Introduction

The edict of expulsion of the Jews proclaimed in 1394 by King Charles VI, forbade the settlement of Jews in France. The edict remained officially in force until the French Revolution (1789). Nevertheless, as early as the 16th century, Judaism was being practiced within the territory that makes up modern France by three distinct cultural entities (Blumenkranz 1972):

1

The Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Gascony, descendants of former “New Christians”…