France's fourth largest city, located to the country's north on the Deule River, is the capital of the Nord-Pas de Calais région and of the Nord département. It lies near the border with Belgium and its Dutch name is Rijsel. Population: 170,000. The city's textile business dates from the Middle Ages. The old town features Flemish architecture from 17th and 18th centuries. The rabbinate of the Grand Rabbi existed since 1872. The first was BENJAMIN LIPPMAN, who was first in in Colmar (Alsace), where from he left due to the annexation of this région by the Germans. In 1936, Léon BERMAN, Rabbi in Lille until 1939 and son of the famous Hassidic rabbi Reb HAIM, was deported with 336 other Jews. In 1950, the Grand Rabbi Emmanuel CHOUCHENA, honorary Director of the Seminary Israelite de France, occupied the post of Grand Rabbi of Lille and the région until 1954. On October 13th, 1991, the Religious Association celebrated the centenary of the synagogue. The community of Lille and its région numbers about 3000 Jews as of 2006. A.C.I. et Synagogue, Centre Communautaire at 5, rue Auguste Angellier - BP 1125 - 59012 LILLE CEDEX, Tél 03-20-51-12-52 (Après-midi). Fax 03-20-31-35-40. [January 2008]
Le Cimitiere de Lille Sud: Entrée Quatre Cents Maisons - LILLE. 2 April 2007--The CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewry, condemned the profanation of fifty-three tombs in the Jewish section of the Lille Sud cemetery (northern France). In a release, the organization states that it "can't help noting that this appalling act was perpetrated during the night of Saturday 31 March to Sunday 1 April, on the eve of the feast of Pessah." The French Minister of the Interior, François Baroin, has for condemned "this crime" "with the greatest firmness" and indicated that "all the necessary resources" would be mobilized "to discover as quickly as possible" the authors of this loathsome deed. No graffiti was found in the cemetery. One of the tombs was broken, but most were pulled up between the horizontal part and the headstone bearing the names and dates of birth and death. [January 2008]
Cimetière de l'Est - Lille [January 2008]