Jewish quarter in the fourth arrondissement of Paris, France
The Pletzl (פלעצל, "little place" in
Yiddish) is the Jewish quarter in the
4th arrondissement of
Paris, France. The
Place Saint-Paul and the surrounding area were unofficially named the Pletzl when the neighborhood became predominantly Jewish after an influx of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The area hosts a diverse Jewish community, assembling traditional Jewish families as well as many more who arrived through immigration from
Eastern Europe and
North Africa through the past centuries. The area is now characterised by its
synagogues,
butchers,
delicatessens, and
falafel vendors, which provide a social and cultural fabric for its inhabitants.
The darkest days for the Pletzl came during
World War II, when
Vichy France's collaboration with the
Nazis resulted in raids that saw many residents abducted and sent off to
concentration camps. Today, the community is a religious
Orthodox one, and most citizens belong to one of the three local synagogues: one located at 17
Rue des Rosiers, another at 25 Rue des Rosiers, and the last one at
10 Rue Pavée; the latter is an
art nouveau temple designed by
Hector Guimard, famous for his work on the
Paris Métro.
Name
At an unknown date,
Paris installed a plaque at the corner of the
Rue des Rosiers and the Rue Ferdinand Duval that explains why the Jewish quarter is known as the "Pletzl". Translated, it reads:
Fleeing persecution,
Ashkenazi Jews flooded into Paris beginning in 1881. They found places living among their co-religionists already established in
the Marais. By 1900, about 6,000 had arrived from
Rumania,
Russia, and
Austria-
Hungary; 18,000 more arrived in the years preceding the
First World War. Installed in considerable numbers in the Rue des Écouffes, the Rue Ferdinand Duval (named Rue des Juifs, "Jews Street", until about 1900), and the Rue des Rosiers, they constituted a new community, the "Pletzl", the "little place" in Yiddish, and they created the École Israelite du Travail (
Israelite Trade School) at 4B, Rue des Rosiers. The life of this community was evoked in the
Roger Ikor novel, Les Eaux Mêlées ("Agitated Waters"), [which won the
Prix Goncourt in 1955]. More than half of them perished in the
Nazi concentration camps.
Metro station
The Pletzl is:
The streets of the Pletzl
- Rue Pavée
-
Rue des Rosiers
- Rue Ferdinand Duval
- Rue des Écouffes
- Rue des Hospitalières-Saint-Gervais
- Rue Vieille du Temple
Notable attractions
-
"Jo Goldenberg", a restaurant closed since 2007
-
The Jewish restaurant, "Chez Marianne"
-
Another restaurant
-
A Jewish shop
-
A store in the Pletzl
-
-
"Florence Kahn", a Jewish bakery in the Rue des Écouffes
-
Another Jewish bakery in the Rue des Rosiers
-
Bibliography
- Etude remarquable de Nancy Green : The Pletzl of Paris : Jewish immigrant workers in the Belle époque, New York ; London : Holmes and Meier, 1986, IX-270 p. ; éd. fr., Les Travailleurs immigrés juifs à la Belle époque : le " Pletzl " de Paris, Paris, Fayard, 1985, 360 p.
References
External links
-
Media related to
Le Marais at Wikimedia Commons
-
Media related to
Pletzl at Wikimedia Commons