About a hundred miles from Livorno, Bastia, like the port of the Italian city, has long been a major maritime port of call. The city is also known for its citadel and its Palace of Governors.

During the First World War, Jewish migrants from Syria and Lebanon, then under the French mandate, settled here, numbering around a thousand people at the time, including long-standing Bastia Jews.

In 1934, the Beth Meïr synagogue in Bastia was inaugurated, initially housed in a flat. Apart from the Habad centres, Beth Meïr is the only active synagogue on the island.