Following the angry reception that greeted him when he preached to the Jews of Thessaloniki, around teh year 50, the Apostle Paul was spirited out of town by fellow believers in Jesus’ reincarnation.They brought him to Berea, some 60 km to the west. There too, Paul spoke in a synagogue, but in Berea the Jews “were more noble than those in Thessaloniki, for they received the word ...

The Jewish presence in Benfeld dates back from the Roman Empire. During the Middle-Age the community was lively and as important as the one in Strasbourg. The Jews were expelled from the city during the 1349 black plague, then drawn or burnt on the same year during the Saint Valentin massacre. From this date, Benfeld was forbidden to Jews until the eighteenth century. The community reformed ...

Jews settled in Pergola in the thirteenth century. The building which housed the synagogue can still be seen on Via Don Minzoni, 9. A Jewish cemetery was identified on the road to Mezzanotte, an excavation operation is ongoing.