The beginnings of the history of the Jews in Besançon go back to the Middle Ages, a period during which the Jews settled in the city attracted by its activity as a commercial place. The community was founded at the end of the 14th century and, due to its status as a free imperial city, Besançon remained one of the only territories in present-day France to tolerate Jews after their expulsion from the kingdom of France in 1394. The community was nevertheless expelled in turn from Besançon in the middle of the 15th century. The Jews made a tentative return to the city in the 18th century, but it was only after the French Revolution, which emancipated them, that their situation in the Franche-Comté capital stabilized. Although the Jewish community never exceeded 2,000 people except on the eve of the Second World War, it experienced great economic success during the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 19th century, when the Lipmann family founded LIP, a brand of watchmaking which then became one of the economic engines of the region and remained associated with the name of the city.
The importance of the community was recognized in 1881 by the signing of a decree authorizing the creation of a consistory based in Besançon. During the Second World War, the Besançon community, like the rest of the Jews of France, was hit hard by the Nazi anti-Semitic policies. From the 1950s, the arrival of Jews from North Africa brought vitality to the community and gave it a new face. The synagogue of Besançon, the Jewish cemetery and the Castle of the Jewess are all testimonies to the contribution of this community to the history of Besançon.
History
Middle Ages Before the Middle Ages, there is no evidence of a Jewish presence in the region, although it cannot be ruled out: at the height of the Roman Empire, 10% of the general population was Jewish and, in Gaul, the presence of Jews is attested particularly in the Rhone Valley from the third century.La vie religieuse à Besançon, du siècle IIe à 2010, pages 98 to 102. Thus it is possible that there were Roman Jews in Besançon (then known as Vesuntio in Latin) although nothing formally proves it.
It is therefore in the 13th and 14th centuries that the history of the Jewish population in Besançon can be traced with certainty.History of the Jews in Besançon on Judaicultures.info (retrieved March 11, 2010) In the 13th century, many Jewish traders regularly passed through Besançon, being a privileged commercial place due to its proximity to Germany and Italy. A letter from Pope Innocent IV sent in 1245 to the Archbishop of Besançon asking him to enforce the wearing of the rota by the Jews confirms their presence in the region from that time.
In the 14th century, the municipal government of Besançon decided to grant Jewish residence permits on its territory, subject to a right of entrage (entry fee) as well as an annual tax known as a cens. In 1393, documents attest that twelve Jewish families had settled in the city, and that they "supported Joseph de Trèves as master of their school." The following year, a Besançon citizen was sentenced to a fine of 60 sous for having beaten one of the Jews, who were "in the guard of the city".Magazine , no. 91, page 22. It seems that some Jews in France took refuge in Besançon in the mid-14th century to escape the fine ordered against the Jews for participation in the 1321 lepers' plot, a Jewish conspiracy theory that they had allied with the lepers and the Muslim Kingdom of Granada to poison the wells. In 1394, King Charles VI of France expelled the Jews from his states, and Duke Philippe the Bold did the same in the Duchy of Burgundy.
However, the city of Besançon, as a free imperial city, was not affected by these restrictive measures. It thus became a refuge for Jews expelled from neighboring states, which fueled the demographic growth of the Besançon community. The Jews of the city became butchers, bankers, and goldsmiths, and occupied an increasingly important place within the city. Little by little, they became the richest category of inhabitants of the region, so much so that some of them repeatedly advanced money to the city. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish population settled mainly in the neighborhoods located outside La Boucle, in the current district of Battant.L'histoire des Juifs de Besançon sur Migrations-Besançon.fr (page 1) (retrieved March 19, 2010) Documents also attest to the presence of a synagogue in Battant, on Grand Charmont Street. The city's first Jewish cemetery, named Calmoutier Cemetery, was established north of the city, in the current Montrapon-Fontaine-Écu district.
In the late Middle Ages (14th and 15th centuries), the status of the Jews deteriorated and, beyond doctrinal controversies, they were blamed for the main troubles and calamities ravaging the country, in particular the Black Death, and were then expelled.L'histoire des Juifs de Besançon sur Migrations-Besançon.fr (page 1). Retrieved . The sale of the Jewish cemetery by the Besançon municipality in 1465 marks the end of the community for more than three centuries.
Modern history
Besançon became part of France, like the rest of Franche-Comté, with the Treaty of Nijmegen of 1678. The registers of municipal deliberations indicate in 1693 that it was forbidden for Jewish merchants to frequent the city without having declared themselves beforehand.Archives municipales de Besançon, edition of Robert Genevoy, according to the great census of the Jews of the city in 1809, 1985. They could not then stay for more than three consecutive days and were prohibited from doing business without the assistance of one of the municipal leaders. However, this restriction had some exceptions, notably in May 1736, when two Jews from Metz were allowed to trade for eight days a year.Sous la direction de , Histoire des Juifs en France, page 113, Édouard Privat éditeur, Toulouse, 1972. In 1754, a tolerance of a few months' stay was granted to Jews of the Vidal family, who were important silk merchants, or again in 1768, when the Jew Salomon Sax was authorized to practice gemstone engraving in Besançon, but on condition of not trading in his work.
At the start of the French Revolution, Jews were still prohibited from staying more than three consecutive days in Besançon, and they also had to confine themselves to certain trades. This is how in December 1790, Antoine Melchior Nodier (father of Charles Nodier), then mayor of Besançon, had the Jews Wolf and Caïn expelled by bailiffs with the approval of the municipality, for having traded longer than the law allowed them to.
On September 27, 1791, French citizenship was granted to Jews, subject to taking the civic oath. Pogroms broke out following the recognition of the French citizenship of the Jews in Alsace and more particularly in Sundgau, and some Alsatian Jews were hanged on the fangs of the butcher shops. The survivors fled to the south of France and some families settled in Besançon. In 1792, the community petitioned the municipality to obtain a synagogue, and shortly afterward, they obtained authorization to meet in the former convent of the Cordeliers (now the building of the ). These new families quickly came under attack from the Jacobin newspaper La Vedette. This newspaper criticized the Jews for their loyalty to Judaism and their rest on Shabbat. In 1793, they were forced to close their place of prayer, just like the Catholics. This situation gradually subsided in the following years, after the end of the Reign of Terror. In 1796, the Jews (about 86 people in 1808) of the city acquired a new cemetery on the current Anne Frank Street, still existing today. It was enlarged in 1839 and today includes about a thousand tombs.L'histoire des Juifs de Besançon sur Migrations-Besançon.fr (page 2) (retrieved March 10, 2010).
19th Century
The 19th century was one of growth for the Besançon Jewish community. Indeed, twice, Alsatian Jews came to settle in Besançon: the first time after the anti-Jewish riots in Alsace; the second after the annexation of that province by Germany in 1871. The embryonic community institutions at the beginning of the century developed considerably, and the members of the community distinguished themselves in the economy and local politics, despite certain anti-Jewish feelings which occasionally resurfaced within the population.
Demography On March 29, 1808, Bigot de Préameneu, then Minister of Religious Affairs, asked the prefect of the Doubs department Jean Antoine Debry to take a census of the Jews in his area. The mayor of Besançon, Baron Antoine Louis Daclin, therefore drew up a list of all the Jews in the city. The result, completed in 1809, concluded that the city had 28 heads of Jewish families for a total of 155 people. The survey also indicated that a large part of the Jews of the city were from Haute-Alsace, and that the oldest of them had been settled in Besançon since 1787.R. Genevoy, De Besançon à Paris avec les familles Allegri et Lippman in the journal "Archives juives", 1983, nos. 3 and 4.
The Jewish population continued to increase in the 1830s, and there were then 120 families in the city, or 650 people.Centenaire du Consistoire Israélite de Besançon, published May 9, 1982, by J.Berda (heading "Population Juive de Besançon, recensement de 1809").
In the 1850s and 1860s, the strong community then of about 560 members occupied new urban spaces. Two poles seem to emerge: first, the popular and frequented district of Battant, and second, La Boucle, the historic center of Besançon, in particular in the and Granges Street.
At the end of the 19th century, after the occupation of Alsace by the Germans and the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, new Jews settled in the so-called Arènes district, a sector at the time bringing together a large number of merchants and street vendors. The life of the community was refocused around the synagogue, in the district of Battant.L'histoire des Juifs de Besançon sur Migrations-Besançon.fr (page 1) (retrieved March 19, 2010). In 1872, an independent consistory was created in Besançon. By the end of the century, several Besançon Jews had achieved great social and economic success and were present in, for example, the industrial sector (60% of the watch industry belonged to LIP) and the banking sector (the Veil-Picard family). In 1897, the Central Consistory counted 763 Jews in Besançon, which is probably underestimated, since, of course, some Jewish families did not join that organization.Blumenkranz, page 348.
Community organization
The Besançon community sent a delegate to the Assembly of Jewish notables and to the Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon. In 1804, after the troubled period of the Revolution, a report to the prefect of Doubs mentions the presence of Jews residing in the city: "Their synagogue is not organized in Besançon. They do assemble, however, but without a permanent leader as such. A rabbi from Dijon comes twice a year to preside over their ceremonies." The only Jewish place of worship in Besançon in the 1830s was a small synagogue that a hundred of the wealthiest Jews had had developed by the municipal architect Pierre Marnotte. The building is located at number 19 Madeleine Street and is recognizable by its facade pierced with ogival windows, but the building was too dilapidated to continue to serve as a place of prayer for the growing community. The city's current synagogue was built in 1869 on the Quai Napoléon.