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Many people focus on France's notorious anti-Semitism, forgetting that this was the first country to grant Jews full citizenship (around 1800). The resulting integration led them to play an important role in the economy, political life and the arts.
- The venerable Jewish quarter is a place to begin
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As well, anti-Semites' defeat in the Dreyfus Case stimulated respect for France's applying the Rights of Man. It encouraged Jewish intellectuals and artists to settle in Paris.
These suggestions explore some of the contributions of people who in the West have always remained distinct.
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- Vitality and architecture
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 - Pastry shop on a rainy Sunday
Before the Holocaust, the historic Marais district was mainly occupied by Jews recently arrived from Central Europe. Today one comes for the bookstores, groceries, restaurants and three synogogues, which we visit.
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 - Art Nouveau masterpiece
Guimard's wife, a Guggenheim, inspired his plans for this synagogue. 0ther Jews whose philanthropy contributed to French culture, such as the Albert Kahn Foundation and the financier who restored Renaissance water gardens.
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- Jewish origin, Paris art - "The School of Paris" (talk or walk in Montparnasse)
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 - Chagall, self-portrait with Eiffel Tower
Foreign artists have greatly contributed to Paris's fame. Among the most important were Jews from Central Europe, to whom Paris offered inspiration, fellowship and refuge. They are at the core of the "School of Paris".
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 - Kisling, "Kiki de Montparnasse"
We show the neighborhood and evoke the lives of young artists who made their way across Europe to Paris's Eastern Station, knowing perhaps only one word of French: the name for freedom and bohemia, Montparnasse.
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- Today's artists can be included in a wider program
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This major painter expresses a vision of life, time and death by using calligraphy on documents that date back several centuries. Jewish respect for writing is at the heart of that approach.
We can exceptionally open his studio to amateurs of contemporary art.
NB: His family lived in working-class suburb during the war. "How did you survive?" "Neighbors knew we were Jewish but we weren't bothered."
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The concert "From Russia to the Gare de l'Est" (the railroad station whose tracks run east, via which these artists arrived in Paris) derives from the violinist's Rumanian-Jewish roots. It can follow our introduction to the School of Paris. For groups
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- French anti-Semitism - a topic that cannot be ignored
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 - Christian figure
Notre-Dame's façade provides an introduction to the way in which Jews were originally viewed. The Jewish figure has downcast eyes, as on a church one would expect. Yet her size is as great as the Christian one, a sign of respect. Troyes' fame in the same period (12th-13th centuries) for Talmudic studies suggests flourishing culture.
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 - Jewish figure
We explain the secular reasons for growing anti-semitism, which culminated in Jews being expelle from the kingdom of France (in 1384). Since they were absent until about 1800, we skip four centuries.
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- A changed vision - informal comments
Captain Dreyfus - condemnation and rehabilitation, records from 1906 and 2006
- "Privileged entries" are part of this tour
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 - Family-run kosher butcher-shop in the Marais
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The rabbi of a small synagogue shows us that site. Through him, we see that Jewish life goes on in a natural way.
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As for this butcher-shop, its patriarch was saved by Protestants during World War 2. He tells his story, introducing Europe's sole massive and collective rescue of Jews, which took place in France. Please CLICK.
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Museum of Jewish Art and History, Nissim de Camondo Museum, Memorial of the Shoah
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