Letter about the Blois Incident

Evidence of a Jewish community in Troyes, in northern France, dates to the tenth century, although Jews likely lived in the town before that time. The city’s most famous Jewish resident was Solomon ben Isaac (Rashi), who was born there and returned home after studying in German academies. Troyes remained an important regional center into the twelfth century. In subsequent decades, the Jews of Troyes were known to have engaged in viticulture and moneylending, typical professions of the period. An accusation of ritual murder was leveled against the Jews of Troyes in 1288, and thirteen Jews were burned to death as punishment. At least five poetic laments, one of which is in Old French, commemorate these events. Jews fled Troyes following the 1306 expulsion from France, only to return for a brief period before the more permanent expulsion in 1322.