The history of the Jews in Naples deals with the presence of 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...

 in the city of Naples

Naples

Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. The Jewish presence in the city goes back at least 2,000 years. Today, the Jewish community in Naples numbers around 200 people.

History

Records of the first Jews in Naples go back to around the 1st century under the Romans. By 536, the Jewish community of Naples was sufficiently sizeable and economically established to fight with the then-resident Goths

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....

 against 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...

s. In 1159, when 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...

 visited the city, he noted that 500 Jewish families lived in the city. In 1288, after Dominican

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...

 priests spread anti-Jewish sentiments, 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...

 issued an expulsion order for the Jews and in 1293 any Jews still in Naples were forced to convert.

In 1473, the first Jewish press was established in Naples. In 1492, many Jews who were expelled from Spain came to Naples, where King Ferdinand of Naples protected them. However, in 1495, the French conquered the kingdom and persecuted its Jews. In 1510, Spain won control of the city and expelled the Jews, but those who paid 300 ducanti were permitted to stay. In 1535, the price was raised forcing many Jews to leave and by 1541 all Jews of Naples had left.

In 1735, Jews were permitted to return to Naples. In 1831, a small group of Jews settled in the Maltese Cross Hotel where one of the rooms served as a synagogue. In 1841, the Rothschild family

Rothschild banking family of Naples

The Rothschild banking family of Naples was founded by Calmann Mayer von Rothschild who was sent to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies from Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1821 by his father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild...

, which had set up an office in Naples, acquired the Villa Pignatelli

Villa Pignatelli

The Villa Pignatelli is a museum in Naples in southern Italy.The villa is perhaps the most striking building along the Riviera di Chiaia, the road bounding the north side of the Villa Comunale on the sea front between Mergellina and Piazza Vittoria. It was built at the behest of Ferdinand Acton in...

 which, according to some accounts, served as the Jewish centre. In 1864, the community rented space in Via Cappella Vecchia, which became the community centre. In 1863, the Rothschild Naples office closed and in 1867 the Villa Pignatelli was sold.

Naples’s Jewish community in the 1920’s comprised almost 1,000 members. Between 1942 and 1943, 50 Jews of Naples were saved from German deportation by being hidden by villagers in the area of Caserta

Caserta

Caserta is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial and industrial comune and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Campanian Subapennine mountain range...

. After World War II, the Jewish community of Naples numbered between 600 and 700. Today, the city's Jewish population numbers about 200.

Synagogue

The synagogue in Naples is located on Via Cappella Vecchia. The building, located in the Palazzo Sessa, was inaugurated in 1864 thanks to the influence of Baron Rothschild. In the entrance there are two marble statues; one which remembers the community president Dario Ascarelli who bought the premises for the synagogue in 1910 and the other which commemorates the deportation of Neapolitan Jews during the second world war. The large conference room has been reopened after restoration work that was carried out in 1992.

History of the Jews in Italy by region

• History of the Jews in Calabria
  History of the Jews in Calabria
  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...
  
  
• History of the Jews in Livorno
• History of the Jews in the Roman Empire
• History of the Jews in San Marino
  History of the Jews in San Marino
  The 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 Sicily
  History of the Jews in Sicily
  The 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

External links

• Map of Jewish Naples