Ramerupt

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RAMERUPT

RAMERUPT , village in the Aube department, N.E. central France. No single extant non-Jewish source confirms the existence of a Jewish community in Ramerupt during the Middle Ages, but Jewish sources mention a community which existed from at least around 1100 until the latter half of the 12th century. It was renowned for its yeshivah, headed by *Meir b. Samuel, Rashi's son-in-law, who was succeeded by his sons, Jacob *Tam and *Samuel b. Meir. The chronicle of *Ephraim b. Jacob of Bonn records an attack made by crusaders on the community of Ramerupt on the second day of Shavuot, 1147, but only describes in detail the ill-treatment of R. Jacob Tam. His house was looted, a Torah Scroll was desecrated, and he would have been murdered in the fields had not a passing nobleman tricked the crusaders into releasing him.

bibliography:

Gross, Gal Jud, 634–8; A.M. Habermann, Sefer Gezerot Ashkenaz ve-Ẓarefat (1946), 121.

[Bernhard Blumenkranz]