The history of the

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

goes back at least a century, most notably to the time of

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. Monaco had a very small

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish presence before World War II, numbering approximately 300 people. During the war, the principality's government issued false identity papers to its Jewish residents to protect them from

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

deportation. Prince Louis II refused to dismiss Jewish civil servants and protected Édouard de Rothschild from deportation. However, Monaco's police arrested and turned over 42 Central European Jewish refugees to the Nazis. 60 Jews were arrested Aug 27–28 in 1942, and 90 in total, according to "The Algemeiner". In 1948, the Association Cultuelle Israelite de Monaco was founded as the official organization of Monaco's Jewish community, and it provides the community with a synagogue,

Hebrew school Hebrew school is Jewish education focusing on topics of Jewish history, learning the Hebrew language, and finally learning their Torah Portion, in preparation for the ceremony in Judaism of entering adulthood, known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Hebr ...

and

kosher (also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...

food store. Today's Jewish community in Monaco consists primarily of

retirees A pensioner is a person who receives a pension, most commonly because of retirement from the workforce. This is a term typically used in the United Kingdom (along with OAP, initialism of old-age pensioner), Ireland and Australia where someone of p ...

from France and the United Kingdom, and there is also a small population of North African and Turkish Jews. While Monaco has almost no Jewish citizens, approximately 1,000 Jewish expatriates of other countries comprise about 2.86% of Monaco's total residents (citizen and non-citizen combined). This means Monaco has the highest per capita total of Jewish residents of any country in the world outside Israel (though not the highest per capita number of Jewish citizens). Monaco has full diplomatic relations with

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

World War II monument and apology

In August 2015,

Prince Albert II Albert II – Website of the Palace of Monaco (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is Prince of Monaco, since 2005. Albert was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, and he is the second child and only son of Prince Rai ...

apologized for the role of Monaco in deporting Jews to

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

. A monument dedicated to Monaco Jews who were so deported was unveiled by the Prince during that occasion; it stands at the

Monaco Cemetery The Monaco Cemetery (French: ''Cimetière de Monaco'') is a cemetery in La Colle. Overview The cemetery contained 2350 tombs until 2014, when 198 more were built. It is open to the public from 8am to 7pm in the summer and from 8am to 6pm in the w ...

House of Grimaldi

The daughter of Caroline, Princess of Hanover -

Charlotte Casiraghi Charlotte Marie Pomeline Casiraghi (born 3 August 1986) is a Monégasque model, socialite, writer, editor, equestrian, journalist, film producer, and humanitarian. She is the second child and only daughter of Caroline, Princess of Hanover, and S ...

was in a relationship with Moroccan-Jewish stand-up comedian

Gad Elmaleh Gad Elmaleh ( ar, جاد المالح, Latn, ar, Gād el-Māleḥ; born 19 April 1971) is a Moroccan-Canadian stand-up comedian and actor who achieved fame in France, Morocco and the United States. He is best known in the French-speaking wor ...

, who had gained notoriety in France, Morocco and in the US. They had a son Raphaël, who was born on 17 December 2013 and was

baptized Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

. Since they were not married, Raphaël is not included in the line of succession to the

Monegasque throne The sovereign prince (french: prince de Monaco) is the monarch and head of state of the Principality of Monaco. All reigning princes have taken the name of the House of Grimaldi, although some have belonged to other families (Goyon de Matignon or ...

. The couple split in June 2015.

References

{{Jewish-hist-stub

World War II monument and apology

House of Grimaldi

See also

References