Everything about History Of The Jews In Italy totally explained
Jews have been present in
Italy from the Roman period until today.
Pre-Christian Rome
The first attested Jews in Italy were the ambassadors sent to Rome by
Judah Maccabee in
161 BC, Jason son of Eleazar and Eupolemus son of John. According to
I Maccabees they signed a treaty with the
Roman Senate, although modern scholars like
A.N. Sherwin-White argue that this embassy didn't happen.
It is known more securely that an embassy was sent later by
Simon Maccabeus to
Rome to strengthen the alliance with the Romans against the
Hellenistic Seleucid kingdom. The ambassadors received a cordial welcome from their coreligionists who were already established there.
Large numbers of Jews lived in Rome even during the Roman Republican period. They were largely
Greek-speaking and poor. As Rome had increasing contact with and
military/
trade dealings with the Greek-speaking eastern Mediterranean, during the
second and
first centuries
BCE, many Greeks, Jews among them, came to Rome as
merchants or were brought there as
slaves.
The Romans appear to have looked down on the Jews as peculiar, backward religious fanatics, but
antisemitism as it would come to be in the
Christian and
Islamic worlds didn't exist. Despite their disdain, the Romans did recognize and respect the antiquity of their religion and the fame of their Temple. Many Romans didn't know much about Judaism, including the emperor
Augustus who, according to his biographer
Suetonius, thought that Jews fasted on the
sabbath.
Julius Caesar was known as a great friend to the Jews, and they were among the first to mourn his assassination.
In Rome, the community was highly organized, and presided over by heads called αρχοντες
(archontes); or γερουσιάρχοι
(gerousiarchoi) . The Jews maintained in Rome several synagogues, whose spiritual leader was called αρχισυνάγωγος
(archisunagogos). Their tombstones, mostly in
Greek with a few in
Hebrew/
Aramaic or
Latin, were decorated with the ritual
menorah (seven-branched candelabrum).
Jews in pre-
Christian Rome were very active in
proselytising their faith, leading to an increasing number of outright
converts, as well as those who adopted some Jewish practices and belief in the Jewish God without actually converting.
The fate of the Jews in Rome and Italy fluctuated, with partial expulsions being carried out under the emperors
Tiberius and
Claudius. After the successive Jewish revolts of
66 and
132 CE, many
Judean Jews were brought to Rome as slaves (the norm in the ancient world was for prisoners of war and inhabitants of defeated cities to be sold as slaves). These revolts caused increasing official hostility from the reign of
Vespasian onwards. The most serious measure taken against the Jews was that they were forced to pay the tithe that had formerly been sent to the temple in
Jerusalem (destroyed by the Romans during the revolt of 66), to the temple of
Jupiter Optimus Maximus in Rome.
Christian period and Middle Ages
With the establishment of
Christianity as the official religion of the Roman empire by
Constantine I in
313, the position of Jews in Italy and throughout the empire declined rapidly and dramatically. Constantine established oppressive laws for the Jews; but these were in turn abolished by
Julian the Apostate, who showed his favor toward the Jews to the extent of permitting them to resume their plan for the reconstruction of the
Temple at Jerusalem. This concession was withdrawn under his successor, who, again, was a Christian; and then the oppression grew considerably. Thus periods of persecution were followed by periods of quiescence, until the fall of the
Roman empire.
At the time of the foundation of the
Ostrogothic rule under
Theodoric, there were flourishing communities of Jews in Rome,
Milan,
Genoa,
Palermo,
Messina,
Agrigentum, and in
Sardinia. The
popes of the period were not seriously opposed to the Jews; and this accounts for the ardor with which the latter took up arms for the Ostrogoths as against the forces of
Justinian—particularly at
Naples, where the remarkable defense of the city was maintained almost entirely by Jews. After the failure of the various attempts to make Italy a province of the
Byzantine empire, the Jews had to suffer much oppression from the
Exarch of
Ravenna; but it wasn't long until the greater part of Italy came into the possession of the
Lombards, under whom they lived in peace. Indeed, the Lombards passed no exceptional laws relative to the Jews. Even after the Lombards embraced
Catholicism the condition of the Jews was always favorable, because the popes of that time not only didn't persecute them, but guaranteed them more or less protection.
Pope Gregory I treated them with much consideration. Under succeeding popes the condition of the Jews didn't grow worse; and the same was the case in the several smaller states into which Italy was divided. Both popes and states were so absorbed in continual external and internal dissensions that the Jews were left in peace. In every individual state of Italy a certain amount of protection was granted to them in order to secure the advantages of their commercial enterprise. The fact that the historians of this period scarcely make mention of the Jews, suggests that their condition was tolerable.
There was an expulsion of Jews from
Bologna in
1172; but they were soon allowed to return. A nephew of
Rabbi Nathan ben Jehiel acted as administrator of the property of
Pope Alexander III, who showed his amicable feelings toward the Jews at the
Lateran Council of
1179, where he defeated the designs of hostile prelates who advocated anti-Jewish laws. Under
Norman rule the Jews of southern Italy and of
Sicily enjoyed even greater freedom; they were considered the equals of the Christians, and were permitted to follow any career; they even had jurisdiction over their own affairs. Indeed, in no country were the
canonical laws against the Jews so frequently disregarded as in Italy. A later pope—either
Nicholas IV (
1288-
1292) or
Boniface VIII (
1294-
1303)—had for his physician a Jew,
Isaac ben Mordecai, nicknamed Maestro Gajo.
Literary achievement
Among the early Jews of Italy who left behind them traces of their literary activity was
Shabbethai Donnolo (died
982). Two centuries later (
1150) there became known as poets
Shabbethai ben Moses of Rome; his son
Jehiel Kalonymus, once regarded as a
Talmudic authority even beyond Italy; and Rabbi Jehiel of the Mansi (Anaw) family, also of Rome. Their compositions are full of thought, but their diction is rather crude. Nathan, son of the above-mentioned Rabbi Jehiel, was the author of a Talmudic lexicon ("'Aruk") which became the key to the study of the Talmud.
Solomon ben Abraham ibn Parhon compiled during his residence at
Salerno a
Hebrew dictionary which fostered the study of
Biblical exegesis among the Italian Jews. On the whole, however, Hebrew culture wasn't in a flourishing condition. The only liturgical author of merit was
Joab ben Solomon, some of whose compositions are extant.
Toward the second half of the
thirteenth century signs appeared of a better Hebrew culture and of a more profound study of the Talmud.
Isaiah di Trani the Elder (
1232-
1279), a high Talmudic authority, was the author of many celebrated
responsa. David, his son, and
Isaiah di Trani the Younger, his nephew, followed in his footsteps, as did their descendants until the end of the seventeenth century.
Meïr ben Moses presided over an important Talmudic school in Rome, and
Abraham ben Joseph over one in Pesaro. In Rome two famous physicians, Abraham and Jehiel, descendants of Nathan ben Jehiel, taught the Talmud. One of the women of this gifted family,
Paola dei Mansi, also attained distinction; her Biblical and Talmudic knowledge was considerable, and she transcribed Biblical commentaries in a notably beautiful handwriting (see Jew. Encyc. i. 567, s.v. Paola Anaw).
About this period the
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, the last of the
Hohenstaufen, employed Jews to translate from the
Arabic philosophical and
astronomical treatises; among these writers were
Judah Kohen of
Toledo, later of
Tuscany, and
Jacob Anatoli of
Provence. This encouragement naturally led to the study of the works of
Maimonides—particularly of the "
Moreh Nebukim"—the favorite writer of Hillel of
Verona (
1220-
1295). This last-named
litterateur and philosopher practised
medicine at Rome and in other Italian cities, and translated into Hebrew several medical works. The liberal spirit of the writings of Maimonides had other votaries in Italy; for example,
Shabbethai ben Solomon of Rome and
Zerahiah Ḥen of
Barcelona, who migrated to Rome and contributed much to spread the knowledge of his works. The effect of this on the Italian Jews was apparent in their love of freedom of thought and their esteem for literature, as well as in their adherence to the literal rendering of the Biblical texts and their opposition to fanatical
cabalists and mystic theories. Among other devotees of these theories was
Immanuel ben Solomon of Rome, the celebrated friend of
Dante Aligheri. The discord between the followers of Maimonides and his opponents wrought most serious damage to the interests of Judaism.
The rise of
poetry in Italy at the time of Dante influenced the Jews also. The rich and the powerful, partly by reason of sincere interest, partly in obedience to the spirit of the times, became patrons of Jewish writers, thus inducing the greatest activity on their part. This activity was particularly noticeable at Rome, where a new Jewish poetry arose, mainly through the works of
Leo Romano, translator of the writings of
Thomas Aquinas and author of exegetical works of merit; of
Judah Siciliano, a writer in
rimed prose; of
Kalonymus ben Kalonymus, a famous
satirical poet; and especially of the above-mentioned Immanuel. On the initiative of the Roman community, a Hebrew translation of Maimonides' Arabic commentary on the
Mishnah was made. At this time Pope
John XXII was on the point of pronouncing a ban against the Jews of Rome. The Jews instituted a day of public
fasting and of prayer to appeal for divine assistance. King
Robert of Sicily, who favored the Jews, sent an envoy to the pope at
Avignon, who succeeded in averting this great peril. Immanuel himself described this envoy as a person of high merit and of great culture. This period of Jewish literature in Italy is indeed one of great splendor. After Immanuel there were no other Jewish writers of importance until
Moses da Rieti (
1388).
Worsening conditions under Innocent III
The position of Jews in Italy worsened considerably under
Pope Innocent III (
1198-
1216). This pope threatened with excommunication those who placed or maintained Jews in public positions, and he insisted that every Jew holding office should be dismissed. The deepest insult was the order that every Jew must always wear, conspicuously displayed, a special
badge.
In
1235 Pope
Gregory IX published the first bull against the
ritual murder accusation. Other popes followed his example, particularly
Innocent IV in
1247,
Gregory X in
1272,
Clement VI in
1348,
Gregory XI in
1371,
Martin V in
1422,
Nicholas V in
1447,
Sixtus V in
1475,
Paul III in
1540, and later
Alexander VII,
Clement XIII, and
Clement XIV.
Antipope Benedict XIII
The Jews suffered much from the relentless persecutions of the
Avignon-based "
antipope"
Benedict XIII. They hailed his successor,
Martin V, with delight. The synod convoked by the Jews at Bologna, and continued at
Forlì, sent a deputation with costly gifts to the new pope, praying him to abolish the oppressive laws promulgated by Benedict and to grant the Jews those privileges which had been accorded them under previous popes. The deputation succeeded in its mission, but the period of grace was short; for Martin's successor,
Eugenius IV, at first favorably disposed toward the Jews, ultimately reenacted all the restrictive laws issued by Benedict. In Italy, however, his bull was generally disregarded. The great centers, such as
Venice,
Florence,
Genoa, and
Pisa, realized that their commercial interests were of more importance than the affairs of the spiritual leaders of the Church; and accordingly the Jews, many of whom were bankers and leading merchants, found their condition better than ever before. It thus became easy for Jewish bankers to obtain permission to establish banks and to engage in monetary transactions. Indeed, in one instance even the
Bishop of Mantua, in the name of the pope, accorded permission to the Jews to lend money at interest. All the banking negotiations of Tuscany were in the hands of a Jew,
Jehiel of Pisa. The influential position of this successful financier was of the greatest advantage to his coreligionists at the time of the
exile from Spain.
The Jews were also successful as skilled medical practitioners.
William of Portaleone, physician to King
Ferdinand I of Naples, and to the ducal houses of
Sforza and
Gonzaga, was one of the ablest of that time. He was the first of the long line of illustrious physicians in his family.
Early modern period
Refugees from Spain
When Jews were
exiled en masse from Spain in
1492 a great number of them took refuge in Italy, where they were given protection by King
Ferdinand I of Naples.
Don Isaac Abravanel even received a position at the Neapolitan court, which he retained under the succeeding king,
Alfonso II. The Spanish Jews were well received also in
Ferrara by the Duke,
Ercole d'Este I, and in
Tuscany through the mediation of Jehiel of Pisa and his sons. But at Rome and Genoa they experienced all the vexations and torments that hunger, plague, and poverty bring with them, and were forced to accept baptism in order to escape starvation. In some few cases the immigrants exceeded in number the Jews already domiciled, and gave the determining vote in matters of communal interest and in the direction of studies. From
Alexander VI to
Clement VII the popes were indulgent toward the Jews, having more urgent matters to occupy them. Indeed, the popes themselves and many of the most influential
cardinals openly violated one of the most severe enactments of the
Council of Basel, namely, that prohibiting Christians from employing Jewish physicians; and they even gave the latter positions at the papal court. The Jewish communities of
Naples and of Rome received the greatest number of accessions; but many Jews passed on from these cities to
Ancona and Venice, and thence to
Padua. Venice, imitating the odious measures of the German cities, assigned to the Jews a special quarter (
ghetto).
Expulsion from Naples
The ultra-Catholic party tried with all the means at its disposal to introduce the
Inquisition into the Neapolitan realm, then under Spanish rule.
Charles V, upon his return from his victories in
Africa, was on the point of exiling the Jews from Naples, but deferred doing so owing to the influence of Benvenida, wife of
Samuel Abravanel. A few years later, however (
1533), such a decree was proclaimed, but upon this occasion also Samuel Abravanel and others were able through their influence to avert for several years the execution of the edict. Many Jews repaired to the
Ottoman Empire, some to Ancona, and still others to
Ferrara, where they were received graciously by Duke
Ercole II.
After the death of Pope
Paul III, who had showed favor to the Jews, a period of strife, of persecutions, and of despondency set in. A few years later the Jews were exiled from
Genoa, among the refugees being
Joseph Hakohen, physician to the
doge Andrea Doria and eminent historian. The
Maranos, driven from Spain and Portugal, were allowed by Duke Ercole to enter his dominions and to profess Judaism without molestation. Thus,
Samuel Usque, also a historian, who had fled from the Inquisition in Portugal, settled in Ferrara; and
Abraham Usque founded a large printing establishment there. A third Usque,
Solomon, merchant of Venice and Ancona and poet of some note, translated the
sonnets of
Petrarch into excellent Spanish verse, which was much admired by his contemporaries.
While the return to Judaism of the Marano Usques caused much rejoicing among the Italian Jews, this was counterbalanced by the deep grief into which they were plunged by the conversion to Christianity of two grandsons of
Elijah Levita,
Leone Romano and
Vittorio Eliano. One became a
canon of the Church; the other, a
Jesuit. They violently slandered the Talmud to Pope
Julius III and the Inquisition; and as a consequence the pope pronounced the sentence of destruction against this work, to the printing of which one of his predecessors,
Leo X, had given his sanction. On the
Jewish New Year's Day (
September 9),
1553, all the copies of the Talmud in the principal cities of Italy, in the printing establishments of Venice, and even in the distant island of Candia (
Crete), were burned. Still more cruel was the fate of the Jews under Pope
Marcellus II, who wished to exile them from Rome because of a charge of ritual murder. He was restrained from the execution of this project by Cardinal
Alexander Farnese who succeeded in bringing to light the true culprit.
Paul IV
But the most serious misfortune for the Jews was the election of
Paul IV as Marcellus' successor. This pontiff confirmed all the more severe of the bulls against the Jews issued up to that time and added others still more oppressive and containing all manner of prohibitions, which condemned the Jews to the most abject misery, deprived them of the means of sustenance, and denied to them the exercise of all professions. They were finally forced to labor at the restoration of the walls of Rome without any compensation whatsoever. Indeed, upon one occasion the pope had secretly given orders to one of his nephews to burn the quarter inhabited by the Jews during the night; but Alexander Farnese, hearing of the infamous proposal, succeeded in frustrating it. Many Jews now abandoned Rome and Ancona and went to Ferrara and
Pesaro. Here the
Duke of Urbino welcomed them graciously in the hope of directing the extensive commerce of the
Levant to the new port of Pesaro, which was, at that time, exclusively in the hands of the Jews of Ancona. Among the many who were forced to leave Rome was the illustrious Marano,
Amato Lusitano, a distinguished physician, who had often attended Pope Julius III. He had even been invited to become physician to the King of
Poland, but had declined the offer in order to remain in Italy. He fled from the Inquisition to Pesaro, where he openly professed Judaism.
Expulsion from Papal States
The tolerant pope
Pius IV was succeeded by
Pius V, who took an opposite stance. He brought into force all the anti-Jewish bulls of his predecessors—not only in his own immediate domains, but throughout the Christian world. In
Lombardy the expulsion of the Jews was threatened, and, although this extreme measure wasn't put into execution, they were tyrannized in countless ways. At
Cremona and at
Lodi their books were confiscated; and
Carlo Borromeo, who was afterward canonized, persecuted them mercilessly. In Genoa, from which city the Jews were at this time expelled, an exception was made in favor of
Joseph Hakohen. In his
Emek Habachah he narrates the history of these persecutions. He had no desire to take advantage of the sad privilege accorded to him, and went to
Casale Monferrato, where he was graciously received even by the Christians. In this same year the pope directed his persecutions against the Jews of Bologna, who formed a rich community well worth despoiling. Many of the wealthiest Jews were imprisoned and placed under torture in order to force them to make false confessions. When Rabbi
Ishmael Ḥanina was being racked, he declared that should the pains of torture elicit from him any words that might be construed as casting reflection on Judaism, they'd be false and null. It was forbidden to the Jews to absent themselves from the city; but many succeeded in escaping by bribing the watchmen at the gates of the ghetto and of the city. The fugitives, together with their wives and children, repaired to the neighboring city of Ferrara. Then Pius V. decided to banish the Jews from all his dominions, and, despite the enormous loss which was likely to result from this measure, and the remonstrances of influential and well-meaning cardinals,the Jews (in all about 1,000 families) were actually expelled from all the
Papal States excepting Rome and Ancona. A few became Christians; but the large majority migrated to
Turkey.
Approval within the Republic of Venice
A great sensation was caused in Italy by the choice of a prominent Jew,
Solomon of Udine, as Turkish
ambassador to Venice who was selected to negotiate within that republic during July of
1574. There was a pending decree of expulsion of the Jews by the leaders of several
kingdoms within Italy, thereby making the Venetian Senate concerned if whether there would be difficulties collaborating with Solomon of Udine. However, through the influence of the Venetian diplomats themselves, and particularly of the Patrician,
Marcantonio Barbaro of the noble
Barbaro family, who esteemed Udine highly, Solomon was received with great honors at the
Doge's Palace. In virtue of this, Udine received an exalted position within the Republic of Venice and was able to render great service to his coreligionists. Through his influence
Jacob Soranzo, an agent of the Venetian Republic at
Constantinople, came to Venice. Solomon was influential in having the decree of expulsion revoked within Italian kingdoms, and he furthermore obtained a promise from Venetian patricians that Jews would have a secure home within the Republic of Venice. Udine was eventually honored for his services and returned to Constantinople, leaving his son
Nathan in Venice to be educated. Nathan was one of the first Jewish students to have studied at the
University of Padua, under the inclusive admission policy established by
Marcantonio Barbaro. The success of Udine inspired many Jews in Turkey, particularly in Constantinople, where they'd attained great prosperity.
Persecutions and confiscations
The position of the Jews of Italy at this time was pitiable; the bulls of Paul IV and Pius V had reduced them to the utmost humiliation and had materially diminished their numbers. In southern Italy there were almost none left; in each of the important communities of Rome, Venice, and Mantua there were about 2,000 Jews; while in all
Lombardy there were hardly 1,000.
Gregory XIII wasn't less fanatical than his predecessors; he noticed that, despite papal prohibition, Christians employed Jewish physicians; he therefore strictly prohibited the Jews from attending Christian patients, and threatened with the most severe punishment alike Christians who should have recourse to Hebrew practitioners, and Jewish physicians who should respond to the calls of Christians. Furthermore, the slightest assistance given to the Maranos of
Portugal and
Spain, in violation of the canonical laws, was sufficient to deliver the guilty one into the power of the Inquisition, which didn't hesitate to condemn the accused to death. Gregory also induced the Inquisition to consign to the flames a large number of copies of the Talmud and of other Hebrew books. Special
sermons, designed to convert the Jews, were instituted; and at these at least one-third of the Jewish community, men, women, and youths above the age of twelve, was forced to be present. The sermons were usually delivered by
baptized Jews who had become
friars or
priests; and not infrequently the Jews, without any chance of protest, were forced to listen to such sermons in their own
synagogues. These cruelties forced many Jews to leave Rome, and thus their number was still further diminished.
Varied fortunes
Under the following pope,
Sixtus V, the condition of the Jews was somewhat improved. He repealed many of the regulations established by his predecessors, permitted Jews to reside in all parts of his realm, and gave Jewish physicians freedom to practice their profession.
David de Pomis, an eminent physician, profited by this privilege and published a work in Latin, entitled
De Medico Hebraeo, dedicated to
Duke Francis of Urbino, in which he proved to the Jews their obligation to consider the Christians as brothers, to assist them, and to attend them. The Jews of
Mantua, Milan, and Ferrara, taking advantage of the favorable disposition of the pope, sent to him an ambassador,
Bezaleel Massarano, with a present of 2,000
scudi, to obtain from him permission to reprint the Talmud and other Jewish books, promising at the same time to expurgate all passages considered offensive to Christianity. Their demand was granted, partly through the support given by Lopez, a Marano, who administered the papal finances and who was in great favor with the pontiff. Scarcely had the reprinting of the Talmud been begun, and the conditions of its printing been arranged by the commission, when Sixtus died. His successor,
Gregory XIV, was as well disposed to the Jews as Sixtus had been; but during his short pontificate he was almost always ill.
Clement VII, who succeeded him, renewed the anti-Jewish bulls of Paul IV and Pius V, and exiled the Jews from all his territories with the exception of Rome, Ancona, and Avignon; but, in order not to lose the commerce with the East, he gave certain privileges to the Turkish Jews. The exiles repaired to Tuscany, where they were favorably received by Duke
Ferdinand dei Medici, who assigned to them the city of Pisa for residence, and by Duke
Vincenzo Gonzaga, at whose court
Joseph da Fano, a Jew, was a favorite. They were again permitted to read the Talmud and other Hebrew books, provided that they were printed according to the rules of censorship approved by Sixtus V. From Italy, where these
expurgated books were printed by thousands, they were sent to the Jews of other various countries.
In the ducal dominions
It was strange that under Philip II. the Jews exiled from all parts of Spain were tolerated in the duchy of Milan, then under Spanish rule. Such an inconsistency of policy was designed to work ill for the interests of the Jews. To avert this misfortune an eloquent ambassador, Samuel Coen, was sent to the king at Alessandria; but he was unsuccessful in his mission. The king, persuaded by his confessor, expelled the Jews from Milanese territory in the spring of 1597. The exiles, numbering about 1,000, were received at Mantua, Modena, Reggio, Verona, and Padua. The princes of the house of Este had always accorded favor and protection to the Jews, and were much beloved by them. Eleonora, a princess of this house, had inspired two Jewish poets; and when she was ill public prayers were said in the synagogues for her restoration to health. But misfortune overtook the Jews of Ferrara as well; for when Alfonso I., the last of the Este family, died, the principality of Ferrara was incorporated in the dominions of the Church under Clement VII., who decreed the banishment of the Jews. Aldobrandini, a relative of the pope, took possession of Ferrara in the pontiff's name. Seeing that all the commerce was in the hands of the Jews, he complied with their request for an exemption of five years from the decree, although this was much against the pope's wish.
The Mantuan Jews suffered seriously at the time of the Thirty Years' war. The Jews exiled from the papal dominions had repeatedly found refuge in Mantua, where the dukes of Gonzaga had accorded protection to them, as they'd done to the Jews already resident there. The next to the last duke, although a cardinal, favored them sufficiently to enact a statute for the maintenance of order in the ghetto. After the death of the last of this house the right of succession was contested at the time of the Thirty Years' war, and the city was besieged by the German soldiery of Wallenstein. After a valiant defense, in which the Jews labored at the walls until the approach of the Sabbath, the city fell into the power of the besiegers, and for three days was at the mercy of fire and sword. The commander-in-chief, Altringer, forbade the soldiers to sack the ghetto, thereby hoping to secure the spoils for himself. The Jews were ordered to leave the city, taking with them only their personal clothing and three gold ducats per capita. There were retained enough Jews to act as guides to the places where their coreligionists were supposed to have hidden their treasures. Through three Jewish zealots these circumstances came to the knowledge of the emperor, who ordered the governor, Collalto, to issue a decree permitting the Jews to return and promising them the restoration of their goods. Only about 800, however, returned, the others having died.
The victories in Europe of the Turks, who brought their armies up to the very walls of Vienna (1683), helped even in Italy to incite the Christian population against the Jews, who remained friendly to the Turks. In Padua, in 1683, the Jews were in great danger because of the agitation fomented against them by the cloth-weavers. A violent tumult broke out; the lives of the Jews were seriously menaced; and it was only with the greatest difficulty that the governor of the city succeeded in rescuing them, in obedience to a rigorous order from Venice. For several days thereafter the ghetto had to be especially guarded.
Reaction after Napoleon
Among the first schools to adopt the Reform projects of Hartwig Wessely were those of
Trieste,
Venice, and
Ferrara. Under the influence of the liberal religious policy of Napoleon I, the Jews of Italy, like those of France, were emancipated. The supreme power of the popes was broken: they'd no longer time to give to framing anti-Jewish enactments, and they no longer directed canonical laws against the Jews.
To the Sanhedrin convened by Napoleon at Paris (1807), Italy sent four deputies:
Abraham Vita da Cologna;
Isaac Benzion Segre, rabbi of Vercelli;
Graziadio Neppi, physician and rabbi of Cento; and
Jacob Israel Karmi, rabbi of Reggio. Of the four rabbis assigned to the committee which was to draw up the answers to the twelve questions proposed to the Assembly of Notables, two, Cologna and Segre, were Italians, and were elected respectively first and second vice-presidents of the Sanhedrin. But the liberty acquired by the Jews under Napoleon was of short duration; it disappeared with his downfall.
Pope Pius VII, on regaining possession of his realms, reinstalled the Inquisition; he deprived the Jews of every liberty and confined them again in ghettos. Such became to a greater or less extent their condition in all the states into which Italy was then divided; at Rome they were again forced to listen to proselytizing sermons.
In the year 1829, consequent upon an edict of the
Emperor Francis I, there was opened in Padua, with the cooperation of Venice, of Verona, and of Mantua, the first Italian rabbinical college, in which
Lelio della Torre and
Samuel David Luzzatto taught. Luzzatto was a man of great intellect; he wrote in pure Hebrew upon philosophy, history, literature, criticism, and grammar. Many distinguished rabbis came from the rabbinical college of Padua. Zelman,
Moses Tedeschi, and Castiglioni followed at Trieste the purposes and the principles of Luzzatto's school. At the same time,
Elijah Benamozegh, a man of great knowledge and the author of several works, distinguished himself in the old rabbinical school at Leghorn.
Nineteenth century
The return to medieval servitude after the Italian restoration didn't last long; and the
Revolution of 1848, which convulsed all Europe, brought great advantages to the Jews. Although this was followed by restoration of the
Papal States only four months later, in early 1849, yet the persecutions and the violence of past times had to a large extent disappeared. The last outrage against the Jews of Italy was connected with the case of
Edgardo Mortara, which occurred in
Bologna in 1858. In 1859 most of the papal states
were annexed into the united Kingdom of Italy under King
Victor Emanuel II. Except in and near Rome, where oppression lasted until the end of the papal dominion (September 20, 1870), the Jews obtained full emancipation. In behalf of their country the Jews with great ardor sacrificed life and property in the memorable campaigns of 1859, 1866, and 1870. Of the many who deserve mention in this connection may be singled out
Isaac Pesaro Maurogonato. He was minister of finance to the Venetian republic during the war of 1848 against Austria, and his grateful country erected to him a memorial in bronze. There was also erected in the palace of the doges a marble bust of
Samuel Romanin, a celebrated Jewish historian of Venice. Florence, too, has commemorated a modern Jewish poet,
Solomon Fiorentino, by placing a marble tablet upon the house in which he was born. The secretary and faithful friend of Count Cavour was the Piedmontese Isaac Artom; while L'Olper, later rabbi of Turin, and also the friend and counselor of Mazzini, was one of the most courageous advocates of Italian independence. The names of the Jewish soldiers who died in the cause of Italian liberty were placed along with those of their Christian fellow soldiers on the monuments erected in their honour.
Twentieth century
Italian prime minister
Luigi Luzzatti, who took office in
1910, was one of the world's first Jewish heads of government (not converted to Christianity). Another Jew,
Ernesto Nathan served as mayor of
Rome from
1907 to
1913.
Pope John Paul II gave access to some formerly secret
Vatican archives to scholars, one of whom,
David Kertzer, used information thus obtained in his book
The Popes Against the Jews. According to that book, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the popes and many Catholic bishops and Catholic publications consistently made a distinction between "good anti-Semitism" and "bad anti-Semitism". The "bad" kind directed hatred against Jews merely because of their descent. That was considered un-Christian, in part because the church held that its message was for all of humankind equally, and any person of any ancestry could become a Christian. The "good" kind denounced alleged Jewish plots to gain control of the world by controlling newspapers, banks, schools, etc., or otherwise attributed various evils to Jews. Kertzer's book details many instances in which Catholic publications denounced such alleged plots, and then, when criticized for inciting hatred of Jews, would remind people that the Catholic church condemned the "bad" kind of anti-Semitism.
Pope Pius XI issued many criticisms of Jews for many years, but shortly before his death in early 1939, was horrified by anti-Jewish violence then escalating in Nazi Germany. After the overthrow of
fascism in 1943,
Pope Pius XII asked the new Italian government to repeal those sections of Italy's race laws that held marriages between persons reared Catholic and formerly Jewish converts to Catholicism were not valid. But, according to Kertzer's book, he didn't object to other provisions of the race laws.
During the
Holocaust, Italy took in many Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. However, with the creation of the Nazi-backed puppet
Italian Social Republic, about 20% of Italy's Jews were killed, despite the Fascist government's initial refusal to deport Jews to Nazi death camps. A small community of around 45,000 Jews remains in Italy today.
Further Information
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