Jews have lived in Paris since the 6th century. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the city was a center of Jewish learning and home of a famous Talmudic academy. By the 14th century repeated persecutions had weakened the community; it was finally banished with the rest of French Jewry in 1394, although Jews continued to live in Paris illegally. In 1791, they finally gained civil and residence rights. When Napoleon organized French Jews in centralized “consistories,” Paris became the hub of French Jewry. As the community grew, synagogues, schools, and charitable organizations were established. At mid-century, the extensive banking and commercial activities of financiers like the Rothschilds and the Pereiras, as well as the political eminence of men like Adolphe Cr