JOCEUS (JOCE) OF YORK:

By: Joseph Jacobs

English Jew of the preexpulsion period; leader of the York community at the time of the massacre in 1190. He is mentioned in the first English sheṭar, of 1176 (Jacobs, "Jews of Angevin England," p. 58). He was one of those who attended the coronation of Richard I., doubtless as the representative of the York congregation, and escaped the massacre (ib. p. 101). On his return to York, where he had a house which rivaled a citadel in the scale and magnificence of its construction, he was attacked by the mob, and with his wife and children joined other fugitives who sought refuge in Clifford's Tower. When the decision was reached to put one another to death rather than fall into the hands of the enemy, Joceus was the first to act, slaying his wife, Anna, and his children; he himself was slain last by Yom-Ṭob of Joigny (ib. p. 127).

It is probable that Joceus and Samuel Hoppecole held the land in London on which the chief synagogue was built (ib. p. 234).

J.