It is in this era that we find a street called the rue des Juifs (“street of the Jews”), which is known today as the rue Ferdinand-Duval. In the 19th and 20th centuries, numerous waves of immigrants from central Europe arrived to increase the Jewish community. The Raffle of the Vélodrome d’Hiver in July 1942, followed by the deportation of countless victims of the Holocaust, decimated the quartier’s population, and made a brutal end to the influx of immigrants. It was only in 1962 that the community began to fully re-establish itself, when a wave of exiled and expatriot North Africans began to make the area their home. Today the neighborhood’s Jewish community lives on, and its presence is celebrated and commemorated at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme (Museum of Judaic Art and History). This museum was opened in the Hôtel Saint Aignan in 1998, and displays a wonderfully varied and rich collection of Jewish artifacts from all over the world. The museum includes the Dreyfus archives, donated by Alfred Dreyfus’ grandchildren, as well as the collection of Isaac Strauss, famous collector of cult artifacts.

As is common throughout the Marais, a number of the beautiful buildings and homes in the rue des Rosiers quartier are of inestimable historical value. To the north, on the rue des Francs-Bourgeois, one finds the Hôtel de Lamoignon, a superb mansion dating from 1584, whose interior façade is adorned with Corinthian pillars. Its turret, a classic element of early 17th century architecture, seems to survey the passersby on the rue Pavée. Since 1966, the Hôtel has been home to the Bibliothèque historique de la Ville de Paris (Historic Library of the City of Paris). Other mansions can be seen on neighboring streets : the rue Vieille-du-Temple, the rue Elzévir, the rue Payenne, the rue du Parc Royal… The rue Pavée and the rue Mahler also represent another part of the quartier’s history: the black years of the Terror, the period of fanaticism and executions that followed the Revolution of 1789. Here, two prisons once stood in which large groups of prisoners were massacred in 1792.

Despite the many tragedies of its past, in the present day, the rue des Rosiers quartier is a lively, pedestrian-filled area that’s often evoked as a model of remarkable unity and peace. Not only do contemporary designer clothing boutiques, shoe stores, and art galleries dot the winding streets, but it’s not unusual to find an Arab grocer or hammam across from a synagogue or Jewish bakery. These contrasts serve to give the neighborhood an exotic, yet utterly Parisian allure. Here, surrounded by history and modernity, munching on a kebab, latke, or baguette, visitors just might get the impression that they’re in the middle of the best of several worlds.