Béjar is a town and municipality in the province of Salamanca, western Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile and León. It lies 72 km (45 mi) had a population of 15,016 as of 2007.
The first inhabitants of what is now Béjar were the Vettones who settled an area to the south of the city now known as La Antigua around 400 BC. The city was made part of Roman Hispania in the beginning of the 1st century BC. In AD 713, the city was taken by Muslim Berbers (Moors) from the Visigoths and in the 11th century it was conquered by King Alfonso VI of Castile. Following this, numerous fortress and the walls, many which still stand, were constructed to repel frequent Arab incursions that took place until the definitive expulsion of the Muslims.
The city was later the center of the Duchy of Béjar ruled by the powerful House of Zúñiga.
The name Béjar is of pre-Roman origin. The original form was Bigerra and is said to mean "place of the beehives." "Béjar" could be an adaption from the Spanish word abeja, which means "bee." An older spelling of the city's name is Béxar. In medieval documents, Vexar is found also.
Jews have historically used Hebrew patronymic names. In the Jewish patronymic system the first name is followed by either ben- or bat- ("son of" and "daughter of," respectively), and then the father's name. (Bar-, "son of" in Aramaic, is also seen). Permanent family surnames exist today but only gained popularity among Sephardic Jews in Iberia and elsewhere as early as the 10th or 11th century and did not spread widely to the Ashkenazic Jews of Germany or Eastern Europe until the 18th and 19th century, where the adoption of German surnames was imposed in exchange for Jewish emancipation.
Although Ashkenazi Jews now use European or modern-Hebrew surnames for everyday life, the Hebrew patronymic form is still used in Jewish religious and cultural life. It is used in synagogue and in documents in Jewish law such as the ketubah (marriage contract).
Surnames were not unknown among the Jews of the Middle Ages, and as Jews began to mingle more with their fellow citizens, the practice of using or adopting civic surnames in addition to the "sacred" name, used only in religious connections, grew commensurately. Among the Sephardim this practice was common long before the exile from Spain, and probably became still more common as a result of the example of the conversos, who on adopting Christianity accepted in most cases the family names of their godfathers. Among the Ashkenazim, whose isolation from the mainstream majority population in the lands where they lived was more complete, the use of surnames only started to become common in the eighteenth century in most places.
Bejar can refer to:
I took you down to the station
And I bought your ticket
Lord, I hate to see you go
And as you walk away
Please don't turn around, 'cause
I know you'd hate to see me cry
But I put you on that bus
And as it pulls away
You know I'd really rather be...
Oh, anywhere but here
Nowhere else but here
Anywhere but here
I wish I could take you there, now
Sit around the hotel room
We're playing cards for nickels
It should always be this way
But I'm just a man
And you're a bit too crazy
And being together's always hard
So I put you on that bus
But as it pulls away
You know I'd really rather be...
Oh, anywhere but here
Nowhere else but here
Anywhere but here
I wish I could take you there, now
'Cause I sure as hell don't wanna be here
Oh, now that you're gone
Oh, now that you're gone
Oh, now that you're gone
So now you're gone
And it's my fault
And now that you're gone
I just had this thought
That I can hardly wait to see you
I can hardly wait to be...
Oh, anywhere but here
But I'm just a man
And you're a bit too crazy
And being together is always hard
Lord knows I'd rather be...
Oh, anywhere but here
Nowhere else but here
Anywhere but here
I wish I could take you there, now
'Cause I sure as hell don't wanna be here
Oh, now that you're gone
Oh, now that you're gone
Oh, now that you're gone
I can hardly wait to see you