- Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily
The Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily began in
1493 when theSpanish Inquisition reached the island ofSicily and itsJew ish population of 30,000 Jews.History of the Jews of Sicily and the Spanish Inquisition
History of the Sicilian Jews
At the time of Expulsion, there had been Jewish activity in Sicily for some 1555 years, dating back to early Roman times, and they were relatively untroubled on the island until the acceptance of the crown of
Aragon inSicily in1412 . A great number of Jews had reached Sicily afterPompey 's63 BC sacking ofJerusalem , and additionally by Roman Proconsul Crassus, who is traditionally said to have sold more than 30,000 Jewish slaves on the island.After the enslavement under Roman rule, Jews in Sicily eventually assimilated into society, working in professions as wide-ranged as philosophy, medicine, artisanal pursuits, and farming.
The exact number of Jews in Sicily at the time of expulsion is not certain, but in 1492, it is known the Jewish populations of
Palermo ,Messina and several other cities were considerable, and that there were "Giudeccas", or Jewish settlements, in over 50 places in Sicily, ranging in anywhere population from 350 to 5000. At their height, Jewish Sicilians probably constituted from five to eight percent of the island's population. [http://www.bestofsicily.com/religion.htm]History of the Spanish Inquisition and Jewish Expulsion
Muslim Moors had ruled much of the Iberian Peninsula since the first invasion in
711 . By the late Middle Ages, Christian kings had begun to wage war on the Moors and recapture some of the peninsula. After the marriage of King Ferdinand of Aragon to Queen Isabella of Castille, the Moors were finally forced out of Granada in 1492, completing the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula.Jewish life had flourished in Spain, and Muslims, Christians, and Jews had coexisted peacefully throughout
Al-Andalus (see "Golden age of Jewish culture in the Iberian Peninsula ").In
1492 , as part of an attempt to maintain Catholic orthodoxy and purify their kingdom of Moorish influence,Ferdinand and Isabella ordered the forced expulsion or conversion of all Jews on pain of death. The date of the expulsion was extended fromSeptember 18 1492 toJanuary 12 1493 , in order to allow the extortion of oportunist tax levies.Witnesses recounted the sight of the Jews of
Palermo waving from the departing ships at their former neighbours as they were borne away.Fact|date=February 2007The unique
liturgy of the Jews of Sicily remains amongst certain communities,Fact|date=February 2007 but the Jews have never returned en masse to Sicily. However, in2005 , for the first time since the Expulsion, aPassover seder was conducted in Sicily (in Palermo), held by theMilan ese progressiveRabbi Barbara Aiello .References
*http://www.bestofsicily.com/religion.htm
*http://www.dieli.net/SicilyPage/JewishSicily/JewsInSicily.htmlExternal links
* [http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art201.htm Sicilian Peoples: The Jews of Sicily, by Vincenzo Salerno]
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