Philip IV ordered the arrest and expulsion of Jews throughout the Kingdom of France in 1306 while confiscating their property and debts. Families were driven from Paris and provincial communities into neighbouring territories. Some were permitted to return in 1315, but further expulsions followed during the century.

The removals disrupted centres of Hebrew scholarship, manuscript production and religious poetry in northern France. Hebrew elegies and communal records preserved memories of dispossession, while refugees transferred French Jewish learning to other European communities.