Falaise

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FALAISE

FALAISE , town in the Calvados department, France. During the 12th and 13th centuries there was a Jewish community in Falaise, which was still remembered until 1890 in the name "Rue aux Juifs." Among the scholars there were the tosafists *Samson b. Joseph of Falaise and *Samuel b. Solomon of Falaise (also known as Sir Morel), who was one of the leading French tosafists and also a successful financier. He took part in the *disputation on the Talmud in 1240, but appears to have died before 1247. His son Jean may have been converted to Christianity.

bibliography:

Gross, Gal Jud 476–83; P.G. Langevin, Recherches Historiques sur Falaise (1814), 39; L. Musset in: Bulletin de la Société Antiquaire de Normandie, 50 (1946), 305ff.

[Bernhard Blumenkranz]