MORHANGE

MORHANGE, town in the department of Moselle, N.E. France. Jews are first mentioned there in 1686. As a result of complaints by the townsmen about the increase in the number of Jewish families, Duke Leopold ordered the Jews not to attract new coreligionists to Morhange. In 1734 the townsmen demanded that Jewish residence be confined to a single street, and that the number of authorized Jewish families again be reduced. The Jews were compelled to conform to this order, despite their attempts to circumvent it with the connivance of some of the Christian inhabitants. Only five Jewish families remained in Morhange by 1739, the rest having moved away, mainly to Metz. Their numbers increased slightly after the French Revolution. The synagogue was destroyed by the Germans during World War II. Morhange has supplied the patronymic of several families of Lorraine. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Mémoires de la Société Archéologique de Lorraine, 45 (1895), 284ff.; Revue de Lorraine, 6 (1930), 156ff.; 8 (1932), 82ff.; REJ, 49 (1904), 124; Z. Szajkowski, Franco-Judaica (1962), no. 727; idem, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer (1966), 230. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)