History of the Jews in Calabria
Encyclopedia
The history of the Jews
in Calabria
reaches back over two millennia. Calabria, Calabria is at the very south of the Italian peninsula, to which it is connected by the Monte Pollino massif, while on the east, south and west it is surrounded by the Ionian
and Tyrrhenian
seas. Jews
have had a presence in Calabria for at least 1600 years and possibly as much as 2300 years. Calabrian Jews
have had notable influence on many areas of Jewish life and culture. The Jews of Calabria are virtually identical to the neighbouring Jews of Sicily
but are considered separate. However, the Jews of Calabria and the Jews of Apulia
are historically the same community, only today are considered separate. Occasionally, there is confusion with the Jewish community in Calabria and the Jewish community in Reggio Emilia
. Both communities have always been entirely separate.
, there is no direct evidence of a Jewish presence in Calabria, then known as Bruttium, until much later. However, legends state that many Jewish captive slaves were brought to Calabria after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
in the year 70.
Other legends state that it was the Hellenized Jews from Egypt
who introduced the Etrog
to Calabria during the time of Magna Graecia
. In fact, the prized Etrog known as the Diamante Citron
also known as the, "Yanover Esrog, is still grown in Calabria to this day. The Calabrian town of Santa Maria del Cedro
still features their Etrog heritage in its place name. It is believed by some Jews, especially the Chabad
-Lubavitch, that Moses
used a Calabrian Etrog during the first holiday of Sukkot
A Kosher Liqueur
made from Calabrian etrogim is commercially available. Today in Israel
, one of the most cultivated trees used for reforestation is known as the Calabrian Pine
The Mishna, in the order of Moed
, Eruvin 42-43, makes an undated reference to the ancient Calabrian settlement of Brindisi
, also known as Plandarsin. It was in Brindisi/Plandarsin that Rabbi
s Gamliel, Akiva and other Tannaim
debate oral law concerning personal travel during Shabbat
.
The first dated mentioning of Jewish communities in Calabria were by Roman officials in the service of the Western Emperor Honorius
in the year 398.
Some ancient towns known to have had a Jewish community were Reggio
(Rhegion) and Catanzaro (Katantheros). Today some physical remnants of the ancient Calabrian Jewish community still survives. For example, the remains of the 4th century, Bova Marina Synagogue
are located in the town of Bova Marina
Another example is an inscription that mentions Calabria in the Jewish catacombs
of Monteverde in Rome
. These catacombs were in use from the first to the 3rd century.
Another popular legend states that after the Sack of Rome
in 410, Gothic
general Alaric
carried his booty, including the Temple Treasure of Jerusalem, South with him on his way to Africa
. When Alaric died suddenly while in Calabria, he was believed to have buried the Temple Treasure somewhere near the Calabria town of Consentia.
In the year 925, an army of Fatimite Muslims, led by Ja'far ibn Ubaid, invaded Calabria which devastated the Jewish population. It was during this time that Shabbethai Donnolo
, was made captive. He would later become the Byzantine
court physician in Calabria, and wrote many of his most famous works on medicine and theology while in Calabria.
, Calabria then under Byzantine
rule, was an important commercial center. During this time the Calabrian Jewish population, estimated at around 12,000, flourished. According to some sources, some areas of Calabria may have had a Jewish population of up to fifty percent. Many Jews were prosperous merchants dominating such industries as silk trading and cloth dyeing. Money lending was also an important source of revenue for the Calabrian Jews.
Many Jews of Calabria lived in special segregated neighborhoods known as La Giudecca
. Remnants of these neighborhoods still exist in Calabrian towns such as Nicastro
.
At their height, the Jews of Calabria, along with the other Jews of southern Italy were second only to the Jews of Spain in terms of classical Sephardic culture.
During the First Crusade
, southern Italy, including both Sicily and Calabria fell to the Normans
. For a time, this resulted in uniting both Jewish populations, as well as other Jewish communities in southern Italy under the flag of the Kingdom of Sicily
. Norman conqueror, Robert Guiscard
governed Calabria in 1061. Guiscard encouraged the Jews of Catanzaro to engage in several agricultural trades. In fact, unlike many of the Jewish communities of Western Europe
, the Jews of Calabria largely escaped the atrocities associated with that period. Benjamin of Tudela
mentioned the Jews of Calabria on his return trip to Spain around 1175.
After several centuries of relative peace and prosperity under the rule of the Kingdom of Naples
, the persecution of the Calabrian Jews started in 1288 with accusations of blood libel
.
Under Charles II of Anjou with the assistance of the friars of the Dominican Order
, the decline of the Calabrian Jewish communities began. During this time many Calabrian Jews and their wealth began to move to other Jewish communities of France and Northern Italy. Meanwhile other Calabrian Jews were pressured to convert to Christianity
. These Jewish converts to Christianity in Southern Italy were known as Neofiti
.
In 1348, during the years of the Black Death
, a Jew by the name of Agimet of Geneva, confessed under toture to poisoning the wells of Calabria among other places. This extracted confession was one of the factors contributing to the anti-semitic Strasbourg pogrom
.
The first type set Hebrew
books in Europe
were printed in Reggio
by Abraham Garton
in 1475. Garton did not use movable type, but used a block page format known as Incunabulum
to print his material. Garton's works were printed in a Hebrew style known as Rashi Script
. Some historians ponder the connection between Garton's pioneering mass production revolution of Hebrew books and the raise of Ashkenazi prominence in religious scholarship.
It is interesting to note that in the former Jewish quarter of Reggio there is a street named, "Via Ashkenaz
". In addition to the first printed Hebrew book, the first Hebrew commentary on the Hagaddah also appeared in Reggio, in 1482.
A short-lived revival of the Calabrian Jewish communities began after Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish expulsion arrived in 1492. Another wave of Jewish refugees also arrived in Calabria fleeing from the Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily
in 1493. And Jews from the island of Sardinia
also resettled in Calabria after their expulsion as well.
In 1510, the first in a series of Jewish expulsions began in Calabria. The final blow to the Calabrian Jews culminated when the Spanish inquisition
at last reached Calabria. By 1541, the Roman Catholic Church
ordered the last Jews of Calabria to either leave or to convert to Catholicism
. For those who could afford to leave, most went to the Greek cities of Arta
, Corfu
and Thessaloniki
, The Calabrian Jews were a sizable block in the Jewish community of Thessaloniki where they constituted four of the 30 synagogues in the city.
Four hundred years later, the last descendants of the Calabrian Jews in Greece would perish in the Holocaust
As for the rest of Calabrian Jews too poor to emigrate during the Inquisition, they were subjected to a forced conversion
, and Jewish houses of worship were converted into churches. For example, the synagogue of Catanzaro was converted to a church dedicated to St. Stefano. The Calabrian converts, many who still secretly practiced Crypto-Judaism
,were known in Hebrew as Anusim
. Despite their conversion to Catholicism, many converted Jews of Calabria were regularly discriminated against and were forced to live as second class citizens.
During the Middle Ages, Calabria contributed much to the culture of the Jewish people in Europe. Many Jewish scholars, such as Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital
and descendants of the Isaac Abarbanel were known to have come from or resided in Calabria.
Also, the 15th-century Christian Hebraist
, Agathius Guidacerius, a well regarded Greek and Hebrew grammatical expert was born in the Calabrian town of Rocca-Coragio.
he wrote "Gerusalemme e il Popolo Ebreo" - "Jerusalem and the Jewish People",
a plan for the establishment of a Jewish state in Turkish Palestine, with Hebrew as its national language. Unfortunately, his writing was not published at that time. Had it been published at the time of its writing, it would have preceded Theodore Herzl's Der Judenstaat
by forty-five years.
During World War II
, Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini
built the internment camp of Ferramonti di Tarsia
near the Calabrian town of Cosenza
. Many of the prisoners were Jews from all over Europe who had fled to Italy escaping the Holocaust. However, the Tarsia internment camp was not a death camp and the vast majority of Jews there survived the war unharmed.
Margherita Sarfatti
, a wealthy Jewish woman who had a love affair with the Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini
then escaped Italy during the German occupation returned to Italy in 1947. She resided in Calabria until her death in 1961.
Today, over 50 descendants of Calabrian neofiti
have revived a small Jewish community in Calabria.
In 2007, Calabria consecrated the opening of its first synagogue in 500 years. The Ner Tamid del Sud Synagogue in the town of Serrastretta
, serves the regional Jewish community.
However, the community has not yet received formal recognition by the Italian government or the Israeli Rabbinate because it is not within the framework of Orthodox Judaism
.
This community began with the efforts of progressive Rabbi, Barbara Aiello
. Aiello is also active in Italian American community. Her organizational efforts have led some Italian Americans of Calabrian descent to search for their Jewish ancestry. According to Aiello, many Jewish rituals still remain with modern Calabrian families. For example the lighting of Friday evening candles, avoiding pork and shellfish, or meat mixed with dairy products. Other practices such as hanging a red string over a baby’s crib, or tying it to their wrist, which are Kabalah rituals.
In 2007, Israeli land developer, David Appel, announced his plans to create one of the world's largest vacation/gambling resorts in the Calabrian town of Crotone
. The project, named, EuroParidiso, will attract tourists from all over Europe
and Israel
.
Since 2008, Kosher Passover
vacation packages have been hosted in the of city Reggio. However, these packages cater to affluent Jewish travelers and Israelis not native to Calabria . Currently there are two airlines that offer routes between Reggio and Tel Aviv
. One is Alitalia
and the other being El Al
.
was also spoken throughout Calabria.
Most Calabrian Jews followed the Italian rite (nusach
). Later, with the arrival of Iberian Jews, the Sephardic rite was also practiced in Calabria.
Despite Mosaic
prohibitions against astrology
, this occult art was popular with the Jews of Southern Italy, including Calabria, during the Byzantine era.
Cuisine originally associated with the Jews of Sicily and Calabria included those dishes labelled "alla giudia" or "all'ebraica," such as pasta with anchovies and garlic, concia di zucchine, fried courgettes marinated in vinegar and caponata, a sweet and sour aubergine dish.
Another well known Jewish Italian dish from the south is Pizza Ebraica di Erbe also known as Jewish Pizza. Yet another example is Pane Azimo. This is a variation of the Sephardic dish known as Pan de Semita or Semitic Bread.
Many of these foods have become mainstream Sicilian and Calabrian dishes.
which is associated with about 40% of the Ashkenazi Jewish population has been linked to the Jews of Sicily who in part migrated to Calabria then onto other parts of Europe. In addition to the Ashkenazi, Haplogroup G2c is also present in many modern Calabrians and their descendants, strongly indicating a common ancestry.
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
reaches back over two millennia. Calabria, Calabria is at the very south of the Italian peninsula, to which it is connected by the Monte Pollino massif, while on the east, south and west it is surrounded by the Ionian
Ionian Sea
The Ionian Sea , is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula to the west, southern Albania to the north, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and...
and Tyrrhenian
Tyrrhenian Sea
The Tyrrhenian Sea is part of the Mediterranean Sea off the western coast of Italy.-Geography:The sea is bounded by Corsica and Sardinia , Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Basilicata and Calabria and Sicily ....
seas. Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
have had a presence in Calabria for at least 1600 years and possibly as much as 2300 years. Calabrian Jews
Italian Jews
Italian Jews can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living or with roots in Italy or in a narrower sense to mean the ancient community who use the Italian rite, as distinct from the communities dating from medieval or modern times who use the Sephardi or Ashkenazi rite.-Divisions:Italian...
have had notable influence on many areas of Jewish life and culture. The Jews of Calabria are virtually identical to the neighbouring Jews of Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
but are considered separate. However, the Jews of Calabria and the Jews of Apulia
Apulia
Apulia is a region in Southern Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea in the east, the Ionian Sea to the southeast, and the Strait of Òtranto and Gulf of Taranto in the south. Its most southern portion, known as Salento peninsula, forms a high heel on the "boot" of Italy. The region comprises , and...
are historically the same community, only today are considered separate. Occasionally, there is confusion with the Jewish community in Calabria and the Jewish community in Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia
Reggio Emilia is an affluent city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has about 170,000 inhabitants and is the main comune of the Province of Reggio Emilia....
. Both communities have always been entirely separate.
Early history
The history of the Jews in Calabria is presumed to date back several centuries before the common era. While there is evidence of Hellenized Jews living in the Greek colonies of Magna GraeciaMagna Graecia
Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...
, there is no direct evidence of a Jewish presence in Calabria, then known as Bruttium, until much later. However, legends state that many Jewish captive slaves were brought to Calabria after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem
Temple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
in the year 70.
Other legends state that it was the Hellenized Jews from Egypt
History of the Jews in Egypt
Egyptian Jews constitute both one of the oldest and youngest Jewish communities in the world. While no exact census exists, the Jewish population of Egypt was estimated at fewer than a hundred in 2004, down from between 75,000 and 80,000 in 1922. The historic core of the indigenous community...
who introduced the Etrog
Etrog
Etrog refers to the yellow citron or Citrus medica used by Jews on the week-long holiday of Sukkot.While in modern Hebrew this is the name for any variety of citron, its English usage applies to those varieties and specimens used as one of the Four Species...
to Calabria during the time of Magna Graecia
Magna Graecia
Magna Græcia is the name of the coastal areas of Southern Italy on the Tarentine Gulf that were extensively colonized by Greek settlers; particularly the Achaean colonies of Tarentum, Crotone, and Sybaris, but also, more loosely, the cities of Cumae and Neapolis to the north...
. In fact, the prized Etrog known as the Diamante Citron
Diamante citron
The Diamante citron is a variety of citron named after the city of Diamante which is its most known cultivation point. Diamante is located in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, on the south-western coast of Italy...
also known as the, "Yanover Esrog, is still grown in Calabria to this day. The Calabrian town of Santa Maria del Cedro
Santa Maria del Cedro
Santa Maria del Cedro is a town and comune in the province of Cosenza, Calabria, Italy. The towns name indicates the cultivation of the special Diamante Citron which uses as Etrog for the Jews, during their Feast of Tabernacles....
still features their Etrog heritage in its place name. It is believed by some Jews, especially the Chabad
Chabad
Chabad or Chabad-Lubavitch is a major branch of Hasidic Judaism.Chabad may also refer to:*Chabad-Strashelye, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism*Chabad-Kapust or Kapust, a defunct branch of the Chabad school of Hasidic Judaism...
-Lubavitch, that Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
used a Calabrian Etrog during the first holiday of Sukkot
Sukkot
Sukkot is a Biblical holiday celebrated on the 15th day of the month of Tishrei . It is one of the three biblically mandated festivals Shalosh regalim on which Hebrews were commanded to make a pilgrimage to the Temple in Jerusalem.The holiday lasts seven days...
A Kosher Liqueur
Liqueur
A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...
made from Calabrian etrogim is commercially available. Today in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, one of the most cultivated trees used for reforestation is known as the Calabrian Pine
The Mishna, in the order of Moed
Moed
Moed is the second Order of the Mishnah, the first written recording of the Oral Torah of the Jewish people . Of the six orders of the Mishna, Moed is the third shortest. The order of Moed consists of 12 tractates:# Shabbat: or Shabbath deals with the 39 prohibitions of "work" on the Shabbat...
, Eruvin 42-43, makes an undated reference to the ancient Calabrian settlement of Brindisi
Brindisi
Brindisi is a city in the Apulia region of Italy, the capital of the province of Brindisi, off the coast of the Adriatic Sea.Historically, the city has played an important role in commerce and culture, due to its position on the Italian Peninsula and its natural port on the Adriatic Sea. The city...
, also known as Plandarsin. It was in Brindisi/Plandarsin that Rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s Gamliel, Akiva and other Tannaim
Tannaim
The Tannaim were the Rabbinic sages whose views are recorded in the Mishnah, from approximately 70-200 CE. The period of the Tannaim, also referred to as the Mishnaic period, lasted about 130 years...
debate oral law concerning personal travel during Shabbat
Shabbat
Shabbat is the seventh day of the Jewish week and a day of rest in Judaism. Shabbat is observed from a few minutes before sunset on Friday evening until a few minutes after when one would expect to be able to see three stars in the sky on Saturday night. The exact times, therefore, differ from...
.
The first dated mentioning of Jewish communities in Calabria were by Roman officials in the service of the Western Emperor Honorius
Honorius (emperor)
Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....
in the year 398.
Some ancient towns known to have had a Jewish community were Reggio
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...
(Rhegion) and Catanzaro (Katantheros). Today some physical remnants of the ancient Calabrian Jewish community still survives. For example, the remains of the 4th century, Bova Marina Synagogue
Bova Marina Synagogue
The Bova Marina Synagogue is the second oldest synagogue uncovered in Italy and one the oldest in Europe.The synagogue is located in Bova Marina, Calabria. Bova Marina means, "by the sea", in Italian. Only the Ostia Synagogue is older. The remains of the Bova Marina synagogue were unearthed in 1983...
are located in the town of Bova Marina
Bova Marina
Bova Marina is a comune in the Province of Reggio Calabria in the Italian region Calabria, located about 120 km southwest of Catanzaro and about 30 km southeast of Reggio Calabria...
Another example is an inscription that mentions Calabria in the Jewish catacombs
Catacombs
Catacombs, human-made subterranean passageways for religious practice. Any chamber used as a burial place can be described as a catacomb, although the word is most commonly associated with the Roman empire...
of Monteverde in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
. These catacombs were in use from the first to the 3rd century.
Another popular legend states that after the Sack of Rome
Sack of Rome (410)
The Sack of Rome occurred on August 24, 410. The city was attacked by the Visigoths, led by Alaric I. At that time, Rome was no longer the capital of the Western Roman Empire, replaced in this position initially by Mediolanum and then later Ravenna. Nevertheless, the city of Rome retained a...
in 410, Gothic
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
general Alaric
Alaric I
Alaric I was the King of the Visigoths from 395–410. Alaric is most famous for his sack of Rome in 410, which marked a decisive event in the decline of the Roman Empire....
carried his booty, including the Temple Treasure of Jerusalem, South with him on his way to Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
. When Alaric died suddenly while in Calabria, he was believed to have buried the Temple Treasure somewhere near the Calabria town of Consentia.
In the year 925, an army of Fatimite Muslims, led by Ja'far ibn Ubaid, invaded Calabria which devastated the Jewish population. It was during this time that Shabbethai Donnolo
Shabbethai Donnolo
Shabbethai Donnolo was an Italian physician, and writer on medicine and astrology born at Oria. When twelve years of age he was made prisoner by the Arabs under the leadership of the Fatimite Abu Ahmad Ja'far ibn 'Ubaid, but was ransomed by his relatives at Otranto, while the rest of his family...
, was made captive. He would later become the Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
court physician in Calabria, and wrote many of his most famous works on medicine and theology while in Calabria.
Middle Ages
During the early period of the Middle AgesMiddle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
, Calabria then under Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
rule, was an important commercial center. During this time the Calabrian Jewish population, estimated at around 12,000, flourished. According to some sources, some areas of Calabria may have had a Jewish population of up to fifty percent. Many Jews were prosperous merchants dominating such industries as silk trading and cloth dyeing. Money lending was also an important source of revenue for the Calabrian Jews.
Many Jews of Calabria lived in special segregated neighborhoods known as La Giudecca
La Giudecca
La Giudecca was a term used In Southern Italy and Sicily to identify any urban district where Jewish communities dwelled and had their synagogues and businesses....
. Remnants of these neighborhoods still exist in Calabrian towns such as Nicastro
Nicastro
Nicastro was a small town in the province of Catanzaro, in the Calabria region of southern Italy.Since 1968 it constitutes, together with Sambiase and Sant'Eufemia Lamezia, the city of Lamezia Terme.- Geography :...
.
At their height, the Jews of Calabria, along with the other Jews of southern Italy were second only to the Jews of Spain in terms of classical Sephardic culture.
During the First Crusade
First Crusade
The First Crusade was a military expedition by Western Christianity to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquest of the Levant, ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem...
, southern Italy, including both Sicily and Calabria fell to the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
. For a time, this resulted in uniting both Jewish populations, as well as other Jewish communities in southern Italy under the flag of the Kingdom of Sicily
Kingdom of Sicily
The Kingdom of Sicily was a state that existed in the south of Italy from its founding by Roger II in 1130 until 1816. It was a successor state of the County of Sicily, which had been founded in 1071 during the Norman conquest of southern Italy...
. Norman conqueror, Robert Guiscard
Robert Guiscard
Robert d'Hauteville, known as Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria, from Latin Viscardus and Old French Viscart, often rendered the Resourceful, the Cunning, the Wily, the Fox, or the Weasel was a Norman adventurer conspicuous in the conquest of southern Italy and Sicily...
governed Calabria in 1061. Guiscard encouraged the Jews of Catanzaro to engage in several agricultural trades. In fact, unlike many of the Jewish communities of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
, the Jews of Calabria largely escaped the atrocities associated with that period. Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...
mentioned the Jews of Calabria on his return trip to Spain around 1175.
After several centuries of relative peace and prosperity under the rule of the Kingdom of Naples
Kingdom of Naples
The Kingdom of Naples, comprising the southern part of the Italian peninsula, was the remainder of the old Kingdom of Sicily after secession of the island of Sicily as a result of the Sicilian Vespers rebellion of 1282. Known to contemporaries as the Kingdom of Sicily, it is dubbed Kingdom of...
, the persecution of the Calabrian Jews started in 1288 with accusations of blood libel
Blood libel
Blood libel is a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, usually Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays...
.
Under Charles II of Anjou with the assistance of the friars of the Dominican Order
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
, the decline of the Calabrian Jewish communities began. During this time many Calabrian Jews and their wealth began to move to other Jewish communities of France and Northern Italy. Meanwhile other Calabrian Jews were pressured to convert to Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
. These Jewish converts to Christianity in Southern Italy were known as Neofiti
Neofiti
The neofiti were a group of Italian anusim, also known as crypto-Jews, living in Southern Italy.-History:The Jewish ancestors of the neofiti were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism in 1493. They continued to secretly practice certain elements of Judaism, however, as did many of their descendants...
.
In 1348, during the years of the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, a Jew by the name of Agimet of Geneva, confessed under toture to poisoning the wells of Calabria among other places. This extracted confession was one of the factors contributing to the anti-semitic Strasbourg pogrom
Strasbourg pogrom
The Strasbourg pogrom occurred on February 14, 1349, when several hundred Jews were publicly burnt to death, and the rest of them expelled from the city. It was one of the first and worst pogroms in pre-modern history....
.
The first type set Hebrew
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
books in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
were printed in Reggio
Reggio Calabria
Reggio di Calabria , commonly known as Reggio Calabria or Reggio, is the biggest city and the most populated comune of Calabria, southern Italy, and is the capital of the Province of Reggio Calabria and seat of the Council of Calabrian government.Reggio is located on the "toe" of the Italian...
by Abraham Garton
Abraham Garton
Abraham Garton was a Jewish printer who printed the first dated Hebrew book in Europe in 1475.Unfortunately, very little is known about the personal life of Abraham ben Garton. Most scholars believe he was born in Spain, and emigrated to Calabria, Italy prior to the expulsion of the Jews from Spain...
in 1475. Garton did not use movable type, but used a block page format known as Incunabulum
Incunabulum
Incunable, or sometimes incunabulum is a book, pamphlet, or broadside, that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe...
to print his material. Garton's works were printed in a Hebrew style known as Rashi Script
Rashi script
Rashi script is a semi-cursive typeface for the Hebrew alphabet. It is named for the author of the most famous rabbinic commentary on the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud, Rashi, and is customarily used for printing his commentaries. The typeface is based on 15th century Sephardic semi-cursive...
. Some historians ponder the connection between Garton's pioneering mass production revolution of Hebrew books and the raise of Ashkenazi prominence in religious scholarship.
It is interesting to note that in the former Jewish quarter of Reggio there is a street named, "Via Ashkenaz
Ashkenaz
In the Bible, Ashkenaz is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah , thereby a Japhetic descendant of Noah. A kingdom of Ashkenaz is called together with Ararat and Minni against Babylon In the Bible, Ashkenaz (Heb. אַשְׁכֲּנָז) is Gomer's first son, brother of Riphath and Togarmah (Gen....
". In addition to the first printed Hebrew book, the first Hebrew commentary on the Hagaddah also appeared in Reggio, in 1482.
A short-lived revival of the Calabrian Jewish communities began after Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish expulsion arrived in 1492. Another wave of Jewish refugees also arrived in Calabria fleeing from the Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily
Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily
The expulsion of the Jews from Sicily began in 1493 when the Spanish Inquisition reached the island of Sicily and its Jewish population of more than 30,000 Jews.-History of the Sicilian Jews:...
in 1493. And Jews from the island of Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
also resettled in Calabria after their expulsion as well.
In 1510, the first in a series of Jewish expulsions began in Calabria. The final blow to the Calabrian Jews culminated when the Spanish inquisition
Spanish Inquisition
The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition , commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition , was a tribunal established in 1480 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. It was intended to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms, and to replace the Medieval...
at last reached Calabria. By 1541, the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
ordered the last Jews of Calabria to either leave or to convert to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
. For those who could afford to leave, most went to the Greek cities of Arta
Arta, Greece
Arta is a city with a rich history in northwestern Greece, capital of the peripheral unit of Arta, which is part of Epirus region. The city was known in ancient times as Ambracia . Arta is famous for its old bridge located over the Arachthos River, situated west of downtown...
, Corfu
Corfu
Corfu is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the edge of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The island is part of the Corfu regional unit, and is administered as a single municipality. The...
and Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki
Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...
, The Calabrian Jews were a sizable block in the Jewish community of Thessaloniki where they constituted four of the 30 synagogues in the city.
Four hundred years later, the last descendants of the Calabrian Jews in Greece would perish in the Holocaust
As for the rest of Calabrian Jews too poor to emigrate during the Inquisition, they were subjected to a forced conversion
Forced conversion
A forced conversion is the religious conversion or acceptance of a philosophy against the will of the subject, often with the threatened consequence of earthly penalties or harm. These consequences range from job loss and social isolation to incarceration, torture or death...
, and Jewish houses of worship were converted into churches. For example, the synagogue of Catanzaro was converted to a church dedicated to St. Stefano. The Calabrian converts, many who still secretly practiced Crypto-Judaism
Crypto-Judaism
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews"...
,were known in Hebrew as Anusim
Anusim
Anusim is a legal category of Jews in halakha who were forced or coerced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically while forcibly converted to another religion...
. Despite their conversion to Catholicism, many converted Jews of Calabria were regularly discriminated against and were forced to live as second class citizens.
During the Middle Ages, Calabria contributed much to the culture of the Jewish people in Europe. Many Jewish scholars, such as Rabbi Hayyim ben Joseph Vital
Hayyim ben Joseph Vital
Hayyim ben Joseph Vital was a rabbi in Safed and the foremost disciple of Isaac Luria. He recorded much of his master's teachings...
and descendants of the Isaac Abarbanel were known to have come from or resided in Calabria.
Also, the 15th-century Christian Hebraist
Christian Hebraist
A Christian Hebraist is a scholar of Hebrew who comes from a Christian family background/belief, or is a Jewish adherent of Christianity. The main area of study is that commonly known as the Old Testament to Christians , but Christians have occasionally taken an interest in the Talmud, and...
, Agathius Guidacerius, a well regarded Greek and Hebrew grammatical expert was born in the Calabrian town of Rocca-Coragio.
Modern times
Benedetto Musolino (1809–1885), was a Christian from a Calabrian noble family. In 1851,he wrote "Gerusalemme e il Popolo Ebreo" - "Jerusalem and the Jewish People",
a plan for the establishment of a Jewish state in Turkish Palestine, with Hebrew as its national language. Unfortunately, his writing was not published at that time. Had it been published at the time of its writing, it would have preceded Theodore Herzl's Der Judenstaat
Der Judenstaat
Der Judenstaat is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung...
by forty-five years.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
built the internment camp of Ferramonti di Tarsia
Ferramonti di Tarsia
Ferramonti di Tarsia, located near Cosenza in Southern Italy, was an internment camp for Jews and foreigners. It was the largest of the fifteen internment camps established by Benito Mussolini between June and September 1940...
near the Calabrian town of Cosenza
Cosenza
Cosenza is a city in southern Italy, located at the confluence of two historic rivers: the Busento and the Crathis. The municipal population is of around 70,000; the urban area, however, counts over 260,000 inhabitants...
. Many of the prisoners were Jews from all over Europe who had fled to Italy escaping the Holocaust. However, the Tarsia internment camp was not a death camp and the vast majority of Jews there survived the war unharmed.
Margherita Sarfatti
Margherita Sarfatti
Margherita Sarfatti was a Jewish Italian journalist, art critic, patron, collector, socialite, and one of Benito Mussolini's mistresses.-Biography:...
, a wealthy Jewish woman who had a love affair with the Italian Dictator, Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....
then escaped Italy during the German occupation returned to Italy in 1947. She resided in Calabria until her death in 1961.
Today, over 50 descendants of Calabrian neofiti
Neofiti
The neofiti were a group of Italian anusim, also known as crypto-Jews, living in Southern Italy.-History:The Jewish ancestors of the neofiti were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism in 1493. They continued to secretly practice certain elements of Judaism, however, as did many of their descendants...
have revived a small Jewish community in Calabria.
In 2007, Calabria consecrated the opening of its first synagogue in 500 years. The Ner Tamid del Sud Synagogue in the town of Serrastretta
Serrastretta
Serrastretta is a town and comune in the province of Catanzaro in the Calabria region of southern Italy.-Geography:The town is bordered by Amato, Decollatura, Feroleto Antico, Lamezia Terme, Miglierina, Pianopoli, Platania and San Pietro Apostolo....
, serves the regional Jewish community.
However, the community has not yet received formal recognition by the Italian government or the Israeli Rabbinate because it is not within the framework of Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
.
This community began with the efforts of progressive Rabbi, Barbara Aiello
Barbara Aiello
Rabbi Barbara Aiello was the first Rabbi of Synagogue Lev Chadash in Milan, Italy. Aiello is the first female Rabbi in Italy and has served as the head of Italy's first Reform synagogue.- Early life :...
. Aiello is also active in Italian American community. Her organizational efforts have led some Italian Americans of Calabrian descent to search for their Jewish ancestry. According to Aiello, many Jewish rituals still remain with modern Calabrian families. For example the lighting of Friday evening candles, avoiding pork and shellfish, or meat mixed with dairy products. Other practices such as hanging a red string over a baby’s crib, or tying it to their wrist, which are Kabalah rituals.
In 2007, Israeli land developer, David Appel, announced his plans to create one of the world's largest vacation/gambling resorts in the Calabrian town of Crotone
Crotone
Crotone is a city and comune in Calabria, southern Italy, on the Ionian Sea. Founded circa 710 BC as the Achaean colony of Croton , it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until 1928, when its name was changed to the current one. In 1994 it became the capital of the newly established...
. The project, named, EuroParidiso, will attract tourists from all over Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Since 2008, Kosher Passover
Passover
Passover is a Jewish holiday and festival. It commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the ancient Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt...
vacation packages have been hosted in the of city Reggio. However, these packages cater to affluent Jewish travelers and Israelis not native to Calabria . Currently there are two airlines that offer routes between Reggio and Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. One is Alitalia
Alitalia
Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. , in its later stages known as Alitalia - Linee Aeree Italiane S.p.A. in Extraordinary Administration, was the former Italian flag carrier...
and the other being El Al
El Al
El Al Israel Airlines Ltd , trading as El Al , is the flag carrier of Israel. It operates scheduled domestic and international services and cargo flights to Europe, North America, Africa and the Far East from its main base in Ben Gurion International Airport...
.
Language and culture
From about the 1st century to the 16th century, it is presumed that most native Calabrian Jews spoke a dialect of Judeo-Italian known as Italki or Italkian. However, with the arrival of the Iberian Jews after 1492, LadinoJudaeo-Spanish
Judaeo-Spanish , in Israel commonly referred to as Ladino, and known locally as Judezmo, Djudeo-Espanyol, Djudezmo, Djudeo-Kasteyano, Spaniolit and other names, is a Romance language derived from Old Spanish...
was also spoken throughout Calabria.
Most Calabrian Jews followed the Italian rite (nusach
Nusach
Nusach is a concept in Judaism that has two distinct meanings. One is the style of a prayer service ; another is the melody of the service depending on when the service is being conducted.-Meaning of term:Nusach primarily means "text" or "version", in...
). Later, with the arrival of Iberian Jews, the Sephardic rite was also practiced in Calabria.
Despite Mosaic
Mosaic
Mosaic is the art of creating images with an assemblage of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It may be a technique of decorative art, an aspect of interior decoration, or of cultural and spiritual significance as in a cathedral...
prohibitions against astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...
, this occult art was popular with the Jews of Southern Italy, including Calabria, during the Byzantine era.
Cuisine originally associated with the Jews of Sicily and Calabria included those dishes labelled "alla giudia" or "all'ebraica," such as pasta with anchovies and garlic, concia di zucchine, fried courgettes marinated in vinegar and caponata, a sweet and sour aubergine dish.
Another well known Jewish Italian dish from the south is Pizza Ebraica di Erbe also known as Jewish Pizza. Yet another example is Pane Azimo. This is a variation of the Sephardic dish known as Pan de Semita or Semitic Bread.
Many of these foods have become mainstream Sicilian and Calabrian dishes.
Ethnicity
The Haplogroup G2c (Y-DNA)Haplogroup G2c (Y-DNA)
In human genetics, Haplogroup G2c is a Y-chromosome haplogroup and is defined by the presence of the M377 mutation. It is a branch of Haplogroup G, which in turn is defined by the presence of the M201 mutation....
which is associated with about 40% of the Ashkenazi Jewish population has been linked to the Jews of Sicily who in part migrated to Calabria then onto other parts of Europe. In addition to the Ashkenazi, Haplogroup G2c is also present in many modern Calabrians and their descendants, strongly indicating a common ancestry.
History of the Jews in Italy by region
- History of the Jews in ApuliaHistory of the Jews in ApuliaThe history of the Jews in Apulia can be traced to over two millennia. Apulia, in Hebrew:פוליה) is a mountainous region in the "boot heel" of the peninsula of Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea. The Jews have had a presence in Apulia for at least 2000 years...
- History of the Jews in Livorno
- History of the Jews in Naples
- History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
- History of the Jews in San MarinoHistory of the Jews in San MarinoThe history of the Jews in San Marino, located within Italy reaches back to the Middle Ages.San Marino is a small land locked country in central Italy. There has been a Jewish presence in San Marino for at least 600 years....
- History of the Jews in SardiniaHistory of the Jews in SardiniaThe history of the Jews in Sardinia can be traced over two millennia. Sardinia, is an island off the west coast of Italy and south of the Island of Corsica. Its coodinates are between 8° 4′ and 9° 49′ E. long., and between 38° 55′ and 41° 16′ N. lat...
- History of the Jews in SicilyHistory of the Jews in SicilyThe history of the Jews in Sicily goes back two millennia. Sicily, is a large island off the Southern Italian coast. There has been a Jewish presence in Sicily for at least 1400 years and possibly for more than 2000 years...
- History of the Jews in Trieste
- History of the Jews in Turin
- History of the Jews in Venice
Other
- History of the Jews in ItalyHistory of the Jews in ItalyThe history of the Jews in Italy goes back over two thousand years. Jews have been present in Italy from the Roman period until the present.-Antiquity:-Pre-Christian Rome:...
- History of the Jews of ThessalonikiHistory of the Jews of ThessalonikiThe history of the Jews of Thessaloniki, Greece, reaches back two thousand years.The city of Thessaloniki housed a major Jewish community, mostly of Sephardic origin, until the middle of the Second World War...
- Expulsion of the Jews from Spain
- Expulsion of the Jews from SicilyExpulsion of the Jews from SicilyThe expulsion of the Jews from Sicily began in 1493 when the Spanish Inquisition reached the island of Sicily and its Jewish population of more than 30,000 Jews.-History of the Sicilian Jews:...
- Marranos
- Hebrew incunabulaHebrew incunabulaHebrew incunabula are works printed in Hebrew in the fifteenth century.Originally about 100 can be traced as certainly printed before 1500. There are, besides these, eight incunabula of which either no copy is known or the time and place of publication can not be definitely determined...
External links
- http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/friday-supplement/still-jewish-after-all-these-years-1.283773
- http://escholarship.org/uc/item/91z342hv#page-1