Jewish Heritage Tour of Sicily
10 days 9 nights with Green Italy Tours (Platinum Plus Option)
Day 1 - Sep 16th: welcome to Palermo.
We will pick up you at the Palermo International airport and drive to Grand hotel Villa Igiea where you will spend the first three nights.
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. Dinner at Ristorante Sant’Andrea.
Day 2 – Sep 17th: Visit Palermo & Monreale
Today we will spend the morning gaping at the impressive mosaics in the Duomo of Monreale, which lies 15km (12 miles) south of Palermo. Make your way next door to visit the annexed Cloisters, where no two-column capitals are alike. Back to Palermo to visit the picturesque medieval quarter of La Kalsa and a Jewish memorial tombstone. We will end the day at the famous Piazza Marina where the imposing building of Palazzo Steri , once the seat of the Holy Inquisition, is still standing.
Enjoy a cocktail at our hotel and dinner at Bellotero http://www.bellotero.it/ in the fascinating old town.
Puglia has a treasure of Jewish history and is the right place to spend your vacation.
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.
The records are sparse over the next two centuries, though we know that the great historian Josephus wrote his major works at the imperial court in Rome during this time. By the third century, Jewish funeral inscriptions indicate definite settlements in the Southern cities of Bari, Oria, Capua, Otranto, Taranto, and above all, Venosa. These were important stops along the main trade route from Rome to the Eastern Mediterranean and Byzantium. The Via Appia (or the Appian Way), which linked Rome to the southern tip in Brindisi, the main port city on the Adriatic, ran through Capua, Venosa, Taranto, and Oria, and was scattered with Jewish settlements. The Jews on this route formed essential links in the chain of international trade, lived on friendly terms with the rest of the population, and suffered equally with their Christian neighbors from the Saracen and Northern invasions.
Archeological findings from the early centuries AD point to Jewish presence in Apulia under the Roman Empire.
By the ninth century, local Jewry had acquired its own unique profile, known to us through poetic and liturgical texts produced in Oria and Taranto, as well as the legacy of the rabbinical schools of Otranto, Bari and Trani, which flourished in the 13th century.
In the 12th century, French Tosafist Jacob ben Meir recognized Apulia as a preeminent center of Jewish learning. Rabbinical scholars of Apulia in the 13th century include Isaiah ben Mali (the Elder) of Trani, his grandson Isaiah ben Elijah of Trani, Solomon ben ha-Yatom, and Abraham de Balmes.
In this sense Apulian Judaism can be considered as one of the oldest testimonies of the Western European Diaspora.
In the Middle Ages, Apulian Jewry lived through alternating periods of tolerance and persecution, especially after part of the region fell under the Kingdom of Naples. In spite of uncertainty, local Jewry established ties with cultural and economic centers along the Mediterranean and in the Balkans. A significant population of Iberian exiles settled in Apulia after the expulsion of 1492.
Apulia surpasses every other area in Europe – except possibly Spain – as a place to see original medieval Jewish buildings and artifacts. The medieval Jewish quarter in Trani is unique in its intact state.
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.
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 former 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.
Thousands of Jewish slaves were brought 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.
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.
Jews have left indelible traces in Ferrara‘s local arts and literature. The novelist Giorgio Bassani lived in Ferrara where he was inspired to write The Garden of the Finzi-Continis based on an actual family’s tragic destiny. Ferrara is rich with a Jewish history that dates back to the middle ages. Visitors can appreciate the countless landmarks that pay tribute to this heritage firsthand. The Jewish Ghetto area has remained intact both in look and layout throughout various restorations and is now a pedestrian area complete with historical markers and boutiques.
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