The history of the Jews in Livorno (English: Leghorn; Ladino: Liorne or Liorna), Italy, has been documented since 1583, when descendants of the late 15th-century expulsions from Spain and Portugal settled in the city. They were settled initially by Sephardic Jews from Pisa. The Jewish community of Livorno, although the youngest among the historic Jewish communities of Italy, was for some time the foremost: its members achieved political rights and wealth, and contributed to scholarship in the thriving port city. Numerous Jewish schools and welfare institutions were established.
Livorno traded with northern Europe and the Levant but declined in the later 19th century after losing its status as a free port. From a peak estimated population of 10,000 Sephardic Jews during that period, by 1904 a total of 3,000 Jews remained in Livorno, many having emigrated to other cities and nations where they were known as Grana (قرانة) in Judeo-Arabic or Gorneyim (גורנים) in Hebrew–both derived from a demonym for 'Livornese'.
The first traces of a Jewish settlement are found in documents from about 1583. The Medici family, working to promote the growth of the city, its trade, the port, recruited many new settlers from Greece and the Ottoman Empire. Spanish Marranos also found a refuge there in 1590. In 1591, and again in 1593, Ferdinando I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany issued a charter to assure all foreigners desiring to settle at Livorno, including Jews, of the most extensive rights and privileges. Many Jews were attracted by this promise. The Jewish community of Pisa received the privilege of founding a branch at Livorno with a synagogue and cemetery. In 1597, the Jews of Livorno received autonomous rights as a community, and they built a synagogue in 1603.
Rights and privileges
The Jewish community was authorized to have complete jurisdiction in civil cases involving Jews and in some minor criminal cases. In 1593 the duke's administration appointed a special judge to the Jewish court; his sentencing could be appealed only with the permission of the grand duke. As controversies arose regarding the extent of the jurisdiction, the grand duke decreed that severe penalties, such as sentences of death and penal servitude, should be confirmed by the public court. The Livornese community had the right of succession in all Jewish cases where the deceased died without natural or legal heirs.
When the Jewish community was established (in 1593), the directors were empowered to grant safe-conducts and immunity as regards previous crimes and debts to all Jews who settled at Livorno. The communal directors decided on accepting new settlers by a majority vote of two-thirds. The right of immunity in the case of previous crimes was soon abrogated by the grand duke.
When Tuscany was incorporated into the French empire in 1808, the French established their law and abolished the Jewish court, also abrogating the community's right of succession. The Jewish court was revived in 1814, but with limited jurisdiction, confined to questions relating to marital law. In 1822 such cases were also assigned to the municipal courts; the directors of the Jewish community retained the privilege of giving advisory opinions. Since 1866 and the unification of Italy, the Codice Civile and civil marriage have applied to all residents of Livorno as throughout the kingdom of Italy.
In 1786, the Grand Duke of Tuscany's administration limited the immunity from debt of Jews to only those debts that had been incurred more than four months previously. This rule continued to 1836. The right of naturalization, however, remained in force until 1859, when the Jews received full citizenship in the unified Italy.
Taxes
From the beginning, the Jewish community had the right to impose taxes for the purpose of defraying its expenses. This right was confirmed in 1715, 1782, and 1814. In 1829 it was amplified. The community established the following taxes:
Ẓorke ẓibbur, ½ per cent of their income, payable by all Jews living at Livorno, or engaged in trade or commerce there, and having a yearly income of more than 1,500 lire.
Diritto nazionale, a duty on all goods imported or exported by Jews through the port of Livorno, at the rate of ⅛ per cent for resident and ¼ per cent for non-resident Jews. Merchants were required to keep a special column in their books for this tax.
Beginning with 1767, a special tax upon private synagogues, in order to prevent their multiplication.
Special tax on meat slaughtered according to the Jewish ritual (kosher).
Later the community gradually abolished these separate taxes, and raised funds by a single tax, sussidio obbligatorio, to cover all the needs of the community.
Constitution of 1780
When the municipality was reorganized in 1780, Jewish house-owners were declared eligible to positions on the municipal general council, though they were excluded from the magistracy. Jews were not popularly elected to the council, but one representative was chosen on their behalf by the Grand Duke, from a number of names suggested by the community. The Jewish deputy took part in the municipal government as representative of the interests of Livornese Jewry, with the same privileges and salary as the Christian magistrates. The municipal constitution of 1808 under the French abrogated this privilege; but it was renewed in 1816. It remained in force to 1858; after unification, Jews became eligible for all municipal offices.
Organization
The community in 1593 established a council of five members, designated capi or massari della sinagoga, to administer affairs. They had to be prominent, well-to-do merchants; they were elected for one year, and could not immediately be re-elected. Due to irregularities during an election, the Grand Duke decreed in 1637 that the massari should be designated by lot by the community of Pisa. In 1642, due to repeated irregularities, new methods were adopted. Five massari were appointed from a council of fifty persons who had been chosen from among all merchants and house-owners over twenty-five years of age. In 1667 the community established a council of twelve deputies, who were elected for life, in addition to the massari. There was in addition a council of forty "able and capable citizens" in three commissions, from whom the massari were chosen. In 1693 a great council of sixty members, having all the rights of a modern parliament, was introduced; of this council twenty members sat in rotation each year, the entire body being convened only on important occasions. By this constitution (i.e. the constitution of 1693), the administrative corporation was divided into two bodies, one legislative and the other executive. It remained in force only a short time.
In 1715 the Grand Duke appointed three members of the great council as 'censors' for a term of two years. They were empowered to examine the books of the community and to supervise its expenses. On the extinction of the House of Medici, the Duke of Lorraine confirmed the constitution, with slight modifications. It was confirmed again in 1803 under the short-lived kingdom of Etruria. During this period, the Jewish community lived by the principle that all male members were obliged to accept communal offices. The Grand Duke appointed and paid the salary of a chancellor to aid Jewish administration.
When the French imposed rule in 1808, the privileges as well as the constitution of the Jewish community were temporarily abrogated. Livorno had received the consistorial constitution drafted by the Grand Sanhedrin of Paris in 1806, and was made the seat of a consistory for the Mediterranean district. The community appointed two rabbis and three laymen as members of this consistory on September 6, 1810.
In 1814, following the end of French rule, the Grand Duke allowed the old constitution to be revived; he appointed three massari for a period of three years and a council of forty for life. In 1861, on the establishment of the kingdom of Italy, the old constitution was entirely abrogated. During the following interregnum, the community was governed by three members. In 1881 the community was finally reorganized, with new statutes in conformity with the principles obtaining in most Italian communities.
The Jews of Livorno suffered no persecutions, nor were any restrictions imposed upon them, during the entire time of their residence in the city up till the Fascist period starting in the 1930s. They contributed strongly to the development of commerce and industry as Livorno grew from a small fishing-village into a rich and powerful commercial center. Together with Greeks and Armenians, the Jews dominated part of the commerce. A traveler of the seventeenth century says that the Christians had to keep holiday on the Sabbath on the Jews' account. The community, which consisted mainly of descendants of Spanish and Portuguese immigrants, retained its ancient traditions. Down to the nineteenth century, communal business was transacted partly in Portuguese; the Spanish ritual (Sephardic) was observed in the synagogue; important hafṭarot were translated into Portuguese or Ladinho; and sermons were delivered in that language. The Jews preserved also the gentility and self-confidence characteristic of them in their Spanish homes. In 1603 they built a synagogue, which was one of the finest architectural monuments of the city.
The community also took interest in the general welfare; they ransomed prisoners who were landed at Livorno. The members provided charity to less fortunate Jews in other countries. In 1648 they levied a special tax for the benefit of the Polish Jews. They joined the Alliance Israélite Universelle. At various periods the Jewish community of Livorno numbered 10,000 persons; as late as 1848 it was estimated to number 7,000. As the commerce of the city declined, many emigrated to other cities and nations. By 1904 about 3,000 Jews remained in the city. The community, formerly so wealthy, had become very impoverished after the city lost its status as a free port.
Livorno suffered extensive damage during the Second World War, including severe bomb damage to the synagogue. At least 90 Jews from Livorno were sent to concentration camps, and others were killed in nearby mountains, where there was a significant German army presence.[2] The synagogue was demolished and replaced by a new building in a modern style commissioned in 1958. It opened in 1962.
Relations with other Sephardim
The rabbinate of Livorno was widely known for its scholarship, as it attracted new learned members from the East, and had connections with the Sephardim of Amsterdam and London. Many merchants also devoted themselves to study, taking up medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and the classics. Through its connection with the East, Livorno was always a center for cabalists, especially at the time of the Shabbethaian controversies. In the 19th century, cabalists and mystics still found support in the city.
The Livorno community served as a link between the Spanish and Portuguese Jews and the Eastern Sephardi and Mizrahi communities of the Arab Mediterranean nations. It was a clearing house of traditions between the two groups. For example, its musical and cantorial tradition, though related to those of other Spanish and Portuguese communities, was influenced by Jewish communities all around the Mediterranean, to whom in turn the Livorno tradition was exported. Many merchants maintained a presence in both Livorno and North African countries such as Tunisia. Those who settled permanently in the Ottoman Empire retained their Tuscan or Italian nationality, so as to have the benefit of the Ottoman Capitulations. In Tunisia there was a community of Juifs Portugais, or L'Grana (Livornese), separate from, and (of course) regarding itself as superior to, the native Tunisian Jews (Tuansa).[3] Smaller Jewish communities of the same kind (not exclusively Livornese) existed in other countries, such as Syria, where they were known as Señores Francos. They generally were not numerous enough to establish their own synagogues, instead meeting for prayer in each other's houses.
Many Jews also emigrated to Algeria, Egypt, France and Libya in order to capitalise on their nations' foreign investment. In some cases, such as the Mendoza and the Mosseri family, whole families moved, thus contributing to development of Jewish communities in primarily Islamic states.
Foundations
Among the many philanthropic foundations the schools, which were once widely famed, were especially noteworthy. There were numerous chapels in addition to the large synagogue (two being named after the rabbis Ergas and Azulai). Jewish institutions included the following:
Beneficenza Israelitica, organized in 1683, supported by a special tax, and intended for the relief of the communal poor as well as for the ransoming of prisoners. Its operations were later limited to aiding the indigent. The trustees were at the same time trustees of the communal schools, Pie Scuole Israelitiche di Livorno, which, richly endowed, were the pride of the community. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, there were two Jewish schools, an elementary school with three grades and a higher school with six grades; together they were endowed with a fund of 86,000 florins. The schools subsequently received bequests from the Franchetti family. Around 1900 they included a kindergarten ("asili infantili"), an elementary school for boys and girls, a drawing-school for boys learning a trade, and a trade-school for girls. Instruction was given both in secular and in religious subjects. Connected with these schools was a rabbinical seminary ("istituto rabbinico"), which taught advanced Hebrew, rabbinical science, and theology, in addition to the regular college course. These were among the wealthiest Jewish educational institutions of the period, enjoying such bequests as a large legacy by Samuele del Mare (1885) and a foundation for distributing prizes for scientific works.
Spedale Israelitico, founded in 1826 by Solomon Abudarham, and enriched by bequests from his relatives and from the Franchetti family (building opened in 1863).
Moar Abetulot ("maritare donzelle"), founded in 1644 by prominent Spanish families for providing brides with dowries, and affording relief to impoverished members. The membership and government of this institution were hereditary. As a family foundation, it preserved the genealogies of all its members.
Malbisc Harumim, Vestire Poveri, instituted in 1654 for clothing the poor, especially the teachers and pupils of the Jewish schools.
Opera Pia Franco, founded by Joseph Franco in 1772 for the promotion of rabbinical studies, giving dowries to poor brides, and the support of Jews in Palestine.
All these foundations were obliged to change their statutes and government in conformity with the Italian law for the administration of philanthropic institutions.
Between 1650 and 1657, a Hebrew printing-press was established at Livorno. In 1703 another was established. They printed many prayer-books which were distributed to the East, in addition to many cabalistic works.
Jewish Encyclopedia bibliography
Antologia Israelitica, i., ii., Livorno, 1901;
G. B. Depping, Die Juden im Mittelalter, pp.372–373;
I. Rignano, La Università Israelitica di Livorno e le Opere Pie da Essa Amministrate, ib. 1890;
Vivoli, Annali di Livorno, iii., iv.
For the schools: Allgemeene Vaterlandsche Letter, pp.353 et seq., Oefeningen, 1805;
SephardicJews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the Iberian Peninsula. The term, which is derived from the Hebrew Sepharad, can also refer to the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa, who were also heavily influenced by Sephardic law and customs. Many Iberian Jewish exiled families also later sought refuge in those Jewish communities, resulting in ethnic and cultural integration with those communities over the span of many centuries.
Livorno is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn.
Portoferraio is a town and comune in the province of Livorno, on the edge of the eponymous harbour of the island of Elba. It is the island's largest city. Because of its terrain, many of its buildings are situated on the slopes of a tiny hill bordered on three sides by the sea.
The history of the Jews in Latin America began with conversos who joined the Spanish and Portuguese expeditions to the continents. The Alhambra Decree of 1492 led to the mass conversion of Spain's Jews to Catholicism and the expulsion of those who refused to do so. However, the vast majority of conversos never made it to the New World and remained in Spain slowly assimilating to the dominant Catholic culture. This was due to the requirement by Spain's Blood Statutes to provide written documentation of Old Christian lineage to travel to the New World. However, the first Jews came with the first expedition of Christopher Columbus, including Rodrigo de Triana and Luis De Torres.
Paradesi Jews immigrated to the Indian subcontinent during the 15th and 16th centuries following the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Paradesi refers to the Malayalam / Tamil language word that means foreign as they were newcomers. These Sephardic immigrants fled persecution and death by burning in the wake of the 1492 Alhambra decree expelling all Jews who did not convert to Christianity from Spain and King Manuel's 1496 decree expelling Jews from Portugal. They are sometimes referred to as "White Jews", although that usage is generally considered pejorative or discriminatory and refers to relatively recent Jewish immigrants, predominantly Sephardim.
The history of the Jews in Tunisia extends nearly two thousand years to the Punic era. The Jewish community in Tunisia is no doubt older and grew up following successive waves of immigration and proselytism before its development was hampered by anti-Jewish measures in the Byzantine Empire. The community formerly used its own dialect of Arabic. After the Muslim conquest of Tunisia, Tunisian Judaism went through periods of relative freedom or even cultural apogee to times of more marked discrimination. The arrival of Jews expelled from the Iberian peninsula, often through Livorno, greatly altered the country. Its economic, social and cultural situation has improved markedly with the advent of the French protectorate before being compromised during the Second World War, with the occupation of the country by the Axis. The creation of Israel in 1948 provoked a widespread anti-Zionist reaction in the Arab world, to which was added nationalist agitation, nationalization of enterprises, Arabization of education and part of the administration. Jews left Tunisia en masse from the 1950s onwards because of the problems raised and the hostile climate created by the Bizerte crisis in 1961 and the Six-Day War in 1967. According to the Jewish Virtual Library, the Jewish population of Tunisia, was estimated at about 105,000 individuals in 1948. These Jews lived mainly in Tunis, with communities present in Djerba. The 2022 Report on International Religious Freedom by The U.S Department of State stated that "according to members of the Jewish community, there are approximately 1,500 Jewish citizens in the country".
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the few centuries following the forced expulsion of unconverted Jews from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1497. They should therefore be distinguished both from the descendants of those expelled in 1492 and from the present-day Jewish communities of Spain and Portugal.
In Judaism, Nusach is the exact text of a prayer service; sometimes the English word "rite" is used to refer to the same thing. Nusakh means "formulate" or "wording".
Italian Jews or Roman Jews can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living in or with roots in Italy, or, in a narrower sense, to mean the Italkim, an ancient community living in Italy since the Ancient Roman era, who use the Italian liturgy as distinct from those Jewish communities in Italy dating from medieval or modern times who use the Sephardic liturgy or the Nusach Ashkenaz.
The community of Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands, particularly in Amsterdam, was of major importance in the seventeenth century. The Portuguese Jews in the Netherlands did not refer to themselves as "Sephardim", but rather as "Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation." The Portuguese-speaking community grew from conversos, Jews forced to convert to Catholicism in Spain and Portugal, who rejudaized under rabbinical authority, to create an openly self-identified Portuguese Jewish community. As a result of the expulsions from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496, as well as the religious persecution by the Inquisition that followed, many Spanish and Portuguese Jews left the Iberian peninsula at the end of the 15th century and throughout the 16th century, in search of religious freedom. Some migrated to the newly independent Dutch provinces which allowed Jews to become residents. Many Jews who left for the Dutch provinces were crypto-Jews. Others had been sincere New Christians, who, despite their conversion, were targeted by Old Christians as suspect. Some of these sought to return to the religion of their ancestors. Ashkenazi Jews began migrating to the Netherlands in the mid-seventeenth century, but Portuguese Jews viewed them with ambivalence.
Syrian Jews are Jews who live in the region of the modern state of Syria, and their descendants born outside Syria. Syrian Jews derive their origin from two groups: from the Jews who inhabited the region of today's Syria from ancient times, and sometimes classified as Mizrahi Jews ; and from the Sephardi Jews who fled to Syria after the Alhambra Decree forced the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.
The history of the Jews in Gibraltar dates back more than 650 years. There have been periods of persecution, but for the most part the Jews of Gibraltar have prospered and been one of the largest religious minorities in the city, where they have made contributions to the culture, defence, and Government of Gibraltar.
Musta'arabi Jews were the Arabic-speaking Jews, largely Mizrahi Jews and Maghrebi Jews, who lived in the Middle East and North Africa prior to the arrival and integration of Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews of the Iberian Peninsula, following their expulsion from Spain in 1492. Following their expulsion, Sephardi Jewish exiles moved into the Middle East and North Africa, and settled among the Musta'arabi.
The history of the Jews in Jamaica predominantly dates back to migrants from Spain and Portugal. Starting in 1509, many Jews began fleeing from Spain because of the persecution of the Holy Inquisition. When the English captured Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the Jews who were living as conversos began to practice Judaism openly. By 1611, the Island of Jamaica had reached an estimated population of 1,500 people. An estimated 75 of those people were described as "foreigners," which may have included some Portuguese Jews. Many Jamaican Jews were involved in the Atlantic slave trade, both owning and trading in enslaved Black people.
From about 1590 on, there had been a Portuguese Jewish community in Hamburg, whose qehilla existed until its compulsory merger with the Ashkenazi congregation in July 1939. The first Sephardic settlers were Portuguese Marranos, who had fled their country under Philip II and Philip III, at first concealing their religion in their new place of residence. Many of them had emigrated from Spain in the belief that they had found refuge in Portugal.
By the time the Ottoman Empire rose to power in the 14th and 15th centuries, there had been Jewish communities established throughout the region. The Ottoman Empire lasted from the early 12th century until the end of World War I and covered parts of Southeastern Europe, Anatolia, and much of the Middle East. The experience of Jews in the Ottoman Empire is particularly significant because the region "provided a principal place of refuge for Jews driven out of Western Europe by massacres and persecution."
The history of the Jews in Florence can be traced over nine hundred years. Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. The Jews of Florence have one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in Europe. The historic Jewish community in Florence is one of the largest and one of the most influential Jewish communities in Italy. The Jewish community in Florence also serves the smaller neighboring Jewish communities in Pisa, Livorno, and Siena.
The four active synagogues of Gibraltar are colloquially known as the Great Synagogue, the Little Synagogue, the Flemish Synagogue, and the Abudarham Synagogue. The first synagogue established after the 1717 expulsion of Jews from Gibraltar, the Great Synagogue, was built on what is now known as Engineer Lane, and remains Gibraltar's principal synagogue. The Little Synagogue, founded in 1759 in Irish Town, was the result of the desire of Moroccan Jews for a less formal service. The lavish Flemish Synagogue was built at the turn of the nineteenth century on Line Wall Road, due to the request of some congregants for a return to more formal, Dutch customs. The last synagogue to be established in what is now the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, the Abudarham Synagogue, was founded in 1820 on Parliament Lane by recent Moroccan immigrants.
Emanuel Raphael Belilios, was a banker, opium dealer, philanthropist, and businessman, born in Calcutta, British India and active in Hong Kong. His father, Raphael Emanuel Belilios, was a member of a Jewish Venetian family. Belilios married Simha Ezra in 1855, and in 1862 he settled in Hong Kong and engaged in trade. His success saw him described in the British press at the time as "one of the merchant princes of the colony."
Judeo-Livornese/Baggito (Italian: Giudeo-Livornese/Bagitto) is an extinct dialect of the Judeo-Italian languages, historically spoken by the Jewish community in and around Livorno. It was heavily influenced by Judeo-Portuguese, Judeo-Italian, Ladino. It is best attested through the works of Guido Bedarida.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
