CAPESTANG:
Village in the department of Hérault, near Béziers, France. Several official documents testify to the presence of many Jews there in the thirteenth century. Simon ben Meïr, in his work, "Milḥemet Miẓwah," relates that about 1245 he took part in a religious controversy before the archbishop of Narbonne, in the presence of the leaders of the Jewish community of Capestang. Numerous scholars of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries have borne the surname of "Capestang," which, in passing into Hebrew, underwent many alterations, as 
.
The Jewish community of Capestang took part in the campaign led by Abba Mari of Lunel against Maimonides. A letter of adhesion condemning the study of philosophy was sent to Abba Mari by Isaac ben Moses ha-Kohen in the name of fifteen scholars of Capestang.
- Saige, Les Juifs du Languedoc, p. 214;
- Gross, Gallia Judaica, p. 546;
- Minḥat Ḳena'ot, pp. 172, 173.
