ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a single aspect: the place that Jews occupy, either as individuals or through their communal institutions. It chooses a model that period in the history of the diaspora which in many ways serves as a prototype, the Golden Age of Spain. One of the most striking elements of Jewish demography in France is the important concentration of the population in Paris and the Paris suburbs, which corresponds to the general French phenomenon but which is, however, accentuated in the Jewish community. In general, the academic world in France can be considered the most attached to secularism. The visible Jewish cultural presence in French society can be considered either as a phenomenon which will develop in future generations, or will be something short-lived, leaving hardly any trace. The Jewish cultural presence is probably ambiguous and should not be perceived either as an interest by Jews in culture, or necessarily by the French in Judaism.
