CHÂLONS-SUR-MARNE (Latin, Catalaunum; Old French, Chaalons):

By: Richard Gottheil, S. Kahn

Capital of the department of Marne, France. Little is known of the Jews of this city. In 1292 Davy and his son Salemon, Jews of Chaalons, were living at Paris. The "Document sur les Juifs du Barrois" (1321-23) mentions for Châlons only Lyonnet, his mother Doucine, Morel, and two other Jews, whose names are not given. In 1306 the king, Philip the Fair,demanded the confiscated property of the Jews of Châlons in behalf of the royal treasury; but the bishop of the city maintained that as the Jews were subject to him their property also belonged to him. The Parliament was asked to settle the difficulty, but in the course of the proceedings the king yielded and presented the bishop with the cemetery of the Jews (1314). This cemetery seems to have been the burial-place of all the Jews of Barrois. The Jewish community of Chalons to-day consists of forty or fifty families; it has a synagogue and a rabbi.

G. S. K.