynet.com/~bernie06//famtree/fam-main.html

St Quay Portrieux

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Quay-Portrieux

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Europe/France/Bretagne/Saint_Quay_Portrieux-89811/TravelGuide-Saint_Quay_Portrieux.html   

Soultz

About 30 minutes from Colmar.  Musee du Bucheneck, rue du Kageneck is a fine arts and local crafts museum housed in an eleventh-century fortress that was the seat of the Episcopal bailiff from 1289 until the Revolution.  The Moise Ginsburger Room displays Torah scrolls, Torah mantles, a circumcision seat and ritual objects.
http://www.soultz68.fr/US/index.html

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0019_0_18922.html

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/sulz-u-wald-see-soultz-sous-forets.html 

Synagogue
The synagogue was built in 1897 and was damaged in de 2nd world war ; it's no longer an active synagogue; it was renovated in recent years and part of the building (first floor) is used as an office by the "Cercle d’histoire et d’archéologie de l’Alsace du Nord".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/9679871@N04/5870243628/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18988554@N00/3424071276/

Strasbourg

This eastern French city is home to one of France's largest and oldest communities of Ashkenazi Jews - about 70% of the Jewish population.  Jews were first reported in 1170 by Benjamin of Tudela, who mentions that there was a flourishing community.  A cemetery was established at the beginning of the thirteenth century; the oldest remaining epitaph is from 1213.  The synagogue is not mentioned until 1292, according to an article in Hadassah Magazine authored by writer Ben G. Frank in May, 2003.

The Cercle de Genealogie Juive has made an agreement with the Strasbourg Jewish Community (Francis Levy, President)  to publish a major tool for Alsatian Jewish Genealogy -- the Rosenwiller Cemetery Project.  The Rosenwiller Cemetery, is one of the largest and oldest Alsatian Jewish graveyards.

Often called "the Jerusalem of France", most of the chief rabbis of France came from this Jewish community of 12,000, plus 3,000 in surrounding towns.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Strasbourg.html 

Cemetery
Strasbourg-Cronenbourg cemetery
Another Jewish cemetery.  The area around the Place de la Republique once held a Jewish cemetery

Gate of the Jews
A plaque at the back corner of the Municipal Theater on rue de la Mesange, mentions that the Jews had to pay to enter the city during the day and sign out at night.

History
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.html

Musee Alsacien
Located at
21 quai Saint-Nicolas
Telephone: 333-88-52-50-01
A folk culture museum of popular regional art.  Two rooms are devoted to Alsatian Jewish worship.  Open daily from 10 to 6 except Tuesdays and certain holidays.

Passerelle des Juifs
(Footbridge of the Jews)

Rue des Juifs
(rue du Parchemin - at 20 rue des Charpentiers (corner of 19 rue des Juifs) is a thirteenth century mikve.

Strasbourg Tourist Office
333-88-52-28-20 Web site: 
www.strasbourg.fr 

Synagogue de la Paix and Community Center
Located at
1a rue du Grand-Rabbin-Rene Hirschler at Avenue de la Pix
Telephone 333-88-14-46-50
The site is available in both English and French. 
www.cisonline.org 

Orthodox synagogue
Located at 9 rue de Milieu in Wolfisheim - a suburb

http://www.mavensearch.com/synagogues/C3387Y41563RX

Toulouse             

The city is located in the southwest of the country. Between 20,000 and 25,000 Jews live in the city and surrounding area. Jews probably came to this area of France when the Romans arrived in the 2nd century.  But for sure by the 8th century, there were Jews, since, for a Jew who was disloyal to the Franks, a regulation mandated a prominent community member be publicly face-slapped every year on Good Friday - as officially recorded in 883. When the Revolution began in 1789, at least 80 merchant Jews already lived in the city.  The war and Napoleon's dictates changed all.  Jews received cemetery land and the offer of property for a synagogue.  But not until the late 19th and early 20th centuries did they begin significant reestablishment.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/France.html 

Espace du Judaisme (The Jewish Space) 2 Place Riquet; Phone 011 33 5 62 73 45 73.  The main synagogue, Hekhal David is in the same building.
http://www.cedj.org/accueil.html

Jewish Community
Association Cultuelle Israelite de Toulouse
Phone 33 5 62 73 466 46
Email: acit@cedj.org
http://tinyurl.com/4hufad

Phyllis Ellen Funke wrote an article about the city in the February 2008 issue of Hadassah Magazine.
Hadassah France - Phone 33 1 53 42 67 18
http://www.hadassah.fr   

http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/pe_hadassah/archive/2008/08_feb/traveler.asp

http://www.thejc.com/travel/travel-features/a-lot-laid-back-gascony 

Musee des Augustins
21 Rue de Metz; Phone 33 5 6122 21 82; Display No. 67 is an inscription, possibly pre-14th century, of worn Hebrew letters.
www.augustins.org

Resistance and Deportation Museum
52 Allees des Demoiselles
Phone: 33 5 61 1480 40; gagullo@yahoo.fr  Web site for Lyon
http://events.skyteam.com/sisp/index.htm?fx=event&event_id=38243

Synagogues

Adath Israel - 17 Rue Alsace-Lorraine
Chaare Emeth - 35 Rue Rembrandt
Mishkan Nessim - 33 Rue Jules Dalou
Palaprat* - 2 Rue Palaprat
Synagogue Liberale - 13 Rue du Colonel Driant
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesToulouse.htm

* A must see is the Palaprat synagogue, located at the corner of Rue Palaprat and Rue d la Colombetter.  Dating from Napoleon's ear, it features a brick and cement exterior, but a decorative interior. The Menora replicates one presented to Napoleon by the building's architect.

Valenciennes

Write to: Mairie de Valenciennes
              Service de l'Etat Civil
              Place des Armes
              59300 Valenciennes, France

History
http://www.synagoguedevalenciennes.com/pagesUK/History_of_the_Valenciennes_Jewish_
Community.htm 

Synagogue
http://www.kosherdelight.com/FranceSynagoguesValenciennes.htm

Wasselonne

Wasselonne, with 4,923 inhabitants and county seat of the district, has industry, trade, and tourism. Since 1972, Wasselonne is twinned with the city of Dahn in the Palatinate due to relations existing in the Middle Ages between both cities. The Jewish community of Wasselonne, created after 1870, in 1890 rented a
place that was done up in small prayer house (in an actual savings bank). The community expanding after WWI found this place cramped. A new small prayer house then was installed in a home near the Château (ancient Café Best) and dedicated in 1924. After WWII, the community meets in houses, except for the Feasts of Tishri, where they rented a room in the Star.
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/wasselonne-bas-rhin-departement-alsace-region.html 

There is a matzo factory at
Neymann House
46 rue du 23 Novembre.  
www.neymann.com 

Cemetery
http://www.iajgsjewishcemeteryproject.org/france/wasselonne-bas-rhin-departement-alsace-region.html

Synagogues
http://fr.maison-de-la-france.com/bd_doc/559_200611132418.pdf

Westhoffen

    http://www.alsace-route-des-vins.com/NewVersion/images/ardv_small/63westhoffen04small.jpg

Located in Alsace
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Jews_in_Alsace

Wingersheim

Located in Alsace
http://www.speedylook.com/Mittelhausen.html

http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2003/03_MAY/traveler.htm

Zimmersheim

Regional Special Interest Groups that have Alsace information and links.  The site includes links to Bohemia-Moravia SIG, Denmark SIG, German-Jewish SIG, Hungary SIG and Stammbaum - German SIG Contact Terry Zakine-Cerf
http://en.db-city.com/France/Alsace/Haut-Rhin/Zimmersheim

http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/W_Europe.html 

http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Zimmer/zimm_fr.html

Holocaust  (Shoah)
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/nazioccupation/frenchjews.html 
 

Monaco

The Jews of Monaco
http://knowlescollection.blogspot.com/2011_11_01_archive.html

more to come ... 

Please let me know if there is a favorite link of yours that is not included in my site and I will be happy to add it to Jewish Web Index          

Email Jwebindex@gmail.com