TÁRREGA

TÁRREGA, town in Catalonia, N.E. Spain. Like others in that region, the community of Tárrega reached its greatest prosperity in the 13th century. There is little data on the Jews of Tárrega up to the days preceding the black death (1348–49). In 1346 a new synagogue was built there, but the community then suffered heavily from the Black Death persecutions. In his book Emek ha-Bakha joseph ha-kohen tells of the riots which broke out there on the tenth of Av. Three hundred Jews fell on that day, and the survivors were left destitute after giving all their money in exchange for shelter. Pedro IV strove with the utmost energy to quell the rioting and punish its instigators, but he pardoned all the rioters in April 1350. The same month the town council was requested to build the Jewish quarter anew within two years at the place called La Font. In order to defray the expenses caused by the riots, Pedro allowed the town council to impose a special tax on foodstuffs. Also in 1350 the community of Tárrega paid 400 sólidos in Barcelona currency as annual tax. As the Black Death epidemic did not cease for a long time, the Jews of Tárrega continued to be in danger. In 1362 Pedro ordered that measures be taken to protect the community, with guards being selected by the community's trustee (ne'eman). No data are available concerning the condition of the Jews in Tárrega following the persecutions of 1391. At any rate, there was a Jewish community there throughout the 15th century, probably existing until the general expulsion from Spain in 1492, as shown by the fact that in the late 1470s the physician Abraham Shalom was asked to come and settle in Tárrega from nearby cervera . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Baer, Urkunden, 1 (1929), index; A. López de Meneses, in: Sefarad, 19 (1959), 115–26, 321–62. (Haim Beinart)