• Fromental Halévy. Opéra in five acts. 1835.
• Libretto by Eugène Scribe.
• First performance at the Paris Opéra on 23rd February 1835.

It is 1414. In the city of Constance there is a festive Te Deum to celebrate the defeat of the Hussites by Prince Leopold, the Emperor's nephew. Eleazar evokes popular resentment by working on a holiday, but is released through the intervention of Cardinal Brogni, who had once banished him from Rome. Leopold, under the assumed identity of Samuel, a young Jewish painter, has been wooing Rachel, who is surprised when he deflects the attention of a hostile crowd from her and her father, since he has been recognised by Albert, a sergeant in the Emperor's army. Leopold celebrates Passover with Eleazar's family, although his behaviour arouses some suspicion. Princess Eudoxie, Leopold's wife, comes to buy from Eleazar a gold chain for her husband. Leopold now admits that he is a Christian and that he cannot marry Rachel: indeed any love between Christian and Jew is punishable by death. In the third act Rachel begs Princess Eudoxie for employment, fearing that Leopold has deserted her to follow the princess. When Princess Eudoxie, at an imperial banquet, gives Leopold the chain, Rachel seizes it, revealing the liaison she has enjoyed with him. Eleazar, Rachel and Leopold are arrested. In the following act attempts are made to secure the release of Leopold, and Cardinal Brogni urges Eleazar to recant. In spite of his efforts Eleazar and Rachel are condemned to death and it is only when Rachel is put to death that Eleazar reveals, before he follows her, that Rachel is the long lost daughter of the Cardinal.

La Juive (The Jewess) is the first of Halévy's grand operas and the one by which he is chiefly remembered as a composer. The opera starts with the singing of the Te Deum, heard from the church, while the crowd outside murmurs against Eleazar. In Si la rigueur et la vengeance (If harshness and revenge) Cardinal Brogni shows mercy to Eleazar and Rachel, and she, in Il va venir (He will come), awaits a secret meeting with Leopold, after Passover. With Vous qui du Dieu vivant outrager la puissance, soyez maudits (You who offend against the power of the living God, be accursed) Cardinal Brogni pronounces anathema on the three and in Rachel, quand du Seigneur la grâce tutélaire. Rachel, when the Lord's saving grace). Eleazar is tempted for a moment to take the step that might save Rachel from death.