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300 Aix

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Ajalon

"Jews' Street." Theircliicf tnulc seems to have been The exact rmmber of spices, silks, ami wax. Jewisli families that made ip tlic community can not be ascertained, except for the year VUl, wiien Aix contained 1.".211 Jews, of wliom 203 were landed proin

prietors. The ordinances ajrainst the Jews througliout Provence were rigorously apiilied to those of Aix, and were the cause of many complaints on the part of the Jewish connnunity. They could not, for instance, testify against a Christian; nor were they allowed to visit the public l)aths on any day durinsr

the week but Friday, which was set aside for their exclusive use: they were forbidden to do work on Sundays; no Jew could embark for Alexandria, and only four could take jiassiige by the same boat for any of the other ports of the Levant. This latter enactment often compelled Jewish merchants to send Christian messengers on their conunercial expeditions. The failure, on the part of Jew or Jewess, to wear the distinguishing yellow toque, or the round A local ordinance patch, was severely punished. prohibited the Jews from engaging in dice-throwIt is probable that the in(|uisiing with Christians. torial commis.sion of Dominican friars, instituted in 1198 by Pope Innocent III., against the Albigenses. became likewise a source of annoyance to the Jews of Aix andof the other large cities of Provence; for, in 1276, Charles I. of Anjou promulgated an edict which abolished the right of this commission to molest the Jews within his territory. With Charles I. the Jews of Aix, together with those of other towns of Provence, lost their protector. Charles II. (t28.")-180i)) issued ordinances ac cording to which the Jews were forbidden, on pain of a fine of two silver marks, to have a Christian servant, to hold a public otlice, and to lay aside the disThe tirst half of the tinguishing yellow badge. fourteenth century was relatively a happy epoch for the Jews of Aix, under the reign of Robert of Anjou, who showed them every kind of jn'otection; but the second half was a very "dark one. The presence of the wicked Joanna on the throne of Provence gave scope to the enemies of the Jews, and the most liarbarons rescriplions were issued. In Ui44 the .lews of Aix had much to suffer from the riots following the blood accusation against Samson of Reylhane. An incident fraught with frightful consequences to the Jews of Aix and PiTtuis took jilace in the year 143(5, during the otherwise tmnquil reign of Rene of Anjou. A Jew of Aix, Astrue de Leon, was accused of having blasphemed the name of the mother of Jesus, and a fine of 100 livrcs was imposed upon him for this crime. But the poimlace considered this punishment too light, and demanded and obtained his death; and, not content even with this. a wholesale massacre of the Jews was begun which extended over a considerable area. The execution of Astrue took place near the Church Execution of the Oratory, as proved by a comof Astrue memorative column said to have been de Ij€on. still in existence at the end of the eighteenth century. In the account given by Dcpping, it is related that 20.000 livres were offered by tile Jews to Rene as a ransom for the accused, and that finally he was executed by disguised noblemen of Aix but these statements are based Joseph chiefly upon very unreliable doe nents. ha-Kohen, in his "Emck ha-Baka," speaks of a massacre of the .Tews of Aix during the year 1430, and states that in this uprising of the populace seventyfour Jews accepted baptism but it is highly probable that there is an error of dates here, and that the massacre mentioned by Joseph ha-Kohen is the same as the incident of 1436. This massacre is also



300

lentioned, though vaguely, in the " Shebet. Yehumer dah " of Solomon ibn erga; but Wiener, in his ediU)n Verga; ih ''

114. erroneously has "Agen" for "Aix." the Kith of May, 1484, a band of marauders from the Daupliine and Auvergne provinces pillaged the Jews of Aix ("Rev. Et. Juives." xxxix.

tion,

i>.

On

IIU).

in 14112, a convoy of Spanish Jews was to Jlarseilles to be sold into slavery, the

When,

brought

Jewsdf Aix

The

associated themselves with those of

Synagogue at Aix-la-Ohapelle

(see p. 301).

(From » pboto^sph.)

that city and iirocured their relea.se, becoming in part responsible for them (" Rev. fit. Juives." ix. 67). Aix now belongs to the Consistory of Marseilles. It has also an aid association. Among the few more or less eminent persons associated with the town of Aix may be mentioned: R. Isjiiah ben Samuel, poet and savant, who lived about the end of the thirteenth century and who maintained a lively controversy, largely ujion i>ersonal matti'rs. with the poet Lsaac Gorni; Abraham ben Joseph ben Neriya. rabbi at Aix toward the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth, whosct rejiutation for learning and wisdom spread tliroughout Provence, and who sided with Abba ^lari ben IHoscs of Lunel and Solomon ben Adret in the theological conflict that took place in the south of Prance, from 1303 to 1306; Solomon ben Nathan Orgueiri, who, according to Johanan Alemanno, translated from the Latin into Hebrew a book of mysticism and superstition by " Apollonius " (about 1390); and Simon ben Joseph, "alearned rabbi, originally of Perpignan. who settled at Aix during the expulsion of the Jews from northern Prance (1306). The term "of Aix" is appended to names found in various manuscripts, as, for instance, "Don