MONZÓN

MONZÓN (Monson, Montisson ), city in Aragon, N.E. Spain. The history of three communities, Monzón, Barbastro, and Lérida, was closely interconnected. Information on Jewish settlement in Monzón, which had many connections with the local Knights Templar, dates back to the second half of the 12^th century. In 1232 the Monzón community joined the communities which pronounced a counter-ban against the scholars who banned the study of *Maimonides' writings. For taxation purposes, the community formed part of a collecta (tax administrative unit) with the neighboring communities of Albalate de Cinca, Alcoletge, Pomar, Estadilla, and Granadella. In 1271 the annual tax paid to the crown by the community of Monzón amounted to 4,000 sólidos. A ruling of Solomon b. Abraham ibn *Adret (Responsa, pt. 3, no. 242; cf. Responsa of Isaac b. Sheshet, no. 19) indicates how the tax was paid in Monzón. Anti-Jewish riots occurred in Monzón in 1260. During the persecutions at the time of the *Black Death (1348), the Jews of Monzón entrenched themselves inside their walled quarter and were thus saved. They suffered no harm during the 1391 persecutions, although a number of them subsequently became *Conversos. The community sent Don Joseph ha-Levi and R. Yom Tov Caracosa as its representatives to the disputation of *Tortosa in 1413–14, which had serious consequences for the Monzón community. In 1414 the antipope *Benedict xiii wrote to the bishop of Lérida authorizing him to turn the synagogue of Monzón into a church, since the majority of the community's members had become converted. He also ordered that property belonging to the burial society and the Talmud Torah should be given as beneficium to the chapel to be erected in the new church. However it seems that later the community revived. Forty-four names of Jewish householders are mentioned in the notarial records of 1465–78. No details are recorded regarding the departure of the Jews from Monzón on the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

bibliography:

Baer, Spain, index; Baer, Studien, 149; Baer, Urkunden, 1 (1929), index; Neuman, Spain, index: Ashtor, Korot, 2 (1966), 174; F. Cantera, Sinagogas españolas (1955), 251–2; Vendrell Gallostra, in: Sefarad, 3 (1943), 124; Romano, ibid., 13 (1953), 72ff.; Lopez de Meneses, ibid., 14 (1954), 108; Cabezudo Astrain, ibid., 23 (1963), 266f., 274, 280, 282. add. bibliography: R. Pita Mercé, in: Ilerda, 44 (1983), 287–303; J.M. Viladés Castillo, in: Boletín de la Asociación Espan~ola de Orientalistas, 20 (1984), 307–15.

[Haim Beinart]