PARIS: | France | International Jewish Cemetery Project

UPDATE: Jews have been living in Paris intermittently since the région was conquered by Rome in the first century B.C. Jewish communities in those early centuries could be found in what is now the 5th arrondissement, in an area just south of Notre-Dame near where the Church of St-Julien-le-Pauvre now stands. Some evidence suggests that a synagogue once stood on the same site. Until the sixth century, Jews who lived in Paris did so under favorable conditions. They enjoyed perfect freedom in the exercise of their religion, maintained friendly relations with the Christians, and some of them even occupied public offices as tax collectors. The councils of Varennes in 465 and of Orleans in 533, 538, and 541 adopted certain measures against the Jews, from which it would appear that there must have been Jews in Paris and in the north of France at that time. From the days of the first Frankish kings, a synagogue was erected in 582 on Rue de la Juiverie (Street of the Jews), leading to the palace. However, it was not long before the influence of the Church began to affect the king and nobles. Chilperic (561-584) endeavored to proselytize the Jews; among them was one named Priscus. When this unfortunate refused to "acknowledge the faith" he was thrown into prison. Under the last of the Merovingian kings the situation grew worse. Clotaire II forbade the Jews to exercise any seigniorial functions or to serve in the army (615). His son Dagobert gave them the choice of conversion or exile (629). Many went into exile, and others suffered martyrdom. A deed of gift signed by King Dagobert in favor of the Abbey of St.-Denis alludes to one Solomon, collector of taxes at the Porte Glaucin, now the Quai aux Fleurs. With the advent of the Carlovingian kings (687) there came a great change. In the 10th and 11th centuries, a small Jewish community settled on Rue de la Harpe between Rue de la Huchette and Rue St-Séverin, and later on a street called Rue de la Vieille Juiverie (Old Jewry Street) that lay between the present Rue St-Séverin and Rue Monsieur-le-Prince. There was a Jewish cemetery at the corner of Blvd. St-Michel and Rue Monsieur-le-Prince, and, nearby, a synagogue. Another Jewish cemetery was located on the tiny Rue Pierre-Sarazin just off Blvd. St-Michel. In the 12th century, Spaniard Benjamin of Tudela traveled throughout the known world chronicling its Jewish communities. When he came to Paris, he called it Ha-ir Hagedolah (Hebrew for that great city). The Jewish community then living on the Ile de la Cité, must have welcomed him to the Jewish quarter-an area that lay between Rue de la Cité (then called Rue des Juifs), Quai de la Corse, and rue de Lutèce. Place Louis-Lépine, where the Marché aux Fleurs now stands, was the site of the community's synagogue. Charlemagne (768-814), Louis le Débonnaire (814-840), and Charles the Bald (843-877) treated the Jews with great kindness. During the struggles that disturbed the kingdom for the two centuries that followed, the Jews remained unnoticed. Of the Capetian kings, Louis VI (1108-37) and Louis VII (1137-80) were favorably disposed toward the Jews. Under their rule, the Jewish community in Paris greatly increased. Many Jews dwelt also in the environs of the city and owned real estate there. According to certain chroniclers, they owned the greater part of Villejuif. In Paris itself, they occupied Les Champeaux, a quarter consisting of a certain number of dark and narrow streets closed by gates at each end. Within this district were to be found the potters, the shoemakers, and the dealers in old clothes and rags. At that time there were two synagogues there one in the Rue de la Juiverie, the other in the Rue de la Tacherie, formerly called also "Rue de la Juiverie." The community owned two cemeteries, one situated in the Rue de la Galande, the other toward the end of the Rue de la Harpe. Near-by, but on the opposite bank of the Seine, stood a mill that also belonged to the Jews. Their thrift and their wealth excited hatred and jealousy. All sorts of accusations were brought against them. They were charged with having arrested many Christians for debt and of having accepted as pledges the sacred vessels used in church service. When, with much solemnity, Pope Innocent II entered Paris in 1139, the representatives of the Jewish community were permitted to present themselves with those of the city corporations. Wishing to honor the pope, the Jews, carrying the scrolls of the Law, greeted him with an address, to which he replied: "May the Lord God Almighty tear away the veil that conceals your hearts!" Then, too, the odious calumny of ritual murder was circulated freely. In 1179, Parisian Jews were accused at Easter of having murdered a Christian named "William." Philip Augustus (1180-1223), who succeeded Louis VII, displayed a hostile spirit toward the Jews and had scarcely ascended the throne when, on a Sabbath-day in 1180, he ordered the imprisonment of all the Jews in his kingdom, their release being conditioned on the payment of the sum of 15,000 silver marks. In the spring of 1181 he banished them all, confiscated their lands and dwellings, and annulled four-fifths of their claims against the Christians, exacting the remainder for himself. The synagogues were turned into churches. The one situated on the Ruede la Juiverie, within the city limits, Philip presented to Maurice, the Archbishop of Paris, in 1183; it became the Church of Sainte-Madeleine-en-la-Cité. To the cloth-makers' gild, the king leased for the yearly payment of a tax of 100 livres twenty-four Jewish houses that were situated in the "Judearia Pannificorum" or ghetto now Rue de la Vieille Draperie. Another late-12th-century Jewish community could be found nearby on the Right Bank streets Rue de Moussy, Rue du Renard, Rue St-Merri, Rue de la Tacherie, and also on the Petit Pont (in those days, Paris' bridges were covered with houses). Indeed, at the time, Jews lived on many other streets. In 1198 Philip, being hard pressed for money, permitted the Jews to return to France. They flocked back to Paris where they repaired their synagogue in the Rue de la Tacherie and established another in an old tower on the ramparts, La Tour du Pot-au-Diable, near the convent of St.-Jean-en-Grève. They settled near the Church of Petit-St.-Antoine, in the cul-de-sac or blind alley of St.-Faron, in the Rue de la Tissanderie, known later as the "Cul-de-sac des Juifs," in the vicinity of Mont Ste.-Geneviève, in the Rue de Judas, in the Rue Quincampoix, and in the Rue des Lombards, then inhabited by Italian usurers and therefore the financial center of Paris. From this tim,e the Jews enjoyed a certain degree of liberty and toleration. Some of them were compelled to pledge themselves not to leave the kingdom for a term of years. A bond given about 1204 by several Jews as a security for their continued residence contains the names of these Jews, the amount paid annually into the royal treasury, and the oath taken on the "roole" or Torah. One of these Jews, in a document dated 1209, is called "le Juif du roi," or the king's Jew. This appears to have been the designation of the Jews attached to the royal treasury (Kammerknechtschaft). In order for him to extort from the Jews greater sums of money, the king permitted them to charge a high rate of interest, subject to certain restrictions by a decree issued in the year 1218. At this time Paris contained some very rich Jews. In 1212 the chevalier Etienne de Sancerre pawned all his property to the Jew Elijah de Braie of Paris and his son Merote as security for the sum of 80 livres that he had borrowed from them and for which he was obliged to pay two deniers per livre each week as interest. In 1217 Philip presented the grain-market in the Juiverie to his cupbearer Rinaldo. Under Louis VIII (1223-26), the Jews were again molested. In Nov. 1223, the king, instigated by the clergy, annulled all Jewish loans of more than five years' standing, exempted Christian debtors from the payment of all interest even on debts contracted later, and decreed that all bonds for debts to Jews must thereafter be signed before the royal bailiff. If any Jews left the domain of their lord, they must be returned to him by the owner of the land on which they had settled. By such means, many of the wealthiest of Jewish families were reduced to misery. Louis IX (1226-70) did not show himself particularly friendly toward the Jews. He spared no efforts to convert them to Christianity. Gregory IX, acting under the influence of the apostate Jew Nicholas Donin, ordered an examination of the Talmud; and a controversy took place June 25, 1240 at the king's court in Paris between Nicholas Donin and four noted rabbis of the day, among whom were Jehiel de Paris and Moses de Coucy. As a result, all the copies of the Talmud and other Hebrew books that had been seized by order on March 3 were consigned to the flames. For several years thereafter, Louis IX stayed his hand, although the edicts against rabbinical works continued to be enforced strictly. On his return from a crusade in 1254, he renewed his hostile attitude toward the Talmud and toward usury. As a result, many Jews received severe punishments. In 1257 all landed property they held, excepting cemeteries and synagogues, was confiscated by the king. The community of Paris was compelled to solicit the help of the Jews of the surrounding country for the support of its school, formerly so active and noted. Among the numerous emigrants of that time was Jehiel himself, the illustrious head of the school, who set out for Palestine about 1259. By a decree dated June 12, 1269, St. Louis imposed upon the Jews in addition the wearing of the badge. Philip III the Bold (1270-85), while retaining all the decrees of his father against the Jews, enforced them only passively. The council of St.-Quentin reproached him in 1271 for allowing Jews to sue Christians for debt in a court of justice. Philip even allowed the Jews of Paris to open a new cemetery in a garden bought from a certain canon named Maître Gilbert. Although forbidden by law to reside in the neighborhood of Mont Ste.-Geneviève, they established their quarters in the interior of the city. The condition of the Jews became almost intolerable under Philip the Fair (1285-1314). In 1288 he subjected the Jews of Paris to a fine for chanting too loudly in their synagogues. About the year 1299, he imposed upon them a tax of 244 livres and 12 sous, Tours currency, called the "recepta" (revenue) and 50 livres for exemption from the wearing of the badge. To the tyranny of the king were added the persecutions of the people. In 1290 a Jew of Paris, named Jonathas, was accused of having desecrated the host. He was burned at the stake, his house was razed, and a chapel built on its site which in 1685 bore this inscription: "Upon this spot the Jews defiled the Sacred Host." But notwithstanding their sufferings, the Jews still remained in Paris. At the close of the thirteenth century, they inhabited the Rue du Trave-Mourier (now the Rue de Moussy), the Rue Neuve, the Court Robert de Paris (now the Rue Renard St.-Merry), the Tacherie (now the Rue de la Tacherie), and the Petit-Pont. The Jews bore French surnames and first names, such as "Copin le Mire" (the physician), "Mosse le Mire," "Sarre le Mirgesse," etc. By the 13th century, the community had moved to the Marais (now the third and fourth arrondissements), where it remained until its expulsion from France in 1306. Hugues Aubriot, the provost of Paris, in spite of his disposition to protect the Jews, was unable to check the uprising of 1380; but he obtained from the king the restoration of children to their parents and the restitution of some of the plunder. This intervention in their favor drew down upon Aubriot the wrath of the Church. He was accused of being secretly a convert to Judaism; and all sorts of abominable crimes were imputed to him. He was compelled to do public penance and was then thrown into a dungeon. Shortly after the insurrection of the Maillotins (1381) broke out, the Jews again suffered severely. They were seized in broad daylight in the open streets, half-strangled, beaten, and stabbed. In 1394 a wealthy baptized Jew, Denis Machault, disappeared from Paris. Seven of the principal members of the Jewish community were at once arrested on the charge of having murdered him. They were at first condemned to be burned alive; but the Parliament of Paris modified this sentence by condemning them to remain in prison until Denis Machault had been returned. In the meantime, they were to be beaten "for three successive Saturdays in three different places"-in the market-place, in the Place de Grève, and in the Place Maubert. They were compelled also to pay a fine of 10,000 livres. At length Charles VI, wearied by the incessant clamor of their enemies, expelled the Jews from France in 1394. Escorted by the provost, they left Paris (Nov. 3), and what property they could not take with them was confiscated. While Paris has been a place of Jewish prosperity, scholarship, and greatness, it has also seen a lot of Jewish tears. For centuries the Jewish community lived win France only at the sufferance of the king; and expulsions were common. Nevertheless, during the periods between expulsions, the rabbis of Paris were renowned throughout the Jewish world. The city was home to a number of noted Jewish scholars. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Paris had no organized Jewish community. Only in the early 18th century did a few Jews petition for permission to conduct business in Paris. A handful of kosher inns opened at that time eventually leading to the dedication of the first official synagogue in 1788. At the beginning of the eighteenth century certain Jews were high in the favor of important personages of the court. Silva, the son of a Jewish physician of Bordeaux, was appointed consulting physician to the king in 1724; in 1738 he received a patent of nobility. Another physician, Fonseca, was on terms of intimacy with Voltaire, the Comtesse de Caylus, and other noted persons. Among the physicians of this time was also Azevedo, who lived in the Rue St.-Germaine l'Auxerrois. Little by little, the number of Jews in Paris increased; they came from Bordeaux, Avignon, Holland, Alsace, and Lorraine. Those from Bordeaux had on different occasions since the time of Henry II. secured letters patent authorizing them to reside in France; they were legally established in Paris in 1776 as a result of the efforts of Jacob Rodrigues Péreire. The last-named, celebrated as an instructor of the deaf and mute, had lived in Paris since 1747. He was acquainted with Necker, Buffon, Rousseau, La Condamine, D'Alembert, Diderot, and others, and was appointed interpreter to the king in 1765. In 1743 Astrue was made consulting physician to the king, a position that he occupied for over twenty years. Revel was made sheriff's appraiser in 1740; and Raynal became royal secretary in 1747. Isaac Pinto, author of an "Apologie pour la Nation Juive," written in reply to Voltaire, and of a pamphlet entitled "Le Luxe," occupied a high rank in the world of letters. Israel Bernard de Valabrègue, who was employed in the royal library and as interpreter to the king in 1754, gave the support of his influence to Moïse Perpignan, Salomon Petit, Israel Salom, and Abraham and Moïse Dalpuget. From 1767 to 1777 the Jewish merchants pressed their claims against the trade corporations that refused to admit them into their ranks. A letter of Valabrègue to the King on the subject turned the scale in favor of his coreligionists ("Lettre ou Réflexions d'un Milord à Son Correspondant à Paris au Sujet de la Requête des Marchands des Six Corps Contre l'Admission des Juifs aux Brevets," London, 1767). In 1767 Salomon Perpignan founded the Royal Free School to further the arts at Paris; he was granted papers of naturalization. At this period German, Avignonese, and Polish Jews began to settle in Paris with indications of their presence in the first half of the eighteenth century. They soon numbered more than the small Portuguese community established at Paris in 1750. They entered all branches of trade; among them were bankers, merchants, innkeepers, porters, cabinet-makers, and music-teachers. Some had commercial dealings with the court such as the jeweler Michel Oulif. The most singular instance was that of Liefmann Calmer, who came to Paris in 1769 and became Baron of Perpignan and Vidame of Amiens in 1774 after he had purchased the estates of the Duc de Chaulnes in the Somme; he received naturalization papers in 1769. He exerted considerable influence in public affairs and became the head of the German portion of the community. At the close of the Revolution, about 3,000 Jews lived in Paris, among them being many men of prominence, such as Furtado, who was nominated for the Corps Législatif; Worms de Romilly, deputy mayor of the third arrondissement of Paris; Terquem, the mathematician; Michel Berr, barrister, and a member of the learned societies; Venture, a professor in the school of modern Oriental languages and the secretary and interpreter of Bonaparte; Vivant Denon, designer and etcher; Henry Simon, engraver on precious stones; Enisheim, the mathematician; and Elie Halévy, the poet. Napoleon decided to summon a "general assembly of the Jews," that convened at the Hôtel de Ville on July 26, 1806. When its task was finished, the emperor convoked a new assembly, the Grand Sanhedrin, Aug. 12, 1806, to convert the resolutions of the former convention into rules that would be regarded as legal by every Jewish conscience. Ten "deputies of the Jewish nation of the Seine" took part in the deliberations, and on the completion of their labors, requested an audience with the emperor; but he refused to receive them. Shortly after, he promulgated a series of decrees that left no room for doubt as to his sentiments. The harshest of these decrees was that of March 12, 1808 that for more than ten years imposed the utmost restraint on the commercial liberty of the Jews. Those of the Landes and the Gironde alone were exempted from these measures. Emboldened by these exceptions, Cretet, minister of the interior, wrote to the emperor to request that the Jews of Paris might be included, stating that "of the 2,543 Jews living in the capital, there are not four who are known to be addicted to usury," and that "more than 150 Jews of Paris are at this moment serving in the army." In deference to this request of the minister of the interior, the Jews of Paris were exempted from the provisions of the decrees of March 12 and April 26, 1808. On Dec. 11, 1808, a decree was passed regulating the organization of consistorial synagogues; thirteen were established throughout the empire. That of the Seine contained 2,733 members; the Consistory of Paris was appointed on April 13, 1809 and was installed on May 2, following. The "circumscription" comprised thirty-three départements. The Consistory of Paris, composed of M. de Oliveira, B. Rodrigues, and Worms de Romilly, and presided over by the chief rabbi Seligman Michel, at once set about organizing the community. Of the 2,733 Jews composing it, 1,324 were natives of Paris; the remainder was from Alsace, Lorraine, Germany, Austria, and Holland. Nearly all of these lived in the third and fourth arrondissements, where were situated the three Jewish markets (slaughter-houses), the temples, the societies (ḥebrot), the Central Consistory, and the Consistory of Paris. Construction of the first Great Synagogue was begun in 1819, a building replaced in 1874 by the new (and present) Great Synagogue on Rue de la Victoire. France was the first European country to grant civil rights to Jews around the time of the French Revolution. When Jews began to return to Paris following emancipation in the early 19th century, they settled again in the Marais. In 1904, Jews numbered about 375,000, or 8 percent of the total Paris population-gathered in communities throughout Paris and its environs with the largest Jewish neighborhoods in the 4th, 9th, 11th, 13th, 19th, and 20th arrondissements. Source: Official Website of the French Government Tourist Office. Source: Jewish Encyclopedia. [January 2008]

UPDATE: Gilles Plaut has booklets for sale about Parisian cemeteries, only some of which have Jewish interest. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [January 2008]

4TH ARRONDISSEMENT: Paris' most famous Jewish neighborhood is in the Marais and is known as the Pletzl-Yiddish for little place. This area (Métro: St-Paul) has been home to Jews since the 13th century. Today, although gentrification has made the Marais one of the city's most fashionable quarters, it is still heavily Jewish. Up and down Rue des Rosiers between Rue Malher and Rue des Hospitalières-St-Gervais, as well as on the neighboring streets, visitors will find Jewish restaurants, bookshops, boulangeries and charcuteries, along with synagogues and shtiebels (small prayer rooms-oratoires in French). The arrondissement contains Mémorial de la déportation (Deportation Memorial), Mémorial de la Shoah, and The Pletzl: Jews have lived here since the early 20th century, but this was a Jewish neighborhood in the Middle Ages also know as La Juiverie (the Jewry) in the 13th century, it was a thriving community, complete with synagogues, cemeteries, and food manufacturers. Some of the street names from that early period survive. Until the late 17th century, this district was full of grand mansions and beautiful vistas. However, in the 1680s, the French court moved from the Louvre (then a royal palace) to Versailles, and the rich and powerful, following suit, left the Marais. The exodus of the moneyed classes signaled the decline of the neighborhood. When the 19th century brought industrialization to Western European cities, the mansions of the Marais were converted into small apartments and workshops. Conditions deteriorated as hovels cropped up in courtyards, in front of houses, and even on rooftops. The once-glitzy Marais had become a fetid slum. Many of the residents were Jews, the descendents of those who had been expelled from France in the 12th century by King Phillipe-Auguste. But urban history has interesting twists and turns. The Marais is now one of Paris' trendiest quarters, populated by successful artists, media types, and celebrities. Still, commemorative plaques on buildings serve as reminders of darker times, particularly those of World War II, when individuals and families were deported and never returned. Also in the 4^th Arrondissement are Agudath Ha Kehilot, an orthodox synagogue opened in 1914, is the largest in the Pletzel. It was designed by Hector Guimard, the Art Nouveau architect famous for the green archways of the Paris Métro. Guimard's American wife was Jewish, so with the rise of Nazism they left France for the United States. On Yom Kippur 1940, the Germans dynamited the synagogue. It has since been restored and is now a national monument. Services are held daily and on all Jewish holidays. 10, rue Pavée, tel. 01.48.87.21.54 Hôtel des Juifs: The rear of the courtyard of number 20, rue Ferdinand Duval (the door may be locked) is a 16th-century private house known as the Hôtel des Juifs. Now owned by an artist, it is a remnant of the 18th-century Jewish community composed of Jews from eastern France and Germany. Musée d'art et d'histoire du judaïsme (Museum of Jewish Art and History): Located in the magnificent 17th-century Hôtel de St-Aignan, this museum is dedicated to the celebration of Jewish life through its collections, exhibits, resource library, and workshops. Open Monday-Friday 11 A.M.-6 P.M, Sunday 10 A.M.-6 P.M. 71, rue du Temple (Métro: Rambuteau), tel. 01.53.01.86.60, www.mahj.org [January 2008]

9^th ARRONDISSEMENT: Just off the Grands Boulevards, around the intersection of Rue du Faubourg-Montmartre, Rue Cadet, and Rue Richer (Métro: Cadet) is another Jewish neighborhood. Although this neighborhood does not possess the history of the Marais, it is no less Jewish. Visitors should not be put off by what seem like shabby building façades. Behind the heavy outer doors are quaint courtyards leading to lovely apartments, particularly on the side streets. This area developed as a Jewish neighborhood in the middle of the 19th century when Jews from Eastern Europe began to arrive. Today these streets are lined with Jewish shops and restaurants and a dozen synagogues. Nearby are a number of notable synagogues and the offices of the Association Consistoriale Israélite de Paris 17 and 19, rue St-Georges, tel. 01.40.82.26.26, www.consistoire.org. Built in 1877, Synagogue Buffault is typical of synagogues built throughout France at the time: arched doorways crowned by a rose window; and inside, a Bimah (raised area from which services are conducted), rather than at the front. Wooden pews and chandeliers also distinguish the interior. Services are held daily and on all Jewish holidays. 28, rue Buffault, tel. 01.45.26.80.87. Synagogue de la Victoire is also known as the Great Synagogue or the Rothschild Synagogue. Around the corner from the offices of the Consistoire, the neo-Romanesque building was dedicated in 1874. Its interior is impressive with yellow, blue, and red circular stained glass windows and a grand sanctuary with 87-foot ceilings. The Bimah is flanked by seating reserved for the chief rabbis of Paris and France. Daily services, as well as on Jewish holidays. 44, rue de la Victoire, tel. 01.40.82.26.26, www.lavictoire.org. [January 2008]

15^th ARRONDISSEMENT: Place des Martyrs Juifs du Vélodrome d'Hiver: In the 15th arrondissement, not far from the Bir-Hakeim Bridge, between Quai Branly and Quai de Grenelle (Métro: Bir-Hakeim) is the Place des Martyrs Juifs du Vélodrome d'Hiver, dedicated in 1994. The huge Vél d'Hiv was an indoor cycling stadium, and from 1942 until its demolition in 1958, one of the most infamous places in Paris. Early in the morning of July 16, 1942, the French police, acting under orders from the German Gestapo removed over 13,000 Jews to the Vélodrome. Kept under horrendous conditions for days, they were then shipped to the transit camp at Drancy and onward to Auschwitz. [January 2008]

Cemetery notes: 10^th century: The community owned two cemeteries, one in the Rue de la Galande and the other toward the end of the Rue de la Harpe. 12^th Century: There was a Jewish cemetery at the corner of Blvd. St-Michel and Rue Monsieur-le-Prince. Another Jewish cemetery was located on the tiny Rue Pierre-Sarazin just off Blvd. In 1271, Philip allowed the Jews of Paris to open a new cemetery in a garden bought from a certain canon named Maître Gilbert. [January 2008]

International Jewish Cemetery Project - France N-Z Source for Paris cemeteries, unless otherwise indicated is Michelene Guttman: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Auteil : 57 rue Claude Lorrain - 75016 PARIS; founded 1800; Source: ?
Bagneux : 43 Ave Marx Dormoy - 92200 BAGNEUX: founded 15 November 1886
Bagnolles : 8 rue saint-Just - 75017 PARIS; found 22 about 1833
Belleville : 40 rue du Lelegraphe - 75020 PARIS; founded 1808
Bercy : 329 rue de Charenton - 75012 PARIS; founded 1816
Calvaire : rue du Mont-Cenis - 75018 PARIS; founded Anterieurement 1791
Charonne : 118 rue de Bagnolet (P1 St-Blaise) - 75020 PARIS; founded Anterieurement 1791
Est (Pere Lachaise) : See Pere Lachaise below
Flandres : 75019. Indexed; about 50 graves. Rue de Flandre: {10865}. Source: Michelene Guttman
Grenelle : 174 rue Saint-Char, 44 route de Choisy 94200 IVRY; founded 1 January 1, 1874
La Chapelle : les - 75015 Paris; founded l1835
Ivry : 38 Avenue du Pt Wilson.- 93210 La Plaine St-Denis; founded 12 June 1850
La Villette : 46 rue d'Autpou1 - 75019 Paris; founded 1828
Montmartre : 75018
Nord (Montmartre) : Ave Rachel (Bd de Clichy) - 75018 Paris; founded January 1825; Montmartre cemetery contains the tombs of Emile Zola, Jacques Offenbach, and Heinrich Heine.
Montparnasse : 75014. (a.k.a. Cimitiere de la Sud) The name means "Cemetery of the South" but called Montparnasse. [About 5% of names are repeats from some of the names indexed in the {} that follow: {10230}. About 7,000 names (section 24): {10841} Names sent by someone from Brazil- {10347}. [Mr. Plaut, 47, rue de Tamaris, 77700 Coupvray, France, phone: 01 60 04 45 64 has books on Division 5 (120FF) and Division 24 (100FF). 3 Bd Edgar Quinet - 75014 Paris; founded 25 July 1824. Run by the City of Paris, the site is one-third the size of Pere Lachaise. Col. Alfred Dreyfus is buried here.
Pere Lachaise: 75020 (a.k.a.Cimitiere de l'Ouest) "Cemetery of the East" is called Pere Lachaise. In fact, everyone calls it Pere Lachaise. Still in use. [{10231} has less than 20% of names] Located at the corner of Avenue Menilmontant and rue de la Roquette, Paris 20e at Bd de Menilmontant, 16 rue du Repos - 75020 Paris, the site covers at least a square kilometer [125 acres] and is run by the City of Paris. Founded 21 May 1804; Source: Michelene Guttman: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . A corner of La Pere Lachaise cemetery is Jewish. Obtain permission from the Paris Consistoire at 17 rue St. Georges to enter. Most of the graves are not maintained, as many French Jewish families were completely exterminated in the War or became unreturned refuges. (20th arr., Paris, France. Metro: Gambetta, Pere-Lachaise) 125 acres. Contains graves of many famous persons. Available for purchase from a florist shop across Blvd. de Ménilmontant from Avenue Principale entrance to the lower levels is a guide map (in French) containing the names of 200 notable persons buried in the cemetery. To the right of Avenue Principale, follow Avenue du Puits past the Conservation Building to the "Anciénne Séparation du Cimitiére Israélite." No apparent damage or vandalism visible in this section from the WW II Nazi occupation of Paris. Headstones are usually in French and Hebrew. Among the more notable persons buried are David Singer, Mlle. Rachel, Baron James de Rothschild, Michel Drach, Oscar Wilde, Sarah Bernhard, Andrew Citroen, and Camille Pissaro. The cemetery is built on levels. Many graves on the top level have tombstones in the row below. Entry at Pl. Gambetta to the Porte de la Dhuys, the highest point, is highly recommended. Total number of Jews buried is unknown. Also unknown is whether is a separate listing of the Jews interred here exists. See for more details: The Hachette Guide to Paris, Pantheon Books, NY, 1988, Hachette - Guides Bleus and Random House, Inc., p. 48. Plan Illustr‚ du Pere Lachaise, Editions Vermet Paris.
Pantin : 164 Ave Jean-Jaures and Route des Petits-Ponts, 93500 PANTIN; founded 1 January 1825. Accessible by metro or bus. From: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . In July 1995, we went to the cemetery office to ask about locate the graves of my in-laws. There is no head stone where they directed us; the headstone read: "Les Amis de St Denis", a Jewish organization from St Denis for mutual aid. In 1960, we had seen the headstone with about twenty names and pictures. In 1995, it completely disappeared. The office swears that is the place they are buried there. We inquired about the officials who took care of the Amis de St Denis plot. We were given a name and address in the Parisian Jewish section nicknamed "the pletzel." We went there but the address was an empty storefront. A Hasidic Jew, the owner, standing in the doorway of a cafe invited us in. He looked up name given to us in the telephone directory but found no such name. [end]
Passy : 2 rue du Cdt Schloesing - 75016 PARIS; founded 20 September 1820
Saint-Ouen : 2 Ave Michelet - 93400 SAINT-OUEN; founded 1 September 1872;
Saint-Vincent : 6 rue Lucien Gaulard - 75018 PARIS; founded 5 January 1831
Sud (Montparnasse) : see Montparnasse above
Thiais : Route de Fontainebleau - 94300 THIAIS; founded 1 October 1929
Vaugirard : 320 rue Lecourbe - 75020 PARIS; founded 1878