Bayonne

Sephardic Jews of Bayonne

Bayonne is city on the southeast Atlantic coast of France. It was a major French port and trading hub. Bayonne is close to the Spanish border. Spain and Portugal are easily accessible by sea, and the Spanish border is just a six hour walk from the city. While France was not always welcoming to Jews, it was a major political rival of Spain and so Sephardim in Bayonne, France, could consider themselves safe from Inquisition persecution.

Portuguese New Christians (Sephardic Jews) established themselves in the city in 1550, although the local Bayonne merchants had them banned from the retail business. Locally the community was called “Portuguese”. I have read that the community was established by two groups of people: from Navarre and Portugal. At the back of my mind I seem to remember that the Jews of Navarre were not expelled from Spain in 1492 and that the Inquisition arrived there fairly late, although this does not preclude Jews from Portugal have settled in Navarre’s ports. It is worth remembering that north-western Spain and south-western France both belong to the Basque country, and the local border may have been porous.

Close-by to Bayonne are the villages of Peyrehorade (the river was navigable to here), Bidache and La Bastide-Clairence. Inland, northeast, are the villages of Dax and Tartas. Further south, towards the Spanish border, is the village of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. At one time or another, all of these villages had New Christian inhabitants.

Several families were expelled from Bayonne in 1636, and moved to Nantes. In the mid-17th Century the congregation of Nefuẓot Yehudah (“The Dispersed of Judah”) was formed, but this was not officially recognised until 1723. A cemetery was opened in 1660, but presumably this was formally Catholic.

The New Christians tended to live in the Saint-Esprit district. Professions included chocolate, merchants and shipping. Bidache, Peyrehorade and other villages in the region were satellites of the Bayonne community.Abraham Vaez (d. 1694?) was Haham (chief rabbi) and ḥazzan (cantor) at Nefuẓot Yehudah. He may be the same person as R. Abraham “Davan” who died in Bayonne on 29 July 1694.

A British trade directory from the mid-18th Century says that wine was shipped down the river Adour from Saint-Sever to Bayonne and Dax, and was presumably then exported or transported to other regions of France. Spanish wool was brought over the Pyrenees to Bayonne, from where it it was distributed around France for processing. “Sugars” were sent back over the mountains to Spain. These reports date from after the end of Navarrese independence.

The Jews of Bayonne were forcibly removed in April 1943. Most never returned.

Sephardic Jewish Genealogy in Bayonne

Surviving community records of the Sephardic Jews of Bayonne are held by the Archives départementales of the French Department (administrative region) of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. These have been digitized but many of the original documents are difficult to read. If you prefer to hire a professional Sephardic genealogist, get in touch!

Civil Records of the Jews of Bayonne

In 1808 the Emperor Napoleon introduced decrees aimed at ensuring equality for Jews. Often Ashkenazi Jews did not have surnames. The registration of names covered all Jews, including Sephardim who already had surnames.

For a long time public Jews were banned from the region, so the community lived as public Catholics, often locally known as ‘Portuguese’. The Sephardic community in Bayonne was principally in the parish of Saint Etienne. Not all the Spanish and Portuguese surnames are Sephardim or ‘New Christians’, but most of them.

Bayonne Jews in Inquisition Records

In 1663 Jorge Fernández de Castro (alias Don Jorge Coronel and Jorge López) gave the Cuenca y Sigüenza Tribunal of the Inquisition an insight into crypto-Jewish life in the Faubourg du Saint-Esprit. I am not clear if the 1664 Inquisition action against Mateo Méndez de León and others is connected to the Fernández de Castro trial, or something else. Victims of this second trial were: Gaspar de Torres Payba; Antonio Carballo; Diego de Andrada; Gonzalo Báez Payba; Gaspar Rodríguez de Payba; Francisco López Pimentel; Manuel Álvarez de Castro; Antonio Cardoso; Diego Rodríguez Cardoso; Manuel Machuca; Enrique Gómez; Jorge de Castro; Jorge Suárez; Duarte de Rivera; Diego Luis; Antonio Rodríguez de Amezquita; Manuel Fernández Gil; Manuel de Brieto; Antonio Rodríguez Idana; all “Portuguese” from Bayonne or Baiona but in Madrid.

Other Sources about the Sephardic Jews of Bayonne, France

In Spanish, Bayonne in France and Baiona in Galicia can be spelt almost the same.

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