SAINT-SYMPHORIEN D'OZON:
By: Richard Gottheil, S. Kahn
Town in the ancient province of Dauphiné, France. In the fourteenth century it had a large and wealthy Jewish community, to which the dauphin Charles granted (1355) important privileges; for this a special impost was paid (Prudhomme, "Les Juifs en Dauphiné," pp. 38, 42).
The most important banking-house of the city was that of the Cohen brothers, who numbered among their clients, there as well as at Vienne, clerics, priests, nobles, and prominent burghers (ib. p. 74). In spite of the dauphin's favor, the Jews of St. Symphorien paid special highway-tolls; e.g., a Jew on foot four deniers, a Jew on horseback or an enceinte Jewess eight deniers (Depping, "Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age," p. 162). On March 30, 1396, three Jewish youths were accused of having caused the arrest of a Christian tailor, Antoine Escoffier, upon a fictitious charge, and, moreover, of having mocked and reviled the name of Jesus. Arraigned before the dauphin's council, they were sentenced to pay a fine of 200 francs in gold ("Revue des Etudes Juives," ix. 259).
- Prudhomme, Les Juifs en Dauphiné.