SAINT-SYMPHORIEN-D'OZON

SAINT-SYMPHORIEN-D'OZON, village in the Isère department, S.E. France. When the village was ceded to Dauphiné by savoy , there was already an important Jewish community there, which in 1355 was granted advantageous privileges: freedom to bequeath both movable and immovable property; permission to engage in commerce and moneylending; exemption from various tolls; liberty of movement; and protection of the community against judicial irregularities. The numerical and economic importance of the community can be gauged from the fact that it paid almost half of the taxes imposed on the Jews of Dauphiné. In 1408 the municipality asked the dauphin to reduce the rate of interest of Jewish moneylenders from 50% to 25%. In the course of the 15th century the Jewish community ceased to exist. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Prudhomme, in: Bulletin de l'Académie Delphinale, 3rd series, 17 (1881/82), 164ff.; idem, in: REJ, 9 (1884), 260f.; Gross, Gal Jud, 663. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)