HISTORY

Throughout its stormy history, from the Roman period until the present, Jews have lived in France, their fate intimately tied to the various kings and leaders. Despite physical hardship and anti-Semitism, Jewish intellectual and spiritual life flourished, producing some of the most famous Jewish rabbis and thinkers, including Rashi. 

Large numbers of Marranos, secret Jews, from Portugal came to France in the mid-1500's. This was the first time since 1394 when Jews were allowed to legally live in the kingdom of France.

Jews began resettling Paris in the 18th century. Two groups came to Paris: southern Jews mainly of Sephardic descent from Bordeaux, Avignon and Comtat Venaissin, and Ashkenazim from Alsace, Lorraine and a couple other northern cities.  In 19th century, these two communities set about to amalgamate their two rites and replace them with a "French" rite. A synagogue on the Rue Victoire was to adopt this new rite. 

But many differences remained, such as the place of Bimah in relation to the Ark. Faithful Portuguese refused to adapt these changes, and so the synagogue on Rue Victoire took the German rite. And in 1875, the Portuguese Jews began to build their own temple. They bought land on Rue Buffault, not far from Rue Victoire. The sum collected was insufficient to build the synagogue. So Daniel Osiris, a banker, provided the remaining sum necessary for the construction of the synagogue. 

The synagogue can accomodate 900 people, 600 men on the ground floor and 300 women in the galleries. 

Sources: multilingualarchive.com, Jewish Virtual Library