Jewish life in the suburbs of Paris is as diverse as the suburbs of the capital and the towns and cities of the region. It is diverse in terms of its historical origins, its economic situation, its cultural development and its religious life. There have also been contemporary upheavals with migration following the resurgence of anti-Semitism since the turn of the 21st century.

For example, the large Jewish presence in the working-class districts of the north of Paris, such as Aubervilliers, Bobigny and Sarcelles, only lasted half a century. From the early 1960s, following the arrival of large numbers of Jews from North Africa, until the first decade of this century. The Drancy camp, where tens of thousands of Jews passed through on their way to the extermination camps, is a place steeped in memory in this département.

Most of the Jewish communities in the region named Ile-de-France developed in the second half of the 19th century, although their presence goes back much further. The synagogues built during this period in Fontainebleau, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Versailles bear witness to this. Those in Vincennes-Saint Mandé, La Varenne Saint-Hilaire and Boulogne were built in the 20th century, the latter close to the sumptuous Albert Kahn gardens. As a symbol of this long shared history and the republican battles fought together under the French flag, a Dreyfus museum opened in Médan in 2021 next to the museum of the House of Emile Zola, who published his famous “J’accuse” in defence of the famous captain.