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Jews settled in Arad in the early eighteenth century, reaching the number of 10,000 before the Second World War. In the nineteenth century, this city was one of the hearts of Reform Judaism, under the direction of Rabbi Aaron Chorin. The community survived the Holocaust and most of the family emigrated to Israel after the war. There are less than 300 Jews in Arad today. Community life is ...
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The town of Trancoso is an ancient city at the crossroads of many wars, and as such was transformed into a fortress. The Jewish presence probably dates back to the 12th century. Its population soon increased as a result of the Spanish Inquisition, mainly due to the arrival of Jews from Aragon and Castile. As a result, the community asked King John II for the right to expand the synagogue. The ...
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The Jews lived under Arab occupation in Malaga from 743. They settled in the neighborhoods on the periphery in the company of the very active traders of Genoa. At the fall of the caliphate of Cordoba, the city hosted many Jewish refugees, including Samuel Ibn Negrella who then began his meteoric rise and later became the advisor to the Arab kingdom of Granada. In the eleventh century, there ...
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In 1610, the city fathers of Rotterdam issued permits to engage in trade within the city to a small number of Portuguese Jewish merchants. The permits guaranteed freedom of worship and the right to build a synagogue and establish a cemetery. In 1612, these provisions were challenged by the local Remonstrant Church. This prompted a number of Jewish families to depart Rotterdam for Amsterdam. ...
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Archaeologists have discovered an oil lamp dating from the 4th century. A menorah was found on it. Documentary evidence of Jews living in Augsburg dates from 1212. Records from the second half of the 13th century show a well-organized community, and mention the Judenhaus (1259), the synagogue and cemetery (1276), the ritual bathhouse, and “dancehall” for weddings (1290). ...
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A Jewish community is first mentioned in Leipzig at the end of the 12th century; and an organized community with a synagogue and a school existed from the second quarter of the 13th century. Its central location attracted Jewish traders from all over Europe to the Trade Fair. The fair regulations of Leipzig of 1268 guaranteed protection to all merchants and moved the day of the market from ...
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Most of the Jewish sites in beautiful Tbilisi are concentrated in the old city, in the neighborhoods along the left bank of the Kura River. Starting from the Vakhtang Gogasali Square (Meidan Square), located near the traditional Persian baths, take the main street of the old town, Kote Afkhazi Street, which you will go up a hundred meters to see on your left the Built at the beginning of the ...
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Not far from Tbilisi, about 90 kilometers away, is the town of Gori, the birthplace of Joseph Stalin, to whom a museum is dedicated. The marshroutka is the most economical way: departure every 20 minutes or so from Didube bus station in Tbilisi for about one hour and a half. You can otherwise take a taxi. At 25 Kasteli Street, on the first floor of the courtyard of a house, you can see the ...
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As you can discover on the page devoted to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi is home to a number of sites linked to Jewish cultural heritage in the old town. One of these is the astonishing synagogue built of red bricks. Less expected in the region is a small synagogue in Gori, the birthplace of Stalin!
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Large city on the shores of the Black Sea and an important seaside resort, Batumi still has some Jewish sites. From Tbilisi, the easiest and most pleasant way is to go by train (about 5 hours, about fifteen dollars). Beautiful white building, is located at number 33 Vazha-Pshavela street, in the old town, which you will reach from the station along the waterfront. It was built between 1900 ...
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A very interesting encounter with Georgian Judaism is possible by visiting the village of Akhaltsikhe. Located on the road to Batumi, the second largest city in the country, Akhaltsikhe is accessible from Tbilisi either by minibus or taxi, about three hours drive. You can also take the train to Moliti station, then taxi to Akhaltsikhe. It is in the old district of Rabati, located in the city ...
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On this road you’ll find the town of Akhaltsikhe, with its ancient Rabati quarter housing the country’s oldest synagogue, as well as another built in the 20th century. Once you’ve crossed the road and set down your bags in Batumi, you’ll be dazzled by the synagogue built between 1900 and 1904 on the Tsar’s authorisation!
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In the north of the country, the city of Oni, about 200 kilometers from Tbilisi, is home to a wonderful in excellent condition, located on Baazovi Street. Built in the 1890s according to the plans of an architect from Poland and Jewish workers from Salonika, this beautiful Moorish-style building housed the third largest community in the country after Tbilisi and Kutaisi in the early twentieth ...
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The second largest city in the country of Georgia, Kutaisi is located just over 200 kilometers northwest of Tbilisi. The cheapest way to get there from the capital is the minibus (about 4 hours drive), and the most pleasant the train (about 5:30 of journey). The Jewish community of Kutaisi was one of the largest in Georgia. It was located in a neighborhood on either side of Boris Gaponov ...
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Surprising discoveries await you in northern Georgia. From Kutaisi, with its great synagogue dating from the late 19th century and its famous translator Boris Gaponov, to Oni, with its sublime synagogue dating from the same period and recently restored.
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The Jewish community of Erfurt first appears in the historical record in the late 11th century, with the earliest recorded building of the synagogue dating from then. For centuries Jews and Christians lived side by side in the centre of town. There is more detailed evidence from the 13th century. We learn from tax lists and deeds that Erfurt Jews worked in banking, and dealt not only with ...
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The history of the Jews in Cologne is documented from the year 321 AD, almost as long as the history of Cologne. Over its history, the Jewish community of Cologne has suffered persecutions, many expulsions, massacres and destruction. The community numbered about 19,500 people before its dispersal, murders and destruction in the 1930s by the Nazis before and ...
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Straddling Europe and Asia, Georgia, situated between the eastern shores of the Black Sea and the high mountains of the Caucasus, is a land of plenty, rich in exceptional nature and in historical heritage. Well preserved, it was praised by Pushkin, Alexander Dumas, or Lermontov. The Georgian nation, whose genesis goes back to the kingdom of Colchis, is evoked in the myths of the Golden Fleece ...
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In 1815, North African Jews whose ancestors had been expelled from Spain came to the Azores. The island was duty-free and allowed them to import and resell to local businesses. In 1820, the Portuguese liberal revolution led to religious diversity. In 2004, a genetic study concluded that 13.4% of the Y chromosome of Azoreans is of Jewish origins, a fact that suggests the importance of the ...
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The terrifying war against Ukraine changes, of course, the function of these pages devoted to the Jewish cultural heritage of that country. Many of the places mentioned were razed to the ground by bombs. While these pages are not intended in the present time for tourism, they may be useful to researchers and students as historical references. References to so many painful histories during the ...
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This village, located outside Vila Nova de Paiva, welcomes a small that is dedicated to the history of the presence of the Jewish community in the region. Located in an eighteenth-century building, the well-documented exhibition follows history through the eyes of the community. Go to the tourist office as you enter the village.
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Bragança is a medieval hilltop town in northern Portugal, 22 kilometres from Spain. Although there seems to be no record of a Jewish presence in Bragança in the 12th century, the royal privileges of 1187 mention the penalties for attacking a Jew on arrival. In exchange for this royal protection, the community had to pay high taxes. During the reign of Alfonso IV (1325-1357), the city’s ...
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The presence of a Jewish community in Jaen is first recorded in 612, when a king’s edict forbade Jews to own Christian slaves. If the Jewish population reached its peak during the seventh century, there were most probably Jews already during the Roman period. The geographer Abd al Nur Al-Himyari mentions during the ninth century a mikveh in Jaen, known as Isaac bath. The walls of the ...
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It is unknown how far in the past a Jewish community existed in Izmir. When we speak of the Jews of Izmir, usually the Sephardic Jews who immigrated from Spain and Portugal between 1492 and 1497 come to mind. However, it has been proven that there was a Jewish settlement in Izmir as soon as the antique age. There is an evidence that a Jewish community existed in Izmir during the ...
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Jews settled in Pergola in the thirteenth century. The building that 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.
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There are little remaining traces of the Jewish presence in Macerata. You can nevertheless visit the which contains archives mentioning the presence of a Jewish community in the city since 1287. houses a tombstone with an Hebrew inscription from 1553, referring to the passing of Rabbi Avigdor. The tombstone was probably transferred here from the old Jewish cemetery of Cappuccini Vecchi. The ...
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Jews settled in Corridonia in 1436. The only remaining trace of this community is the ghetto entry gate located Via Antonio Mollari.
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Sabbioneta is a special city: it was created in the sixteenth century by prince Vespasiano I Gonzaga Colonna according to the architectural principles of the Renaissance. In this “ideal city”, a Jewish ghetto was included. In 1551, Tobias Foa opened a Hebrew printing house in Sabbioneta. Although the community was described as “lively” in the nineteenth ...
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Naples is known for Mount Vesuvius, the volcanic enthusiasm of its people, the pages of Elena Ferrante and more recently, the films of the great director Paolo Sorrentino. The Neapolitan Jewish presence dates back to at least the first century, as mentioned in the texts of Flavius Joseph. As archaeological finds from 1908 attest, Jewish life in the 4th century was significant. Graves from ...
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A Jewish community established itself in Soragna when Jews were expelled from Parma in 1555 and from Piacenza in 1570. In front of the city’s castle, one can find the oratory dating from 1584, since then transformed into a synagogue and Jewish museum. You’ll find there a great collection of crafted objects, as well as documents retracing Jewish life in this region since the ...
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