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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 Ashkenazi Jewish population to Germany. Since the French Revolution (and Emancipation), Jews have been able to contribute to all aspects of French culture and society. In 1870, the Cremieux decree gave full French citizenship to North-African Jews living in the Maghreb under French colonization. During World War II, a significant number of Jews living in Metropolitan France were murdered in the Holocaust or deported to Nazi death camps by the French Vichy government. After 1945, France served as a haven for Askhenazi refugees. After the independences of Morocco and Tunisia and the end of the Algerian War, an influx of immigration of Sephardic 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 2019, the Jewish Agency evaluated the Jewish population in France to be 450,000, 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 strongly secular French nationality law forbids any statistics or lists based on ethnic or religious membership.

Historical figures

Activists

Clergymen

Military

Nobles

  • Cahen d'Anvers, Papal title of 1867
  • Liefmann Calmer, Baron of Picquigny and Viscount of Amiens
  • d'Estienne, one of the early Franco/Jewish ennoblements in 16th-century Provence, after the family converted to Catholicism and changed their name from Cohen to Estienne in 1501
  • Maurice Ephrussi, Russian Empire-born, husband of Beatrice de Rothschild
  • Arnaud Henry Salas-Perez, Prince Obolensky (1982-), French born fashion editor and Designer, half Jewish.
  • Koenigswarter
  • de Rothschild

Philanthropists

Politicians

Journalists