France is located in Western Europe bordered by Belgium and Luxembourg to the north; Germany, Switzerland, and Italy to the east; the Mediterranean Sea and Spain to the south; and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Today more than half of French Jews live in and around Paris, but There are also large Jewish communities today in Marseille (the second largest Jewish community), Montpellier, Aix-en- Provence, Toulouse, Nice, Lyon, Grenoble, and Strasbourg

The history of the Jews of France dates back over 2,000 years. In the early Middle Ages, France was a center of Jewish learning, but the killing of the jews increased as the Middle Ages wore on. France was the first country in Europe to free its Jewish population during the French Revolution, but, despite legal equality anti-Semitism remained an issue, France currently has the largest Jewish population in Europe and the third largest Jewish population in the world, after Israel and the United States.JewsFrance early Middle Agesits Jewish French Revolutionanti-SemitismJewish populationIsraelUnited States World War II brought devastation to France's Jewish community as it did to France as a whole. Out of a pre-war Jewish population of 300,000, a little over half survived the German occupation and the holocaust. Since the Second World War, Jewish communities in many cities and towns have been reborn, synagogues and institutions have developed, and the population has grown significantly. Today it is the third largest Jewish community in the world. During the years following the war, France’s Jewish population changed. Shortly after the war it was a mixture of older, established French Jewish families along with immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe. The migration of North African Jews from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria between 1954 and 1963 and later in the 1960s not only boosted the population, but changed some of the cultural characteristics of France’s Jews. By 1970, the Jewish community of France had changed from mainly Ashkenazi (Jews from France as well as Central and Eastern Europe) to Sephardic (Jews from North Africa and the Arab countries). It remains so today.

Rue De Gustave Deloye, Nice Besancon synagogue Synagogue in Avignon Synagogue in Forbach Synagogue in Obernai Synagogue in Saint Avold. Synagogue in Lyon

. The number of Jews in France is close to half a million (488,000). About 60 percent live in the Paris region, mainly in suburban areas. In Paris itself the number of Jews is shrinking with the exception of the capital's west.

Over the last several years, anti-Jewish violence, property destruction, and racist language has been increasing. France is home to Western Europe's largest population of Muslims (about 4 million), and the continent's largest community of Jews, about 600,000. Jewish leaders believe that there is an increase in anti-Semitism in France, mainly among Muslims of Arab or African heritage, but also growing among Caribbean islanders from former colonies.anti-JewishracistMuslimsArabAfrican Caribbean Ilan HalimiIlan Halimi ( February 2006) was a young French Jew (of Moroccan parentage[21][22]) kidnapped on 21 January 2006 by a gang called the "Barbarians" and was then tortured to death over a period of three weeks. The murder caused a public outcry in a France already marked by intense public controversy about the role of children of immigrants in its society.FrenchMoroccan[21][22]Barbarians With the start of the Second Intifada, antisemitic incidents increased in France. In 2002, the Human Rights Commission reported six times more antisemitic incidents than in 2001 (193 incidents in 2002). The commission's statistics showed that antisemitic acts constituted 62% of all racist acts in the country.Second Intifada