Milhaud

Village in the department of Gard, France. In Renan-Neubauer, "Les Rabbins Français," p. 665, its name is given as . It has been erroneously confounded with Millau (the ancient Æmilianum or Amilbanum) in the department of Aveyron, where there probably never was a Jewish community. There are no documents to indicate the status of the Jewish community of Milhaud in the Middle Ages. Whatever it may have been, the Jews established there were expelled in 1306. They sought refuge in the Comtat-Venaissin, chiefly at Carpentras, where many of their descendants were living in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. The name "Milhaud," "Milhau," or "Milliaud" is still a common one among the Jews of southern France.

The scholars of Milhaud include: Don Dieulosal; Abraham ben Reuben ben Joseph ben Joshua Amilabi (14th cent.); Moses ; Gabriel , translator and commentator of the medical work "Tabula Super Vita Brevis," by Arnauld de Villeneuve; Maestre Bonenfant or Hezekiah of Milhaud, author of the medical work "Gabriel" (16th cent.); Immanuel ben Gad; Joseph of Milhau, member of the rabbinical college of Carpentras; David of Milhau; Moses ben Michael; and Joseph of Milhau (called also "Joseph Muscat"), author of a commentary on Rashi entitled "Oẓerot Yosef" (18th cent.).

Bibliography:

  * Zunz and Carmoly, in Israelitische Annalen, 1839, pp. 196, 341;
  * Zunz, Ritus der Synagoge von Avignon, in Allg. Zeit. des Jud. 1839, p. 1786;
  * idem, Z. G. p. 470;
  * R. E. J. ix. 216, xii. 197-220;
  * Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 343-346;
  * Renan-Neubauer, Les Ecrivains Juifs Français, pp. 577, 762.



G. S. K.