Arles was a major Jewish center between the Roman times and the Renaissance. Due to its location between Spain and the rest of Europe, with its proximity to the Mediterranean coast, Arles became a comfortable and sometimes beneficial city for the many Jews who lived in it. During the Middle Ages, many notable Jews were active in Arles, which functioned as a Jewish philosophy and Arabic-Hebrew-Latin translation center, as it was one of the town known for its Hachmei Provence. No Jewish community was evident in Arles ever since, even though some evidences of former Jewish life can be seen around town and in the local museum. The Jewish community ceased to prosper towards the end of the 15th century, until they were expelled in around the 1490s after which they did not return. Jews were to be found in Arles in the 1960s, though no community was ever evident again.
History
Roman Empire
According to a legend, Roman emperor Vespasian placed Jewish exiles after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem on three ships that were abandoned by their captains. One of the vessels reached Arles, while the other two got to Bordeaux and to Lyons. This legend suggests the existence of Jews in Arles as early as the first century CE, yet the first document depicting Jewish life in Arles is due to 425 CE. On that year, emperor Valentinian III issued a decree addressed to the ecclesiastical bishops of the area, prohibiting local Jews of entering magistracy, possess Christian slaves or taking careers of arms. During the decline of the Roman Empire, Arles became an important Jewish political and religious center.
On 476, with the fall of the Roman empire, the city came under the rule of the Visigoths. The Jews of Arles lived relatively fine as long as the Visigoths maintained Arianism, which was later declared as heresy by the Vatican. In 508, when the city was under siege by the Franks and the Burgundians, the town Jews took part in the fight against them. After falling of Arles into the hands of Clovis I, the first king of Franks, the Jewish community of Arles, among other Arian Visigoths, accused bishop Caesarius of Arles of treason. The bishop's adherents, in response, accused a Jewish soldier of helping the Burgundians and the Franks getting inside the city by pointing a specific part of the wall easy for climbing. The soldier was sentenced to death while the bishop was acquitted. Soon after, upon the rule of the Merovingian kingdom, local bishops all around southern France were encouraged by king Chilperic I himself to attempt conversion over Jews. Arles bishop Virgilius was highly keen to convert local Jews, and apparently did so by force, in objection to the Vatican stand, as shown on an Epistle sent to him by the Vatican:
"... many of the Jews settled in those parts have been brought to the font of baptism more by force than by preaching. Now, I consider the intention in such cases to be worthy of praise... But I fear lest this same intention, unless adequate enforcement from Holy Scripture accompany it, should either have no profitable result... For, when any one is brought to the font of baptism, not by the sweetness of preaching, but by compulsion, he returns to his former superstition, and dies the worse from having been born again. Let, therefore, your Fraternity stir up such men by frequent preaching..."
Middle Ages
Under the rule of the Carolingian dynasty, starting on 638, life conditions of the Jewish communities in southern France improved. The Carlovingian princes protected the Jews from attacks of the clergy. At the beginning of the ninth century, the kingdom of Burgundy was establishment by Boso of Provence, with the support of the clergy and Pope John VIII. Shortly after, Boso passed his rights over the Jews of Arles to the local Archbishop named Rostang, as a gratitude for the clergy support of him. Boso's successors continued with this tradition. The clergy and the Archbishop of Arles laid heavy taxes upon the local Jews, and it may be claimed to be reason why during the Crusades the Jews of Arles were relatively safe, when other communities in southern France, not subjected directly to the local clergy, suffered severely from the attacks of the crusaders. A document attributed to the disposal of Archbishop Raymond (1142–57) mentions a Jewish cemetery at the montjuif, nowadays Griffeville quarter. A Hebrew inscription on a tombstone dates to this period found in the cemetery can be found today at the Musee d'art chretien. Jews made an annual payment of 44 sols to the Archbishop for this property.