The Jewish Gate

The Jewish Gate (Interior)—1868—Published by Maison d’Art Alsacienne/Elsässisches Kunsthaus, Rue Brûlée/Brandgasse 6, Strasbourg/Strassburg.

For more than a millennium, the region either side of what is now the Franco–German border was hotly contested. It was also the original medieval Ashkenaz, home for centuries to a rich Jewish culture and Jewish communities who, well into the early modern period, paid very little attention to the political borders running through the region—but also the site of horrendous anti-Jewish violence and repeated expulsions. More recently, the border provinces of Alsace and Lorraine have changed hands several times. Following Prussia’s victory over France in 1871, the newly created German Empire annexed them. Given that Jewish emancipation was much more firmly established and Jews were more fully integrated in France, a large proportion of the region’s Jewish population chose to move further south and west, rather than become German citizens. Having been returned to France after the First World War and occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, since 1945, Alsace-Lorraine has been an undisputed part of France.

While Jews were not allowed to settle in Strasbourg prior to the French Revolution they were, at various times, allowed to settle in the region and enter the city during the day, through a specific gate, to pursue their professions. The new Jewish Gate, located across the Canal des Faux Remparts to the northeast of the old city, was built in the 1550s. It was badly damaged when the Prussians besieged Strasbourg in 1870 and demolished a decade later. The postcard was part of a series showing former sites and monuments in Strasbourg that had since been demolished.