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Rome  is considered the oldest Jewish community in the Western world, with the Jewish settlement in Rome, dating back to

161 B.C.E.

Our guides will show you the Medieval Jewish Ghetto, the Arch of Titus built by the Roman commander to commemorate his Judean victory in 70 C.E. and the city’s Great Synagogue where the “Minhag Romi” (Italian liturgy of Rome, the oldest European liturgy) is still celebrated. Judaism’s more than 2,000 year story in Rome marks the community as unique in Europe. Unlike the history of forced migration and alienation that so frequently characterised Jewish communities elsewhere on the continent, Jewish life has been a constant and relatively stable feature of the Eternal City’s complex cultural patchwork. This indigenous community is known as italkim in contrast to the newer (but still venerable) Sephardic and Ashkenazi branches of Judaism dominant around the world today, and practice a distinctive and ancient form of Jewish rite and prayer .

  Thousands of Jewish slaves were taken into the city in the wake of the brutally supressed Jewish rebellion of 70 A.D . Many of these new arrivals were exploited as forced labour in the construction of the Colosseum, but their descendants would form the majority of the city’s Hebrew community in the centuries to come. Under the edict of Caracalla in 212 A.D they were elevated to the status of Roman citizens, and in late antiquity the city boasted as many as 12 separate synagogues catering to a congregation estimated to be as large as 40,000 people. 

 Jews lived in Apulia from ancient Roman times until 1541, when they were banished from all of Southern Italy. They arrived after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in 70 AD, when emperor Tito brought back 5,000 Jewish war prisoners, who subsequently settled in and around Taranto. 

Between the 9th and 12th centuries, Otranto was one of the main centers of Jewish learning in Apulia. As the Jewish community prospered thanks to commerce and entrepreneurial ventures, scholars gave lasting contributions to the study of the Bible, the Mishnah and the Talmud of Babylon.

At the time of the forced conversion under the Byzantine emperor Romanus I, Lecapenus, a Jewish communal leader committed suicide, one was strangled, and one died in prison. When Benjamin of Tudela visited Otranto in about 1159, he found about 500 Jews there. It was considered one of the most important rabbinical centers in Europe. In the Sefer ha-Yashar, Jacob Tam (12th century) quotes an old saying paraphrasing Isaiah 2:3: “For out of Bari shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Otranto.” As the Turks besieged Otranto in 1481, the Jews contributed 3,000 ducats for the defense of the town. In 1510, with their mandated expulsion from the kingdom of Naples, the Jews fled from Otranto. A number of them settled in Salonika, where they founded their own synagogue.

The Jewish Community of Naples is centrally located in Via Cappella Vecchia, in the San Ferdinando district of Naples, near Piazza dei Martiri.

While the synagogue is a testament to the 19th century renaissance of Jewish life in Naples, Jewish presence actually dates back to the 1st Century BCE. Historically, life for Jews in Naples has fluctuated between times of repression, as during the Angevin rule, and periods of peaceful cohabitation, as during the subsequent Aragon reign. In 1541, an expulsion order was passed and all Jews left Naples.

From 1740 to 1747, the Jewish community enjoyed a brief renaissance when it was re-invited to the city by the Bourbons, but it was not until 1831 that it was permanently re-established.

The present day Jewish Community of Naples owes its existence in large part to the Rothschilds, the prominent family of German bankers. Carl von Rothschild was sent to Naples in 1831, where he established C M de Rothschild & Figli. The operation became the dominant banking house in Naples. The family lived in Villa Pignatelli near the current synagogue and for several years religious functions were held there.

The capital of Sicily has been a crossroads for cultures and civilizations for the past 4 thousand years, Arabic, Jewish and Norman/Christian architecture is overwhelming… On the first day we will walk along Villa Bonanno to the Cathedral in Corso Vittorio Emanuele and continue along Vittorio Emanuele to the imposing Four Corners. Admire the Tuscan fountain in Piazza Pretoria and, just behind it, take in two splendid Arabic-Norman churches, many of which were originally Mosques or Synagogues. After visiting  La Martorana and San Cataldo,  we will drive to the Vucciria the Casbah style market that reminds us of Palermo’s Arabic past; after a short walk we will enjoy an amazing lunch at “Maestro del Brodo”. In the afternoon we will unwind in the chic pedestrian area of Via Principe di Belmonte. The tour ends in the splendid Norman royal palace of the Zisa, built in Norman Arab style, that still keeps a Hebrew inscription and a Jewish candle-holder.

Klaus Davi, con le sue tante battaglie continua a dimostrare un grande affetto per la Calabria e i calabresi. 

"Un ebreo su sette a Salonicco era di origine calabrese. Nella città greca - raccontano le fonti - vi erano ben tre sinagoghe fondate da profughi calabresi scappati dopo l'espulsione del 1570 e che furono utilizzate dalla comunità almeno fino al 1700.

Una Sinagoga calabrese rimase operativa fino agli inizi del XX secolo.

Quasi tutti gli abitanti di Salonicco di religione ebraica perirono nei campi di concentramento.

I templi ebraico - calabresi si chiamavano "Calabria Jasan2 ( ma dopo il 1553 fu nota anche come "Nevè Shalom" - "Dimore di Pace", "Chiana" e "Calabria Cadash" detta anche "Ishamael".

Sarebbe bello approfondire queste pagine della storia del nostro sud e della Calabria in particolare.

La famiglia Salem, raffigurata nella foto, è stata una delle tantissime annientate durante l'Olocausto nazi fascista.

Solo poche migliaia di ebrei si salvarono e anche i discendenti degli ebrei di Calabria perirono nei lager".

(tratto da un post del Movimento Giudecche di Calabria gentilemente diffuso da Klaus Davì).

The first Jews to settle in the ghetto of Venice were central European Ashkenazim, who constructed two synagogues: in 1528, the Scola Grande Tedesca, and later in 1532, the Scola Canton. In an area where space was limited, the Jews had no other choice but to build their synagogues in the attic stories of buildings as Jewish law forbids that anything should come between the synagogue and the sky.

The next group of Jews to arrive in Venice were the Levantine, who were granted their neighbourhood in 1541, as part of an expansion of the Jewish ghetto. This area today, is known as the “new ghetto.” The Levantine Jews were fortunate enough to build their synagogue on the ground. Mixed in with the Levantine and Ashkenazim Jews, were Italian Jews who migrated north to Venice from the central and southern parts of the peninsula.

In 1575, the Italians built their own synagogue, the Scola Italiana, which was built on top of apartments. The structure features a cupola which is barely visible from the square below. The Spanish synagogue, also built in the 16th century, offers services on Shabbat and holidays. Around 1650, the ghetto’s population reached a peak of 4,000 inhabitants. A feat hard to believe as you wander around today, an area no bigger than two and a half city blocks.

With the arrival of Napoléon in 1797, the ghetto was disbanded and Jews were free to move wherever they liked, but the Jews realized full freedom only in the late 19th century with the founding of the Italian State.