List of French Jews

List Of French Jews

Jews have lived in France since Roman times, with a rich and complex history. In the Middle Ages, French kings expelled most of the original Askhenazi Jewish population to Germany. Since the French Revolution (and Emancipation), Jews have been able to contribute to all aspects of French culture and society. Moreover, the Cremieux decree gave in 1870 the full French citizenship to Jews, mostly Sephardi Jews, living in Maghreb under French colonization. During World War II, a significant number of Jews living in Metropolitan France perished in the Holocaust, deported to Nazi death camps by the French Vichy government. After 1945, France served as a haven for Askhenazi refugees, then after the independence of Morocco, Tunisia and the end of Algerian War, an influx of immigration of Sephardi Jews saw the Jewish population triple to around 600,000, making it the largest Jewish community in Western Europe. Behind the United States and Israel, France ranks 3rd by Jewish population. In 2008, the Jewish Agency evaluated the Jewish population in France to be 488,000, not mentioning French citizens with only one Jewish parent or grandparent.

The following is a list of some prominent Jews and people of Jewish origins, among others, (not all of them practice, or practiced, the Jewish religion) who were born in, or are very strongly associated with, France. The French nationality law itself, strongly secular, forbides any statistics or lists based on ethnic membership.