BÉDARRIDE, ISRAÉL

BÉDARRIDE, ISRAÉL (1798–1869), French jurist and historian. In 1823 Bédarride won a prize from the Institut de France for his essay on the Jews in the Middle Ages, which he later enlarged and published as Les juifs en France, en Italie et en Espagne (1859). The following year Bédarride became a lawyer in Montpellier and was reputed to be one of the best jurists of southern France. He wrote many articles on legal subjects, but Jewish history remained his main interest. In 1867 he published his Etude sur le "Guide des égarés" de Maimonide, and in 1869 his Etude sur le Talmud. Bédarride was also interested in contemporary Jewish life and wrote against proselytism and in favor of religious liberty, Du proselytisme et de la liberté religieuse, ou le judaisme au milieu des cultes chrétiens dans I'état actuel de la civilisation (published posthumously). He was the author of Harcanot et Barcanot, a comedy on life in Carpentras, written in the local Jewish dialect (1896, 2nd edition 1925). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M.E. Lisbonne, Etude nécrologique sur Israél Bédarride (Montpellier, 1870); Felix, in: AI, 30 (1869), 717–23; Z. Szajkowski, The Language of the Jews in the Four Communities of Comtat Venaissin (New York, 1948), 32–36 (Yid. with Eng. summary).