JATIVA or XATIVA (Hebrew 
; not identical with Setif, Algeria; Gross, "Gallia Judaica," p. 289):
City in the kingdom of Valencia. The Jews of this locality were granted special privileges by Don Jaime, the conqueror of Valencia. He gave them houses and fields, and allotted them a street as a special quarter. In 1267 the bailiff of the city was ordered by the king to see that the Jews were not insulted or injured in their property. In 1320 they received permission to rebuild their synagogue. In 1336, when their privileges were renewed, they were so poor that they could no longer pay their taxes, which in 1274 had amounted to 600 sueldos In the year of terror, 1391, the congregation dissolved, its members being either murdered or forced to accept baptism.
Here lived one Isaac ben Janaḥ, who in 1273 was freed of all taxes for five years. In the last third of the fourteenth century Phinehas ben Salamis of Lünel was rabbi of Jativa. He, as well as Rabbi Ḥabib and the aged scholar Ḥayyim ben Vivas, both of whom also resided in Jativa, corresponded with Isaac ben Sheshet.
- Rios, Hist. i. 405, ii. 153;
- Jacobs, Sources, Nos. 417, 536, 561, 788;
- Isaac ben Sheshet, Responsa, Nos. 253 et seq., 297 et seq., 326.
