Today there are 30,000 Jews in Italy. There are 15,000 Jews in Rome, 10,000 in Milan, 1,600 in Turin, 1,400 on Florence, and 1,000 in Leghorn (Livorno). There are also a few hundred in Bologna, Genoa, Trieste, and Venice, and a smaller number in Alessandria, Ancona, Asti, Ferrara, Gorizia, Mantua, Merano, Modena, Naples, Padua, Parma, Perugia, Pisa, Siena, Spezia, Vercelli, Verona, Viareggio, and Casale Monferrato.
The Jewish Community of Rome is both the oldest Jewish community in Italy and Europe. The first Jews arrived in Rome in 161 B.C.E.. They came as ambassadors of Judah Maccabee to ask for Roman protection against Antiochus IV. Later on, many Jews moved to Rome because its position on The Mediterranean Sea was favorable for trading. They lived in Trasteverse, were all the strangers lived because The Roman Empire did not yet rule over Judea. In 70 C.E., Emperor Titus destroyed The Second Temple, Jerusalem, and Judea, and The Jews escaped in 2 groups. 1 group went to the Mediterranean area and became The Sfaradim. Another group went to Northern Europe and became The Ashkenazim. Titus brought a third group of Jews to Rome as slaves. They joined the local tradition. This tradition is The Nusach Italki, The Italian Rite, and is comparable to The Ashkenazic and Sfardic Rites.
During The Middle Ages, many Jews moved from Trastevere to the area around Ponte Fabricio. The Roman Catholic Church discrimnated against The Jews. The Jews were seperated and isolated from the rest of the population. In 1215, The Church forced The Jews to wear a distinctive device on their clothes.
In 1492, when the Catholic King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain expelled The Jews from Spain and The Reign of The Two Sicilies (Sicily, Calabria and Sardinia), Pope Alexander VI Borgia allowed these Jews to live in The Papal State. In 1555, the following Pope, Paul IV, established The Ghetto in Rome. In 1516, The Government of The Republic of Venice also made The Jews live in a ghetto rather than expel them. The area of The Ghetto in Rome was very small and surrounded by a wall with 5 gates. It was unhealthy and constantly flooded in The Winter. The Jews were permited to leave The Ghetto in the daytime but they had to be recognized as Jews. Ghettos in general were always in the middle of cities and surrounded by walls, and Jews could only leave them in certain times of the day. Jews were only allowed 2 professions: selling old clothes and lending money. Inside The Ghetto in Rome there were 5 synagogues, Scola Catalana, Scola Castigliana, Scola Siciliana, Scola Tempio, and Scola Nova. The objects from these synagogues are exhibited in a museum on the site of The Ghetto. The Ghetto was demolished in 1870 after the unification of Italy. The Jews then became Italian citizens.
In the early years of Benito Mussolini's Fascist movement, it was not characterized by anti-Semitism. Indeed, some Italian Jews were enthusiastic Fascists until the alliance of Italy with Germany, and even after it. Nazi pressure to implement discrimination against Jews was for the most part ignored or enacted half-heartedly. The appearance of Anti-Semitism in Mussolini's speeches, however, was a hint of the tragedy that was to come.
In 1938, The Italian Racial Laws discriminated The Jews again and striped them of their citizenship. In 1931 there were 48,000 Jews in Italy. By 1939 up to 4,000 had been baptized, and some thousands more chose to emigrate, leaving 35,000 Jews in the country. During World War II, Jews were interned in labor camps in Italy, but when The north of Italy was effectively occupied by The Germans in 1943, the threat to Jews became critical. In spite of German efforts to deport Italian Jewry to death camps, the willingness of much of the Italian population to shelter Jews meant that many Nazi efforts were stymied. However, during the German occupation (September, 1943 until June, 1944), 2,091 Jews were deported mainly to Auschwitz. Only 16 survived. In 1944, 335 Italians, including 75 Jews, were massacred in the caves outside of Rome (Fosse Ardeatine). Rome was declared an "Open City" during World War II because of the prescense of Pope Pius XII in the city. The Nazis did not touch the monuments including the synagogue which was sealed and reopened after the war. By the end of the war, The Nazis and some Italian Fascists had murdered 7,750 Jews.
A number of Ashkenazim from Eastern Europe, mainly Holocaust survivors, came to Italy after World War II. In more recent years, Italian Jewry has been bolstered by some 3,000 Libyan Jews who moved to Italy in The Late 1960's and Early 1970's.
In 1982, after Simchat Torah, there was a terrorist attack in the syngaogue. A 2 year old boy was killed and many people were injured. Since then they have had security provided by The Italian Police. Today there are several synagogues, from The Ashkenazic, Sfardic, and Italki Nusachim spread out all over Rome.
Topic: Italian Jewish History (Read 4251 times)