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Origin and history

The Grand Synagogue de la Victoire, located at 44 rue de la Victoire in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, was built to respond to the demographic boom of the Parisian Jewish community, which grew from 12,000 to 25,000 members under the Second Empire. The project, financed by subscription with Gustave de Rothschild as the main donor, benefited from land offered by the city of Paris. The architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe, also designer of the synagogues of Versailles and of Enghien-les-Bains, gave him a neo-Byzantine style. Work began in 1867, and the building was inaugurated in 1874 before it opened for worship in 1875.

The synagogue became an emblematic place of Parisian Jewish life and a witness to major historical events. In 1890 Alfred Dreyfus married Lucie Hadamard there under the office of the great rabbi Zadoc Kahn, figure of the dreyfusard camp. Theodor Herzl, then a Viennese journalist stationed in Paris, regularly attended between 1891 and 1896, when he developed his Zionist ideas. In 1896, a ceremony was held in honour of Tsar Nicholas II, visiting France, with a speech by Zadoc Kahn.

During World War II, the synagogue suffered several attacks. In October 1941, a bomb exploded in the building during a series of anti-Semitic attacks by the Revolutionary Social Movement. In 1942, militiamen profaned his tabernacle, and in 1943, the Gestapo organized an identity check at the exit of an office, forcing community leaders to hide illegal faithful. After the war, a renovation was undertaken, completed only in 1967. Classified as a historical monument in 1987, it remains a symbol of resilience and Jewish life in France.

The architecture of the synagogue is distinguished by its 36-metre-high façade and its 1,800 seating positions. Hebrew inscriptions, taken from the Books of Isaiah and Genesis, adorn the facade, while inside, verses in French and stained glass representing the twelve tribes of Israel complete the decoration. The choir, separated by a balustrade, is surmounted by a Hebrew sentence: "The Lord is my banner". The synagogue always hosts major ceremonies, such as the annual tribute to the Martyrs of Deportation, broadcast on television.

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