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Italy is unique in Jewish history. It is home to a community dating back over two thousand years, the oldest in Europe and the only to have survived uninterrupted. For more than seventy generations, it has succeeded in conserving its original characteristics and surrounding environment. There have been Italian Jews in Italy for over two thousand years. The Jews in Italy have a strong bi-cultural roots which go back even before the birth of Christ, when the Jews already had an alliance with the Roman Empire. Under the leadership of Judah Maccabeus, many Israelites left the land of Israel to go to Rome in the second century BCE.
The Jewish population in Rome flourished. Thirteen synagogues were built as well as numerous cemeteries. Rome is not the only Italian city where Jewish communities began to grow. Many communities began to spring up in southern Italy as well as a few north of Rome, such as Taranto, Ferrarra, and Milan. In the south, the Ottoman Empire had a Jewish population. Many schools opened up for Jewish studies in Bari and Otranto. In areas under Aragon rule, Jews generally lived peacefully until 1492, when King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decided to expell all Jews from the Spanish Kingdom. Many fled to Northern Italian states between the years of 1492 to 1541. Many Jews headed for Rome or Milan, but some settled in Anacona, Venice, and Livorno. The anti- Semitic fervor did not end in Spain. Venice and Rome set up a Jewish ghetto to help protect, preserve and grow the Jewish culture. In 1848, the Italian ststes were unified as a single Italy under the House of Savoy. The new government freed the Jews and gave them their civil and political equality.
They no longer had to conceal their identity and a period of great reconstruction began in Italy.
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