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Le Havre

HAVRE, LE, major port, N. France. From about the beginning of the 18th century, Jews, especially from *Bordeaux and its environs, wished to settle in Le Havre. In 1714, *Louis XIV ordered the town to expel all foreign Jews except "those who call themselves 'Portuguese.'" Around 1725, however, two Jewish families of German origin, the Hombergs (who were converted after a while) and the Lallemends, settled in Le Havre and obtained letters of naturalization. In 1776 the town once more refused several Jews permission to reside there in spite of their "royal passports" (actually valid for Paris). An organized community was founded in the mid-19th century. A new community, reconstituted after World War II, had a population of about 1,000 in 1969 and possessed a synagogue and community center.


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

A.-E. Borely, Histoire de la ville du Havre…, 3 (1881), 441ff.

[Bernhard Blumenkranz]


Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.