NYONS

NYONS, town in Dauphiné , in the department of Drôme, S.E. France. Like the other Jews of Dauphiné, those of Nyons were not affected by the expulsions of the Jews from the Kingdom of France in 1306 and 1322. During the latter year, a number of Jews expelled from comtat venaissin joined the Jews already established in Nyons. Their situation was quite satisfactory; a Jew held public office in Nyons and another was in the service of the dauphin. At the time of the black death in 1348, the community suffered violent persecution. It was reconstituted about 1364 and then occupied the present Rue Juiverie. The synagogue, whose dilapidated building still existed toward the end of the 19th century, appears to have belonged to this second community. There were no Jews in Nyons by the end of the 15th century. Known among the scholars of Nyons are Isaac b. Mordecai Kimḥi , named Petit, a liturgical author, and Ḥayyim of Vienne. At the beginning of World War II about 50 Jewish families, many of them from the Saar, lived in Nyons. Nyons has no organized community. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Gross, Gal Jud, 384ff.; C. Brechet, Pages d'histoire nyonsaise (1927), 90ff.; Z. Szajkowski, Analytical Franco-Jewish Gazetteer 1939–1945 (1966), 186. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)