The Union Libérale Israélite de France (ULIF), commonly referred to as the rue Copernic synagogue, is a
LiberalJewish synagogue, located in
Paris, France. Inaugurated on the first of December 1907, it is the oldest Reform synagogue in France.
History
The synagogue was damaged in a fascist riot in 1941, but was repaired after the war.[1]
On October 3, 1980, on the eve of
Simchat Torah, a bombing was directed against the synagogue of the ULIF. A bomb hidden in a motorcycle went off outside the synagogue, killing four pedestrians.[2]
The bombing was the start of a string of other attacks by terrorists against Jews in Europe. In August 1981, a synagogue in
Vienna, Austria, was attacked by
Palestinian gunmen, killing two people, and in October 1981, three people were killed when
a bomb went off in the center of
Antwerp, Belgium.[3]
Leadership
Rabbi
Louis Germain Levy (1870-1946) trained at the Seminaire Israelite de France served as its first rabbi.[4]
Rabbi Levy was succeeded by Rabbi Andre Chalom Zaoui (1916-2009) in 1946.[5]
In 1970, Rabbi
Daniel Farhi (1941-2021) was appointed the new senior rabbi and left ULIF in 1977 to create the second Reform synagogue of Paris, Mouvement Juif Liberal de France.[6] Rabbi Michael Williams assumed the spiritual leadership of the community in 1977.[7]
Since 2014, Philippe Haddad (ordained by the Seminaire Israelite de France)[8] and Jonas Jacquelin (ordained by Abraham Geiger Kolleg) are its new rabbinic leaders.[9]
^Synagogues of Europe: Architecture, History, Meaning, Carol Herselle Krinsky, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1985, Dover Publications, 1996, p. 253