Hatzalath Nephashoth ve-Kiddush Hashem [“Rescuing Souls and Sanctification of the Name”:

(FRENCH JUDAICA)

Constantinople

(1765)

Single leaf broadside. Text in square Hebrew letters; name of addressee in Rashi script; on verso, address in Rashi script

Appeal to French Jewry on Behalf of the Community of Hebron In 1765 two of the sages of Hebron, R. Haim Rahamim Bajayo and R. Yitzchak Ze’evi were dispatched to Western Europe to raise funds on behalf of the heavily indebted community of Hebron. Our letter of recommendation, composed by the “Pekidim” (Committee on behalf) of Hebron in Constantinople, describes the desperate financial situation: The Jews of Hebron were forced to borrow from Turkish landlords the amount of twenty-five thousand pesos at the rate of 15% interest. The Jewish community of Constantinople was able to negotiate with the Turks slightly more generous terms whereby the loan would not come due for seven years - sufficient time for the emissaries from Hebron to enlist the support of the wealthy Jews of France. Most prominent among the signatories are the names of Constantinople’s chief rabbis Abraham ben Judah Meyuhas and Solomon Alfandari. See A. Ya’ari, Shluchei Eretz Yisrael (1977), pp. 586-7. The letter is addressed by hand to Hananel de Milhaud of Avignon. One notes that in Hebrew the surname is spelled “Miliav.” This is as it should be. The Latin name of the village in the department of Gard was “Amiliavum.” With the expulsion of the Jews from Milhaud in 1306, they sought refuge in the Comtat-Venaissin, chiefly in Carpentras, and to a smaller degree in Avignon. See JE, Vol. VIII, p. 590.