BRAY-SUR-SEINE

BRAY-SUR-SEINE, village in the department of Seine-et-Marne, central France. In 1190, after the execution of a Christian who had murdered a Jew, a rumor spread that the Jews had crucified the murderer in order to mock the death of Jesus. The king of France, Philip Augustus, dispatched an armed force to the town, and ordered the entire Jewish community to be burnt at the stake. The identification of the place in question has been disputed, some scholars placing it in Bresmes, other in Brie-Comte-Robert. Toward the middle of the 13th century, Jews were again found living in Bray-sur-Seine. They seem to have returned there in 1315 after the general expulsion of the Jews from France in 1306. The Rue des Juifs was named Rue Emile Zola at the beginning of the 20th century. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gross, Gal Jud, 123ff.; Neubauer, in: REJ, 9 (1884), 64; L.A. Roubault, Bray-sur-Seine (1908), 26ff.; Bouquet, in: Recueil des Historiens de France, 17 (1878), n. 769. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)