The date of
12th January marks a historical, ill-fated moment for the Jewish Community of Sicily: on
that day, in 1493, all the Jews of the island were expelled as a result of the “Alhambra
Decree” promulgated the year before by the Catholic Kings of Spain, Elisabeth
and Ferdinand II, being Sicily part of Aragon kingdom. A long “exile into the exile”, as the Jewish Community
of Sicily recalls it, that dramatically ended up at Auschwitz, where many Jews
of Sicilian origins were sent to death.
Today, 524
years later, this same date takes a different, hopeful meaning for the Sicilian
Jewry: in a moving and vibrant gathering set to commemorate the expulsion decree,
the Archbishop of Palermo, Rev. Corrado Lorefice officially offered to the Jewish
Community the use of a deconsecrated Church, Santa Maria del Sabato -set in
what was the Jewish Neighborhood la Meschita- to be used as a Synagogue,
the first in the city since 1493.
The event was lived with
deep emotion by the representatives of the Jews of Palermo, in the persons of
Rav Umberto Piperno and Mrs Evelyne Aouate, chairwoman of the ISSE (the
Sicilian Institute of Jewish Studies, affiliated with Shavei Israel). Secular and religious
authorities of the city of Palermo were also present to mark the
event, with deputy-Major Mr. Emilio Arcuri; the Bishop's delegate, Mons.
Raffaele Mangano (Rev. Lorefice being busy in a visit to Jerusalem) and with the Imam of Palermo, Mr. Francesco Macaluso.
“A remarkable moment for
us as Jews and for all the city of Palermo” as stated by Mrs. Evelyne Aouate.
“A historical event in the relations between Judaism and the Catholic Church”
remarks Mrs. Noemi Di Segni, President of the Union of the Italian Jewish
Communities (UCEI) “a turning point, much more meaningful as it comes in a
Region -the South of Italy- which is living a momentum of cultural awakening”.
The chairman of Shavei
Israel, Mr. Michael Freund, who also attended
the ceremony, spoke of “reconciliation gesture between the Roman Church and the
Jewish People, which heals a wound of 5 centuries”.
The Jewish people
of Sicily, whose presence dates back to the 590 B.C.E. lived an era of growth and
prosperity in Sicily up until the Spanish Kingdom, when the community was
calculated of about 25.000 people: Palermo had a significant number of families
–with about 5000 individuals- and two Jewish neighborhoods -the Meschita
and Guzzetta- laid in a large portion of the city area: a scattering of
narrows streets, orchards, squares and gardens (scarcely visible today) that fostered
the wonder of the then Palermo. The fall of the Kingdom of Sicily to the
Spanish rulers, in 1409 marked the beginning of the decline for the Jewish
presence in the island.
After the expulsion edict, the Jewish
communities swelled the ranks of the Sephardic Diaspora, although keeping their specific
cultural features. Most of the Sicilian families escaped to the neighboring kingdom
of Naples, waiting and hoping for better times to return home. However, that
never happened, the order of expulsion being extended to Naples, too. The
Sicilian Diaspora was then touching the lands of the Ottoman Empire, in what is
today Greece and Turkey. But it was –as ironical as it could seem- in the Vatican
Kingdom of Rome that most Sicilian Jews found shelter, forming the Scola
Siciliana (the Sicilian Community) which was part of the five communities
that then made up the Jewish presence in the Roman Ghetto.
A strong community,
whose specific identity (for instance in the dietary customs as well as in the
language) the “Sicilians” were able to keep alive throughout the entire “Roman
Diaspora” against all odds (not only the daily discrimination but also, for instance, the pillage of the city by the German troops in 1527 that severally
stroke the Jewish community) up until the terrible date of October 16th
, 1943, with the Nazi deportation of the Jews of Rome.
Today, the
Jewish communities in the south of Italy and in Sicily in particular are steadily
emerging from their ashes. A decade ago, Rav Stefano Di Mauro, a US Rabbi of
Italian origins, decided to return to the city of his ancestors, Syracuse, in
order to revive the vibrant Jewish community that up to 1493 used to flourish
in the Archimedes’s city. Few families, mainly of marrannos (Jewish who
were forced to repudiate their religious identity assuming all the exterior costumes
of their Christian fellow citizens) gathered again in celebrating the Shabbat and
reading the scrolls of the Torah, thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Di Mauro.
Today, with the restoration of a Synagogue in Palermo, the Jewish Community of
the island celebrates a landmark date in its millennial heritage in the
Capital of Sicily.
