Corbeil

City in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France. Jews were settled very early in Corbeil, occupying a special quarter, called the "Juderia." It is mentioned in Tosafot to Ket. 12b, Ḥul. 122b, and is probably referred to in a document of the fifteenth century wherein is mentioned a place "où soulit estre aulterfois l'escholle aux Juifs" (where formerly the school of theJews used to be) ("Rev. Et. Juives," ix. 62). In 1184 King Philippe Auguste presented the cleric Pierre with a house that had belonged to the Jew Hélie (Eli). In 1202 special taxes were imposed upon the Jews of Corbeil; and they were obliged to pay into the treasury a sum for affixing seals to the documents relating to their transactions with Christians. The journal of the treasury of the Louvre, 1298, mentions the Jew Hagin, who was a receiver of taxes, and the Jewess Thyerma, whose taxes amounted to 41 livres. In 1306 the Jew Cressant owned a house on the Seine which yielded a rent of 520 Paris livres. This Cressant is probably identical with the "Croissant, nevou Croisant de Corbueil" mentioned in the "Document sur les Juifs du Barrois" ("Rev. Etudes Juives," xix. 250), and with Cressent of Corbeil, one of the commissioners appointed by the king in 1315 to supervise the payment of the debts of his coreligionists (Saige, "Les Juifs du Languedoc," pp. 106, 330).

Many eminent Talmudists lived in this city. Among them were Judah of Corbeil; Jacob the Saint; Joseph, mentioned by Aaron ben Ḥayyim ha-Kohen in his commentary to the Maḥzor, written about 1227; Simson; Isaac ben Joseph; Perez ben Elia; Mordecai ben Nathan; Elhanan, son of Isaac the Elder, of Dampierre.

Bibliography:

  * Delisle, Cat. des Actes de Philippe-Auguste, p. 111;
  * Rev. Etudes Juives, ix. 62; xv. 234, 245, 248;
  * Gross, Gallia Judaica, pp. 559-572.



G. S. K.