Yes, we missed the megilla reading. However, sometime in the afternoon I was able to give some money to a local beggar. I had seen a collection of them (beggars) as we exited the Metro at St. Paul station standing near people getting money from the ATM machines.
We had tried to get some money from our account earlier in the morning, before getting on the metro. But, for some unknown (at the time) reason my card was rejected. It turns out I was asking for too much money at one time. We planned on taking the Frommer walking tour of the Marais (is this related to Marais and Miranda?) district. We were told that this is one of the primary Jewish neighborhoods. Even though it was Purim we did not see any Hamentaschen in the Patisseries. We hardly saw any Jews in that neighborhood until dinnertime.
While doing the "official" tour of the book we were using we came upon a building that was an elementary school. The plaque in front indicated that this was the location from which 11,000 Jewish children were deported by the Nazis and the Vichy government.
We did get to the Museum of Jewish Art and History on Purim. It is maintained by the State and the City of Paris... not the Jewish community. It is quite a nice museum. I was struck by the beauty of the stone cutting in the headstones found that date back to the time before the Jews were expelled from France in the Mediaeval period. They also had on display a few manuscript books that showed a unique and beautiful way of writing the "ligature" for aleph-lamed.
Other highlights of the museum were some special Channukiot a painting by Hirszenberg (after whom Budko did a tiny study of (what we thought was a Pogrom, but it turns out was) the Rebbe's funeral) and one of Hildesheimer (about whom I'm reading).
I was excited to see the title page of the document that gave Jews their rights as citizens of France. I identify this as one of the primary moments when the Modern period begins in Jewish history.
There was a little room filled with the work of Ryback, Steinhart, Budko and Lizitsky. These pieces drew a warm response from me because of our family's collection now at the Magnes. It is wonderful to see this work treasured by others. In the basement floor was an exhibit of photographs of the early days of the ORT when it was organizing in the Soviet Union helping train Jews as farmers and industrial workers.
The Frommer book that we're using is from 1996. This building/museum is not marked on the tour for the area. There is another "Jewish museum" mentioned in the Frommer book in the Montmartre section we went to Wednesday (the following day), but, that seems to be the precursor of the one we saw on Purim.
For dinner we went to a well-known felafel restaurant
(with a photo of Schneerson near the front door), then walked down the street that "teed" off from it. The restaurant was filled with Jews (orthodox and others) of all ages. Then that street, which we walked down to get to Rue de Rivoli was filled with Jewish establishments of all kinds. We saw a couple of stickers reminding people of the assassination of Ilan Halimi (one of which from the current French incarnation of the Jewish Defense League).
A variety of activities are happening in Paris that we might be interested in attending. But, we'll be gone. Among them: Le Golem.
