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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

younger Purtado and Marqfoy of Bayonne. In the Great Sanhedrin they were represented by Marqfoy and Andrade. On the organization of the French consistories the

was attached

When

the

selves to the ion,

community

of St. Esprit-Bayonne to that of Bordeaux.

Jews of Bayonne could devote themuntrammeled observance of their relig-

they established rules for the guidance of the The first statutes go back to 1752.

community.

Up

to the Restoration the

two principal

institutions

were: La Hebera, for charity and Instithe general administration of the tutions. synagogue; and the Talmud Torah, for the elementary and religious instruction of the young. New regulations concerning various institutions were made in 1826. In 1844 the community was raised to a consistory, with its seat at St. Esprit, its rabbi receiving the title of grand rabbi. After the union, in 1857, of the Jews of

Bayonne and

St. Esprit, Bayonne became the chief place for the consistorial circumscription. At this time the various institutions were reorganized, new

ones were created, and old ones abolished. Henceforth the direction of religious matters was entrusted to a special administration under the control of the consistory. The Hebera continued to administer charity and to care for the cemetery and in 1859 it was charged with the superintendence and administration of the asylum for the sick, the aged, and the orphaned, founded that year through the generosity of the bankers D. Salzedo and A. Rodriguez.

The Talmud Torah school, which had always been supported at the expense of the Jewish community, became a public school in 1848. Its first principal was M. Moreau, and ho was succeeded by M. David Levy. In 1887, in consequence of a decree secularizing all public schools,

it

ceased to exist as a secular

but continued its religious instruction under the same name. A school for girls, connected with a day nursery, was established in 1845. Its superinschool,

tendent in 1900 was Mile. Cossid. In 1894, owing to an appeal by Zadoc Kahn, grand rabbi of Prance, and through the initiative of the grand rabbi Emile Levy, the Association des Etudes Juives was formed at Bayonne. During the winter it gives lectures on Jewish themes, and places at the disposal of its members a library on Jewish subjects. La Societe Protectrice de la Jeunesse Israelite was instituted in 1850 by children aged thirteen years to continue the work of the society Malbish 'Arumim; that is to say, to provide poor Jewish children with clothing. The idea of such a society was conceived by Gersam Leon and Camille Delvaille,

the latter of

Not long

whom was

still

president in 1900.

after its foundation this society consoli-

dated with the Society of Arts and Trades, Messrs. Moi'se Salzedo and Virgile Leon.

begun by

Despite has gradually extended its scope, and now prepares boys and girls leaving school, for either a manual trade or a profession. The grand rabbi, A. Astruc, with the assistance of certain ladies, especially of Mme. Heine-Purtado, founded in 1889 a creche for children of all sects. The children are received as infants, and supported Besides until able to work and maintain themselves. initial

difficulties,

it

Baynus Bayoune

these

there arc divers institutions: to subsidize scholars and all that work in behalf of religion to provide for boys and girls in apprenticeship to enable workmen to rest on the Sabbath and to furnish





dowries to poor young girls. So long as the Jews of St. Esprit were forced to conceal their religion, they had to do without a syn-

agogue; and, in order to recite the prayers, they met in small groups at different houses. The ceremonies were conducted by the more educated among them, several of whom had the title of rabbi or of hakam. There were six such places for prayermeetings. The chief one was called the " yeshibah. The anniversary of its inauguration at the end of the eighteenth century is celebrated annually on the thirty-third day of the Omer by religious ceremonies, by the singing of Hebrew and Spanish songs, and

by the distribution of cake among children. The yeshibah embraced the Talmud Torah school, and was the meeting-place for scholars who studied and discussed the Bible and the Talmud. After the inauguration of the present synagogue in 1835, all these meeting-places were closed except the Brandon synagogue, which till 1872 was used for services on week-days. The new synagogue is simple and imposing. It is surrounded with buildings that con-

homes for the officers, rooms for study, and a mazzot-bakery. It has agog-u.es a choir composed of thirty volunteer and members and of twelve children, Cemeteries, whose songs, ancient and modern, give impressive coloring to the religious ceremonies. After the Jews of St. Esprit began to enjoy a little liberty in the practise of their religion, they ceased to bury their dead in Catholic cemeteries, and to have their children baptized, and their marriages solemnized in the Church. In 1654 they bought a burying-ground, which was expropriated by the The Jews in the same year acquired state in 1680. the vast cemetery still in use. In the towns near Bayonne, at Bidache and at La Bastide Clairence, the ancient cemeteries are sole witnesses to the existence of communities now extinct. At Peyrehorade there are only six Jewish persons, and in consequence the synagogue was closed in 1899 but there are three cemeteries, the first established in 1628, the second in 1737, and the third in 1826. Since the foundation of the consistory of Bayonne its successive heads have been Auguste Purtado, Emile Leon, and Virgile Leon. The presAmong the early ident in 1900 was Dr. Delvaille. rabbis there are three of whom only the names are known: Isaac Avila, Representative Isaac de Mercado, Israel Al. Bai'z. Men. Later came Isaac Costa (died 1729), author of a book on the conduct of Raphael life, entitled "Via de Salvacion," 1709; Meldola (died 1748), originally from Italy, author of numerous works, among others a collection of rabtain

Syn-



by his son David Meldola at Amsterdam, 1737; his contemporaries, the learned hazan Daniel Alvarez Pereyre and the rabbi Abraham David Leon, who published sermons on the fesbinical responsa edited

Sagradas y Morales," Raphael Abravanel de Souza (died 1748)

tivals, entitled " Instrucciones

1765



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