The Burgundy-Franche Comté region is home to a number of World Heritage monuments, including the basilica at Vézelay and the citadel at Besançon. The region also boasts vast natural areas, with forests, mountains and lakes.

If, following Jacques Brel’s advice, you visit Vesoul, you’ll find a synagogue dating from 1875. This was a period when Jewish life in the region was marked by the construction of other synagogues. These included the Moorish-style synagogue in Besançon and the neo-Byzantine synagogue in Dijon. Jews from Alsace also settled here after the 1870 war, expanding the communities, including those in Belfort and Montbéliard. Nevertheless, the Jewish presence in the region is much older, as evidenced by the Hebrew inscription on the clock tower in Auxerre and the name of the town of Baigneux-les-Juifs. Not to mention the intellectual activity of the Tossafists of Joigny and Sens and the birth of regional Jewish winegrowing vocations in Mâcon, Chalon-sur-Saône and Chablis.