This commune of France with a population of 30,000 is capital of the Dordogne département and capital of the Périgord area in the Aquitaine région. The name Périgueux comes from the Petrocorii (Latinized Celtic name, meaning 'four tribes'), the Gallic people that held the area before the Roman conquest. This commercial center and transportation hub is famous for the pâtés that are its chief exports and city's major manufactures: tobacco products, chemicals, and leather goods. This Jewish community formed in 1939-1940. The synagogue, as well as the Community centre, was constructed in 1963-1967. Services are celebrated according to both Ashkenazi and Sephardic rituals. In The Middle Ages, Jews were expelled from the city (1302). The community came into existence from the big community of Strasbourg that was evacuated in Dordogne in 1939. After 1946-1947, when the Alsatian Jewry went back to their province, a small core resided in Périgueux; in 1962-1963, some families native to North Africa became established here. A.C.I. et Synagogue, Centre Communautaire, 13, rue Paul-Louis Courier - 24000 PERIGUEUX, Tél 05-53-09-35-61. Of Jewish interest are a memorial to the shootings in Marsac (Dordogne): Wall of the Shooting, Quarters in barracks Daumesnil (Périgueux); Monument of the Shooting in Brantôme. [January 2008]
ACIP Périgueux: Jewish Section [January 2008]