AGEN

AGEN, capital of the Lot-et-Garonne department, southwestern France. A charter of 1263 specifies the charges imposed on Jewish residents in Agen for all articles brought into the city, in addition to dues they owed to the bishop. In 1309 (not 1250, as stated by U. Robert) the seneschal of Agen was directed to seize copies of the Talmud and other Jewish works, probably left behind after the general expulsion of the Jews in 1306. A number of Jews returned to Agen in 1315 and perished in the pastoureaux massacres of 1320. The "Rue des Juifs," first documented in 1342, certainly existed earlier. Remains of the synagogue were still visible in the 16th century. In 1968 the Jewish community in Agen, which consisted of approximately 500 persons, mostly immigrants from North Africa, had a synagogue and community center. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gross, Gal Jud, 44; Ibn Verga, Shevet Yehudah (1947), ed. by A. Schochat and Y. Baer, 22; Revue de l'Agenais (1917), 218–9; A. Ducom, La Commune d'Agen (1892), 162, 284–5; U. Robert, in: REJ, 3 (1881), 214. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)