Rue des Rosiers

     RueDesRosiers       

The rue des Rosiers /ʁy de ʁozje/ (“rose-bush street,” a reference to the rose bushes that covered this area many centuries ago), in the Marais quarter of Paris, has been a nexus of Jewish community life in the city for nearly two centuries. There are several Jewish enclaves in Paris, but this is by far the largest and most important, so much so that some journalists still use rue des Rosiers as a metaphor for the Jewish community in Paris and occasionally for Judaism in France in general.

The area around this street obviously has a large Jewish population, with quite a few Orthodox and Hasidic Jews. The street itself features shops selling Jewish religious articles, and delicatessens, bakeries, and restaurants selling tasty, certified kosher foods (including good bagels and falafel sandwiches). There are also some other ordinary stores and businesses, including some fashionable clothing shops. These latter businesses are gradually replacing the traditional Jewish businesses.

This photo was taken at the intersection of the rue des Rosiers with the rue des Écouffes; the rue des Rosiers is the street extending into the distance on the left, and into the foreground on the right (you can see the sign). You are looking southeast in this picture.

This area was also the site of massive arrests and deportations of Jews at other times during the war, including the notorious rafle du Vélodrome d’Hiver, in which around 13,000 Jews were rounded up by French police, largely from this neighborhood, herded into a stadium, and then deported to concentration camps in Germany by the SS. And this street is also the site of the still-existing École du Travail, a boys’ school whose entire faculty and student body were deported to Germany and killed. Even today, occasional acts of vandalism and terrorism are committed in this area, no doubt because of its symbolic importance.

Photographed on June 13, 2026.