Jewish Travel Agency private cruise excursion to Marseille, France
In the Morning:
Visit the Great Synagogue in Marseille at the Castellane district also known as the Great Temple. Built by Napoleon III in the second half of the nineteenth century, it is one of the most beautiful religious achievements of the Second Empire. The Synagogue’s architectural style chosen is Basilical , inspired by the antique models. The building has a monumental façade dominated by the tables of the law . The stylistic references and materials of the East and West, mingle harmoniously reflecting as well the origin of the faithfuls. Its monumentality expresses the values of a reputed community and confirms the it ‘s desire to integrate the French society. This Hebraic cult building is the oldest preserved in Marseille.
You can also gather to pay your respects in front of the”wall of names” in the courtyard of the Great synagogue. This Wall composed of 12 headstones, contains the names of 2,000 Jews deported from Marseille between 1943 and 1944, which unfortunately were mostly murdered at Auschwitz-Birkenau . This austere place was erected in their memory.
Then visit the Tiferet Israel Synagogue , the Israelite temple of St Margaret. This building was chosen for the practice of the Israelite religion in this neighborhood in Marseille where many adherents of this religion settled down especially after the war in Algeria . After the Diaspora , synagogues have lost their original character and know the inspire from vernacular architectures such as the first Synagogue in Breteuil street in Marseille ( Great Synagogue ). This Synagogue was built in 1970 and inside we find two main elements : the place of worship itself with its annexes allowing meetings and celebration ceremonies, and a school for learning the Hebrew language.
Lunch at the restaurant “Au falafel ” relish the Israeli and middle east cuisine in the heart of the city of Marseille, near the opera house and the old port.
In the afternoon :
Departure to Aix en Provence.
Visit of the memorial area “Camp de Milles” : The last imprisonment and deportation French camp still intact and accessible to the public on a 7 ha field . Visit the historical museum “Camp de Milles”. Inside its buildings were interned between 1939 and 1942 , more than 10 000 people under terribly tough conditions . It was a place of transit for men , women and Jewish children to Auschwitz extermination camp , via Drancy. It hosted a significant community of intellectuals and European artists who left many traces of their passage , they can be discovered on today walls camp.Nowadays it is a protected memory location that witnesses the spiral of successive intolerances , xenophobic; ideological and anti-Semitic.
The visit of the Memorial site includes three parts dedicated to the knowledge , the emotion and the reflection : The historical episode with a route presenting the history of the “Camp des Milles” , its local , national context, European and global , a memorial episode allowing public access to the traces left by internees as well as historic sites used as imprisonment and deportation , and finally a reflection episode that will allow you a better understanding of the chain of events and the mechanisms that leaded to the worst.