Arthur Peyrere

Isaac "Arthur" Pereyre (1863-1934) was a Jewish activist in Bayonne (in Southern France), and a commandant in the French army. Although his Hebrew name was יצחק (Isaac), he seems to have been known as "Arthur" in the secular world. He was married to Rebecca רבקה (Marguerite) Pereyre, née Leon (born 1873, died 1968).

The main accomplishment for which Pereyre is remembered by history is his writing out phonetically, according to modern French phonetics, the transliteration of the Mahzor (holiday prayerbook) of the Jewish community of Bayonne and Bordeaux. He wrote out this transliteration for the benefit of his wife, in the early years of the twentieth century.

The Jewish communities of Bayonne and Bordeaux were founded by ex-conversos, Sephardi Jews who had pretended to convert to Catholicism, yet secretly continued keeping their Jewish traditions. The communities had a special way of pronouncing Hebrew. Although the synagogues still exist today, they have been taken over by North African Jews. The old ex-converso community is no more. Thus, Pereyre's transliteration is invaluable in teaching linguists what how the Hebrew pronunciation of the old community sounded. Prof. Moshe Bar-Asher wrote a two-volume study of the pronunciation as reflected in Pereyre's transliterated Mahzor, and published this study in 2006.

ources

* Bar-Asher, Moshe. העברית שבפי צאצי האנוסים בצרפת. Mosad Bialik, 2006.