Gaillac (Latin, Galliacum)

Small town in the department of Tarn, France; mentioned as  in the Responsa (No. 47) of Nissim ben Reuben Gerundi. Jews were living there as early as the thirteenth century, being under the jurisdiction both of Count Alphonse of Poitiers and of the Abbot of Gaillac. In 1266 a dispute arose between the count and the abbot regarding the taxes paid by the Jews, the abbot as seignior claiming a part of them. On July 19, 1269, Alphonse of Poitiers renewed the regulations of the Lateran Council, under which the Jews within his territory were obliged to wear the badge (a wheel) on the outside of their garments. Some, however, could purchase exemption therefrom. In 1291 King Philip the Fair fixed the sum to be paid by each of the prominent Jews in the seneschal's dominions of Carcassonne and Béziers. The Jews of Gaillac, "Abbraye [Abraham] and his brother," were taxed 20 livres, as "the king's Jews." The community of Gaillac was wiped out at the time of the persecutions of the Pastoureaux (1320).

Bibliography:

  * Saige, Les Juifs du Languedoc, pp. 22, 33, 225;
  * Dom Vaisette, Histoire du Languedoc, iv. 186;
  * R. E. J. iii. 216, vi. 83.



G. S. K.