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Jewish treasures, monuments and books in Italy.
March 20, 2017
A conception of Jewish separation, even isolation, has been central to the study of late-medieval and early-Renaissance cities in Italy — particularly after the sixteenth century, when the prototype of the ghetto was invented in Venice. However, the giudecca of Trani was compact in size and diverse in architectural character and largely open to the […]
March 20, 2017
BARLETTA, BITONTO, RUTIGLIANO, OSTUNI, NARDO’, COPERTINO and GROTTAGLIE are among the many small towns, sometimes barely villages, with a documented Jewish presence as early as Roman times. Larger or smaller groups (sometimes just a few families) alternated between settling down and moving around between these various centers up to the expulsion of 1541. In many […]
March 20, 2017
Between the 9th and 12th centuries, Otranto was one of the main centers of Jewish learning in Apulia. As the Jewish community prospered, thanks to commerce and entrepreneurial ventures, scholars gave lasting contributions to the study of the Bible, the Mishnah and the Talmud of Babylon. At the time of the forced conversion, under the […]
March 20, 2017
Santa Maria al Bagno was the largest DP camp in southern Italy. Established in 1943 when the first group of 500 refugees arrived in Puglia. At its peak in early 1946, the camp housed 2,300 Jewish refugees and about 3,000 non-Jewish refugees. The camp was structures in four sites and more than half of the […]
March 20, 2017
GALLIPOLI, BARLETTA, BITONTO, RUTIGLIANO, OSTUNI, NARDO, COPERTINO and GROTTAGLIE are among the many small towns, sometimes barely villages, with a documented Jewish presence as early as Roman times. Larger or smaller groups (sometimes just a few families) alternated between settling down and moving around between these various centers up to the expulsion of 1541. In […]
March 20, 2017
The first Jews in Oria, Taranto and Otranto arrived after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. The affluent community they formed was for centuries a center of cultural and economic exchange for the Mediterranean basin. Following an attack by Saracen raiders in the 10th century, the community lost most of its assets and […]
March 20, 2017
Lecce was the capital of what was formerly known as Terra d’Otranto. It had one of the most prominent Jewish settlements in the Neapolitan kingdom before the expulsion of the Jews. Though there is no evidence of a Jewish presence prior to the 15th century, there are traces its existence Lecce at the time of […]
March 20, 2017
GALLIPOLI, BARLETTA, BITONTO, RUTIGLIANO, OSTUNI, NARDO’, COPERTINO and GROTTAGLIE are among the many small towns, sometimes barely villages, with a documented Jewish presence as early as Roman times. Larger or smaller groups (sometimes just a few families) alternated between settling down and moving around between these various centers up to the expulsion of 1541. In […]
March 20, 2017
The Giudecca of Manduria is located in the area of the Chiesa Matrice and developed around the synagogue, which still stands today. The Jews of Manduria lived prosperously in the city until the 13th century when Charles of Anjou imposed harsh life conditions on the Jews hoping that this would force them to convert. With […]
March 20, 2017
GALLIPOLI, BARLETTA, BITONTO, RUTIGLIANO, OSTUNI, NARDO’, COPERTINO and GROTTAGLIE are among the many small towns, sometimes barely villages, with a documented Jewish presence as early as Roman times. Larger or smaller groups (sometimes just a few families) alternated between settling down and moving around between these various centers up to the expulsion of 1541. In […]
March 20, 2017
After Pompeo’s conquest of Jerusalem in 63 AD, Jews were brought back to Italy as prisoners. They arrived in Brindisi; some remained there, but most settled in Terra d’Otranto. More arrived after the destruction of the Temple. As chronicled by Ahimaaz in the XI century, Jews from the Middle East continued to arrive in […]
March 20, 2017
Few traces remain of the Jewish Community that flourished in Taranto during the Middle Ages. Much can be inferred from funereal epigraphs found here (as well as in Brindisi, Venosa and Bari). It is worth noting that these tombstones are all in Hebrew, which shows that the Jewish communities of Apulia were using their original […]
March 20, 2017
GALLIPOLI, BARLETTA, BITONTO, RUTIGLIANO, OSTUNI, NARDO’, COPERTINO and GROTTAGLIE are among the many small towns, sometimes barely villages, with a documented Jewish presence as early as Roman times. Larger or smaller groups (sometimes just a few families) alternated between settling down and moving around between these various centers, up to the expulsion of 1541. In […]
March 20, 2017
In this small costal town south of Bari, Jews were appreciated for their mercantile acumen, up to their expulsion in the early 1500’s. City view, Monopoli
March 20, 2017
One of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Apulia, dating back to the 8th century, is located in Bari’s San Lorenzo district. Bari was once one of the flourishing Jewish centers of Apulia which, according to tradition, were founded by captives brought to Italy by Titus. However, unlike in neighboring towns, no inscriptions have survived to […]
March 20, 2017
GALLIPOLI, BARLETTA, BITONTO, RUTIGLIANO, OSTUNI, NARDO’, COPERTINO and GROTTAGLIE are among the many small towns, sometimes barely villages, with a documented Jewish presence as early as Roman times. Larger or smaller groups (sometimes just a few families) alternated between settling down and moving around between these various centers, up until the Expulsion of 1541. In many […]
March 20, 2017
The four synagogues of Trani were converted into churches during the wave of anti-Judaism that followed the fall of Apulia to the Kingdom of Naples. Three hundred of the Jews remaining in the city were forced to convert to Christianity. The four synagogues were renamed Santa Maria in Scolanova, San Leonardo Abate, San Pietro Martire, and […]
March 20, 2017
Jews settled and prospered in Molfetta until the early 16th century, when the area fell into Spanish possession. Before the expulsion of the Jews in 1507, Ferdinand II instructed the local population not to honor the usurious debts contracted with the Jewish moneylenders, in order to prevent them to leave the town after receiving payment. Ferdinand […]
March 20, 2017
One the most famous centers for Jewish culture in Apulia was in Siponto. Many students from this town went to Mespotamia in the early eleventh century, in order to follow the lessons of the Babylonian Talmud. Upon their return they founded an influential Talmudic education center, headed by Rabbi Leon Elhanan.
March 20, 2017
San Nicandro Garganico is a small town in the Gargano National Park dating back to the 10th century. Although there is no evidence of a historic Jewish presence here, in the late 1920’s, San Nicandro became the theater of the only case of contemporary mass conversion to Judaism. A local shoemaker called Aldo Manduzio discovered […]
March 20, 2017
Pesaro occupies an important position in the history of Hebrew publishing. Abraham b. Ḥayyim “the Dyer” worked in Pesaro before moving to Ferrara in 1477. In 1507, Gershom Soncino opened a printing house in Pesaro and worked there with limited interruption until 1520. He produced, besides books in Italian and Latin, an impressive range of classical […]
March 20, 2017
Hebrew manuscripts from the Historical Archive in Pesaro. (Read article) The Archive of the Jewish Community of Pesaro is today part of the Historical Archive of the Jewish Community of Rome.
March 20, 2017
Up until 1633, the year the ghetto was established, Pesaro had three synagogues and numerous prayer rooms. There was a synagogue for the Hispano-Levantine rite, as well as two separate synagogues (of great beauty) following the native Italian rite. The former was commissioned and financed by Mordekhaj Volterra, a wealthy Portuguese banker, prior to his […]
March 20, 2017
The old Jewish cemetery in Pesaro was once located just outside Porta Fano. Of the remains that have been found, the earliest mentioned dates come from 1214 and the oldest surviving fragment of a tomb stone is dated to 1415. A second cemetery was inaugurated after 1550, on the San Bartolo hill, where it still stands […]
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