Minorca

views updated May 08 2018

MINORCA

MINORCA , Mediterranean island of the Balearic group. The earliest information about the Jews on the island dates from 418 c.e. when Severus, the bishop of Minorca, reports on the victory of Christianity in the island. The agitation he fomented led to the destruction of the synagogue. Many Jews, especially the women, died for their faith: a few succeeded in hiding in the forests and caves. According to Severus he gained 540 Jews for Christianity. While it existed, the community was organized as a national group under the leadership of a "defensor": the last, Theodore, acted as *archisynagogos. There is no information available on the Jews during the Byzantine and Muslim rule. When Minorca was reconquered by the Christians during the reign of James i of Aragon, he received help from the Jews to equip the expedition. Most of the later history of the Jews of Minorca is closely connected with that of their coreligionists in *Majorca. In 1319 King Sancho I declared that they and the Jews of the nearby island of Ibiza were to be included in all the levies imposed upon them by the communal leaders of Majorca. The Jews shared the sufferings of the general population when Minorca was almost depleted of its inhabitants during the *Black Death (1348). After the disorders which swept Spain in 1391, there were apparently no Jews on the island. Nevertheless, a number of Judaizers in Minorca were sentenced by the Inquisition of Majorca which maintained a commission at Mahón. A small Jewish community existed again in Minorca during the temporary English occupation in the 18th century (1720–56; 1762–81).

bibliography:

Baer, Spain, 1 (1961), 17, 174, 381, 404; P.G. Segeni, Carta encíclica del obispo Severo (1937); C. Roth, in: B. Schindler (ed.), Gaster Anniversary Volume (1936), 492–7; B. Braunstein, Chuetas of Majorca (1936), 118ff.; J. Parkes, Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue (1963), 204–5; López de Meneses, in: Estudios de edad media de la Corona de Aragon, 6 (1956), 255, 353, 388. add. bibliography: R. Moulinas, in: rej, 132 (1973), 605–15; E.D. Hunt, in: Journal of Theological Studies, n. s. 33 (1982), 106–23; J. Mascaró Pasarius, in: Revista de Menorca, 74 (1983), 241–81; F. Lotter, in: Proceedings of 9thWorld Congress of Jewish Studies (1986), Division B, vol. 1, 23–30; R. Rosselló Vaquer, Els jueus dins la societat menorquina del segle xiv (1990).

[Haim Beinart]

Minorca

views updated May 21 2018

Minorca is a Balearic island in the western Mediterranean of strategic importance, with Port Mahon a fine harbour. It was taken by the British in 1708 and retained at the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. At the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756, Admiral Byng's failure to prevent the French from capturing it brought down Newcastle's ministry and led to his own court martial and execution. It was returned to Britain again in 1763 by the treaty of Paris. Lost to a combined French and Spanish force in 1782 it was ceded to Spain in 1783, and though the British once more took the island in 1798, it was given back to Spain at the peace of Amiens in 1802.

J. A. Cannon

Minorca

views updated May 21 2018

Minorca black variety of domestic fowl named after Minorca, one of the Balearic islands. XIX.

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