PEYREHORADE

PEYREHORADE (Heb. פינייא אוראדה), town in Landes department, S.W. France. A number of Marranos established themselves in Peyrehorade, at the latest by 1597. Under the name "Portuguese merchants," they formed a community around 1628, when they acquired a plot of land for a cemetery. In 1648, when a partial expulsion was decreed, there were 42 Jewish families (about 200 persons) in the town. In about 1700 only about 15 families remained there. Subsequently the number of Jews evidently increased because in 1747 the community, which from then on is openly referred to as Jewish, acquired a second site for a cemetery. The existence of a synagogue is confirmed about 1728 (at the latest, 1747). The community, by then well organized, had its own butchery and a ritual bath (mikveh), and supported three societies, the Sedaca, concerned with charitable activities, the Hebera, responsible for burial of the dead, and the Yesiba, dedicated to study. The Jews of Peyrehorade played an active role in the French Revolution. When the consistories were created, the community was at first attached to Bordeaux and later to Bayonne. In 1826 a third cemetery was acquired, which was also used by the Jews of the surrounding areas. (In 1970 all three cemeteries were still in existence.) From 1826 Jews began to leave the town, and the synagogue was sold in 1898, its furnishings being later removed to the synagogues of Biarritz and Bayonne. A few Jews were still living in Peyrehorade at the outbreak of World War ii.

bibliography:

Gross, Gal Jud, 453; E. Ginsburger, in: rej, 104 (1938), 35–69; G. Nahon, Communautés judéo-portugaises du sudouest de la France (mimeographed, 1969), passim.

[Bernhard Blumenkranz]