Mâcon
MÂCON, capital of the department of Saône-et-Loire, E. France. The first *Church council of Mâcon (583) issued a series of decisions concerning the Jews. However, the first specific record of the presence of Jews in Mâcon dates from about 820, when *Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, began missionary activity among Jewish children at Mâcon who were sent to Arles for safety; he also arranged for the delivery of sermons condemning friendly relations between Christians and Jews. From 886 Jews are mentioned as owners of fields, and especially vineyards, on the outskirts of Mâcon and its surroundings, in at least 15 villages and places where they cultivated the land themselves. The Jewish quarter developed in Bourgneuf. The cemetery was situated not far from Pont Jeu, formerly known as Pont des Juifs. Several medieval Hebrew tombstones have been discovered, some of which are preserved in the Museum of Mâcon. Not far from the site of the cemetery, there was a house commonly known by the name Sabbat, a term
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Gross, Gal Jud, 339f.; B. Blumenkranz, Juifs et chrétiens (1960), index S.V. Mâcon and Concile de Mâcon; idem, in: Bulletin philologique et historique 1959 (1960), 129–36; G. Jeanton, in: Annales de l'Académie de Mâcon, 20 (1917), 381ff.; idem, Le Vieux Mâcon (1934), 9ff., 81ff.; Loeb, in: REJ, 5 (1882), 104ff.; Z. Szajkowski, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer 1939–1945 (1966), 255.
Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.