Rabbi Edmond Beldreb is a circuit-riding rabbi. St.-La is one of the towns he covers as he drives through scenic Normandy on roads flanked by high hedge rows which sometimes form a leafy canopy.
Among other things, St. -Lo was one of the towns Gen. George Patton made famous. It was from here in June, 1944, that his forces broke out of German encirclement and the enemy front to the West collapsed. Behind the roads travelled on by the rabbi are the D-Day beaches, names that will forever ring in American history: Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword.
True, there probably were no Jews here when Patton’s Third Army moved out against the Germans. But a few have now settled in this historic town. Today there are eight Jewish families living in St. -Lo which has the distinction of being a kosher meat-packing center serving Paris.
Like the countryside around it — its brilliant post, its important historic monuments, its culinary specialties — Normandy contains small Jewish communities tied together by joint activities and by visiting rabbis such as Beldreb.
The rabbi’s base is Caen, located in the department of Calvados in northern France, and from here Jewish communities receive this spiritual leader.
There are eight Jewish families in Evreux; right families in Lisieux; 15 families in Cherbourg; 200 families in LeHavre; and 400 families in Rouen. And in Coen, almost entirely rebuilt after the war, there are about 100 Jewish families. After World War II, the Jews of Coen built their own synagogue on 16 Avenue de la Liberation.
A CLOSE-KNIT GROUP
The Jews of Normandy are a close-knit group. New superhighways and high-speed trains after them the opportunity to go from Coen to Paris in two hours; from Rouen to Paris in a little over an hour. All roads lead to Paris. Nearly half of 700,000 Jews in France live in and around the French capital.
But there are also inter-city activities. The Jews of LeHavre and Coen hold joint activities: eminars, lectures, films.
Coen itself has a small but active Jewish community. They are proud. They are not afraid and the young people are activists. Many arrived here from North Africa in the 1960s; others come here from that center of Jewish life, Strasbourg.
In the summer time, thousands of Jews also come to Deauville, the world-renowned resort of casinos, polo matches and horse racing. In the summer months, I was told, there is even a ‘minyan’ in Deauville which in the summer jumps in population from 10,000 to over 100,000 persons.
MULTI-FACETED ACTIVITIES
The Jews of Normandy are also involved in the tourism industry. In the department of Calvados, new hotels are going up in Honfleur, Lisieux, Bayeux and Caen.
Throughout Normandy, one finds American Jews, even former GI’s who settled here after World War II. Having landed and survived on the beaches on D-Day, they said they fell in love with this beautiful area which provides visitors with on astonishing variety of scenery, from indented cliffs and covers, to wide sandy beaches and seaside resorts.
Wherever I travelled in Normandy, whether it was in Deauville, the elegant seaside resort; or in Rouen, which has old streets set with buildings in the ageless half-timbered Norman style; or in Coen which, besides being a cultural and artistic center, is also a large industrial and commercial plant, I learned about Jewish communities.
Some are small; some large. They exist. They thrive. They recall a rich historical past of which there is even now new, exciting proof, a proud discovery of a proud people: the yeshiva in Rouen, the capital of Normandy.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
