CHINON

CHINON (Heb. קִינוֹן), town in central France, southwest of tours . Jews are found in Chinon from the second half of the 12th century. At the beginning of the 13th century there was evidently a community of some importance, paying in 1217 a taille of 500 Paris livres. The Jews occupied the Rue de la Juiverie, still called by that name, near the Palais de Justice. The cemetery lay outside the city walls. With the other Jews in France, the Jews of Chinon were expelled in 1306 and read-mitted in 1315. On 2 Elul, 5081 (Aug. 21, 1321), probably following an accusation that they had poisoned the wells in alleged conspiracy with the lepers, the 160 Jews of Chinon, led by R. Eliezer b. Joseph, were burnt at the stake on an island outside the town in a place later called Ile des Juifs (today Faubourg St. Jacques). Earlier scholars of Chinon were Joseph b. Isaac (second half of 12th century), the tosafists Jacob and nethanel of Chinon (mid-13th century), Isaac b. Isaac, called the "head of the rabbinical schools of France," Mattathias b. Isaac (c. 1300), and samson b. isaac (1260–1330). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kaufmann, in: REJ, 29 (1894), 298ff.; Gross, Gal Jud, 577ff. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)