THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Pletzel - Historic Jewish District
By EDWIN EYTAN
(Copyright 1982, JTA, Inc.)
PARIS — The "Pletzel,"
the Paris Jewish quarter, is
a maze of narrow alleys and
winding streets, far from
the glitter of the Champs
Elysees or the skyscrapers
which line the banks of the
River Seine. It is filled with
dark courtyards, where the
sun rarely shines, and
small, modest shops.
In its center, La rue des
Rosiers, where terrorists
struck two weeks ago kil-
ling six people and wound-
ing 22, there still are half a
/'dozen kosher butchers, a
Hebrew bookshop, two or
three Jewish restaurants
and an old woman who sells
on Fridays the traditional
"hallot." -
In between the remaining
Jews, live and work Paris'
new poor: immigrants from
North Africa and Spain.
The Pletzel is filled
with past history. Jews
first starded settling in
what was then a suburb
of medieval Paris back in
the 11th Century, and
after Philip Augustus ex-
pelled the Jews from
France they returned to
the area in 1198.
The Rue des Rosiers was
named at the time "La rue
des Juifs," the street of the
Jews, and on the site of the
synagogue, where
President Francois Mitter-
rand came to attend serv-
ices for the victims two
weeks ago, stood a famous
yeshiva where in the early
days of the 13th Century,
Yudah Ben Isaac, known as
Sir Leon of Paris, used to
teach.
The Pletzel is Jewish
history. Every street, every
corner, is somehow linked
with the past. After the
Jews were definitely expel-
led from France in 1394, the
Pletzel emptied itself as if
leprosy had struck. The
streets were barely inha-
bited till the early part of
the 18th Century when the
rich Jewish businessmen
from Metz and Alsace
started returning.
By royal permission, they
could at first just spend the
night in the capital "if
necessary," and the first
Jewish inns opened. The
first Paris inn serving
kosher food officially
opened in 1721 not far from
where Jo Goldenberg's eat-
ery now stands. The first
synagogue, officially recog-
nized as such, opened in
1788 as the French Revolu-
tion was already brewing.
The following year,
after the fall of the Bas-
tille, Paris' Jews, not
more than 500 souls at the
me, appealed to the
/evolutionary parlia-
ment, the Constituent As-
sembly, to be recognized
as full French citizens
and inhabitants of Paris.
On Jan. 28, 1790 their
petition was granted and
not far from the Rue des
Rosiers, on the Rue de Roi
de Sicile, where Meir's Inn
stood at the time, the Jews
gathered to drink "l'Chaim"
and to sing "La Marseil-
laise."
It was from the start of
the 19th Century that the
Pletzel started to grow as
more and more Jewish emi-
grants arrived. Every morn-
ing, the night trains from
Eastern Europe, Russia,
Romania, and the Slav
Provinces of Austria, used
to stop at the "Gare de 1'Est"
and a human mass of poor,
unshaven and unwashed
Jews would disembark. -
The Pletzel was only a
short walk from the station.
Many of them settled near
the Place de la Republique
which in popular speech be-
came "The" Pletzel, the
place where the rich Jews,
or those on their way up —
the doctors, the lawyers, the
prosperous shopkeepers —
lived.
It was in the 1930s, de-
spite the threat rising in
Nazi Germany, that the
Pletzel Jew felt at his
best. France was pros-
perous and the Jewish
community's standard of
living improved fast,
even faster than that of
the majority of France's
inhabitants. They also
could fully live and ex-
press their Jewishness.
In the Pletzel kiosks, half
a dozen Yiddish dailies were
on sale, Jewish pastry shops
lined the area's chic avenue,
Boulevard de la Repub-
lique, and two Jewish
theaters played for full
houses. The elegant and the
rich used to meet for tea at
the Hotel Modern, where
political meetings were also
held.
The dream was shattered
with the outbreak of the war
— it turned into a night-
mare on July 16, 1942 when
the French police, acting on
the Nazi's orders, started
their big roundup. Some
12,384 people, including
some 4,000 children, were
arrested and deported to
Maidanek. Most of the ar-
rests were carried out in the
Jewish Pletzel where the
poor and middle class still
lived. By the end of the war,
only a few thousand Jewish
families remained, many in
hiding.
The survivors came back.
Many returned to their
former homes, tried to find
their former businesses, to
renew their lives.
In the early 1950s and
1960s North African Jews
Change of Heart
for Asaf Dayan
After War Duty
TEL AVIV — The late
Moshe Dayan's youngest
son, Asaf, has had a political
change of heart following a
tour of duty in Lebanon.
Dayan has decided to quit
the left-wing Sheli party be-
cause it is "a party which
seeks the Palestinian jus-
tice."
"After going through Si-
don, Damur and Beirut,
Dayan said, "survival in-
stinct took over." "This may
be an instinct devoid of
humanitarianism and no
less blind than justice, but it
determines simply . . . that
in the end, power counts."
started arriving, but
again they opted for
other areas where their
families already lived:
Belleville, in the north of
Paris; the Rue de
Faubourg Montmartre,
where many Israeli yor-
dim also settled; or the
outlying suburbs where
modern, state-subsidized
housing was available,
with modern bathrooms
and central heating.
It is only near the Place de
la Republique that many
Jews still live, but here, too,
life has changed. The old
kiosks with the Yiddish
papers have disappeared.
The Jewish theaters have
closed down, and even the
Hotel Modern has this year
been converted into Paris'
new Holiday Inn with air-
conditioned rooms and a
hamburger cafeteria.
To the south of the for-
merly Jewish area remains
a typically Jewish business
district: La Rue du Sentier,
the heart of the garment
district. Thousands of
Jewish-owned shops and
small factories, where the
clothes which have made
Paris fashion famous all
over the world are designed
and sewn, are located here.
Israel Museum
Exhibit Opens
Friday, August 27, 1982 13
'9o-z 6 :16od
—
JERUSALEM
"Touch," a new exhibition
designed for children, has
made its debut in the Youth
Wing at the Israel Museum.
The exhibition is com-
posed mainly of objects
where the primary object is
to experience them by the
sense of touch. A section of
the exhibition is devoted to
the blind.
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