Nice, France, the capital city of the French Riviera, is known for its sunny skies, balmy weather, and beautiful beaches. The Mediterranean climate attracts hordes of tourists and a diverse resident population with roots scattered throughout Europe and Africa.

Jews are included in the mix and have been a part of the Nice landscape for hundreds of years. In a recent article in the Boston-based Jewish Advocate, Ben G. Frank, author of assorted Jewish travel books, wrote that Jews of Portuguese origin—probably Marranos from Italy and Holland (who had to hide their Jewish identity to survive in their native lands)—began arriving in Nice during the 14^th century.  

Today, Jews make up approximately 25,000 of Nice's 350,000 residents. Many worship in the city's more than 10 synagogues, enroll their children in Jewish schools, and belong to Jewish organizations such as B'nai B'rith. There is also an abundance of Jewish restaurants, a number of which are kosher. Nice was also a home to artist Marc Chagall, and the city has a museum in his name, with an extensive collection of his works.  

"It is very nice here," says Nice resident Joelle Perelberg, 60, a longtime member of B'nai B'rith International. "We have the sea, we have the mountains. Life is good in this area." 

Perelberg says the Nice Jewish community of her youth was predominantly Ashkenazi and secular, and that Jewish life changed in the 1960s, when a large influx of Sephardic Jews from the former French North African colonies of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia began arriving. 

They brought with them a lot more than just a different Jewish culture. 

"When they came, suddenly there were kosher butchers, organized [religious] services, and so on," says Perelberg. 

Sara Pinson, the native New Yorker wife of the director of Habad Loubavitch of Nice Cote d'Azur, and herself a member of B'nai B'rith International, says the Jewish community has changed enormously since she moved to Nice in 1976. 

"It is a very vibrant community. The majority are Sephardic…and most have come to Nice in the last 40 to 50 years," Pinson says. "They are mostly traditional Jews [who] basically eat kosher, celebrate the most important holidays, and make Kiddush on Friday night." 

Perelberg says Nice's Jewish population, along with the rest of the city populace, swells during the summer months with the arrival of tourists flocking to the almost-legendary area. Today, however, there is competition for those holiday Euros, and the throngs are a little smaller than in the past. 

"It seems every year, they come less and less. Now they are going to Israel. They are going to [the Israeli beach town of] Netanya," Perelberg says.

Some Trouble in Paradise

Despite today's good life there, Nice, as is the case with other French cities, has had to contend with some anti-Semitism in recent years. 

According to the Jewish Virtual Library, 25 percent of French Jewry died during the Holocaust, and anti-Semitism and assimilation remain issues in France today, although Nice suffers less from the scourge than other parts of the country. 

The impetus for most of the hostility comes from the country's growing Muslim population, which is largely supportive of the Palestinian cause.  

Travel writer Frank says that, in the early days of World War II, Nice was under Italian occupation and had a small Jewish population of approximately 500. The more lenient rulings of the Italians led Jews from throughout France to relocate to the coastal town, but, when the Germans took over in 1943, the Jewish citizens were rounded up for deportment. There is a memorial in the town dedicated to the 3,612 Nice-area Jews who died in Auschwitz. 

"Like everywhere, we have had problems," Perelberg says, reflecting on the hostilities from two eras. "At the time of the intifadah, there were parts of Nice that were not [safe] for Jews. We had to close a synagogue because there were many threats against Jews going there. " 

She says the situation is not as tense today, though, and that she finds life in Nice enjoyable. 

"Today, it seems we don't have such problems anymore," Perelberg says. "Life is good, generally speaking." 

In other words, for residents and visitors alike, it's a nice time to be in Nice.