SOULTZ

SOULTZ (Ger. Sulz), town in the department of Haut-Rhin, E. France (not to be confused with the place of the same name in lower Alsace, where the settlement of the Jews was of a later date). The presence of Jews in Soultz is confirmed from 1308. In 1338 some fell victim to the armleder excesses; in the black death persecutions of 1349 the community was destroyed. From 1371 onward a number of Jews returned to Soultz. During the 17th century Jews were engaged as moneylenders, physicians, wine merchants, and livestock merchants. After reunion with France the number of Jews increased, rising from 102 in 1784 to 231 in 1808. After 1918 the community declined and by the outbreak of World War II had ceased to exist. E. Carmoly , the chief rabbi of Belgium (1802–1875), was a native of Soultz. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Ginsburger, Histoire de la Communauté israélite de Soultz (1939); idem, in: Revue d'Alsace, 70 (1923), 405–16, 508–14; I. Bloch, in: REJ, 14 (1887), 116f.; Germ Jud, 2 (1968), 811f. (Bernhard Blumenkranz)