CASTEL-SARASSIN(Hebrew, 
or 
):
By: Richard Gottheil, S. Kahn
Chief town of the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, France. A somewhat important Jewish community existed here in the Middle Ages. When attacked by the Pastoureaux in 1320, all the Jews except two killed one another, in order not to fall into the hands of their enemies, and these two subsequently threw themselves from the tower. The author of "Shebeṭ. Yehudah" estimates the number of the martyrs to have been 200; but Grätz, following the Latin works that place the tragedy at Verdun, a city on the Garonne, considers 500 to be a more exact estimate.
Bibliography:
- Ibn Verga, Shebeṭ Yehudah, ed. Wiener, p. 5;
- Joseph ha-Kohen, 'Emeḳ ha-Baka, p. 73, Cracow, 1895 (trans. Wiener, p. 48);
- Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, vii. 296.
