CALABRIA

CALABRIA , region in Southern Italy. Medieval Jewish chronicles attribute the beginnings of Jewish settlement in Calabria to Jewish captives exiled by Titus after the destruction of the Temple in 70 c.e. However there is no definite evidence of the presence of Jews there until the first half of the fourth century. The Calabrian community soon became prosperous, and was the object of envy and complaints during the reign of Emperor Honorius (398). The remains of a synagogue that appears to have been in use in the fourth and the fifth centuries were discovered in Bova Marina, on the southern coast of Calabria. The central hall has a niche with a bench and a mosaic floor where the designs of a menorah and a Salomon's knot can still be discerned. In the early 10^th century Calabria was devastated by Arab raiders, the Jewish population being among the worst sufferers. Soon afterward, however, the position of the Jews improved both economically and culturally. Scholars of Calabria were in touch with *Hai b. Sherira (Gaon) in Mesopotamia in the 11^th century. In the 13^th century the silk industry and other state monopolies were in Jewish hands, mainly owing to the protection afforded by the emperor Frederick ii. After 1288, under Charles ii of Anjou, persecutions and attacks were fomented by Dominican friars in Calabria, as in the rest of the kingdom. About half of the 2,500 Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity. Later the Calabrian community recuperated and increased; in some towns the Jewish population is said to have outnumbered the Christian. Calabrian Jews enjoyed economic prosperity under the Aragonese dynasty, until 1494. The fairs of Calabria attracted large numbers of local and foreign Jews. In 1465 the Jews coming to the fair of Maddalena di Cosenza obtained the privilege of having to answer only to the king's official and to no other person in charge of the market. In 1481 King Ferrante i promulgated a series of laws regulating the status of the Jews in his kingdom, and the communities of Calabria were granted the following privileges: they were not to be subject to the jurisdiction of city officials; they could address themselves to any notary or judge they chose; they would be taxed only according to the actual number of households; no Jew would be exempted from taxation, except the king's physician. When in 1480–81 the Turks attacked Otranto and Jews throughout the kingdom were forced to pay substantial sums to the treasury, the Jews of Calabria alone were taxed 2,600 ducats. However, the heavy taxation of the 15^th century caused some Jews of Calabria to migrate to Sicily.

Several Hebrew manuscripts are known to have been copied in the cities of Calabria during the 15^th century. Rashi's commentary to the Pentateuch was printed in *Reggio di Calabria in 1475, the first dated Hebrew book to have been printed in the Kingdom of Naples. On the expulsion of the Jews from Sicily in 1492, many refugees arrived in Calabria, most of the Syracuse community coming to Reggio di Calabria. After the expulsion, the Jews of Calabria maintained commercial and personal relations with *New Christians in Sicily. Calabria also served as a refuge for New Christians from Sicily fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. After the region passed under Spanish rule, persecution of the Jews in Calabria was renewed, and in 1510 they were all expelled from the region, including New Christians. Some migrated to central and northern Italy, and others to Salonika, Constantinople, and Adrianople, where they founded their own congregations and synagogues.

bibliography:

Milano, Bibliotheca, index; Roth, Italy, index; Roth, Dark Ages, index; O. Dito, Storia calabrese e la dimora degli ebrei in Calabria dal secolo V alla seconda metà del secolo xvi… (1916); N. Ferorelli, Ebrei nell 'Italia meridionale dall'età Romana al secolo xviii (1915; repr. 1990), passim. add. bibliography: L. Costamagna, "La sinagoga di Bova Marina nel quadro degli insediamenti tardoantichi della costa ionica meridionale della Calabria," in: Mélanges de l'Ecole Française de Rome, Moyen-Age, 103 (1991), 611–30; V. Bonazzoli, "Gli ebrei del regno di Napoli all'epoca della loro espulsione. Il periodo aragonese (1456–1499)," in: Archivio Storico Italiano, 137 (1979), 495–539; A. Silvestri, "Gli ebrei nel regno di Napoli durante la dominatione aragonese," in: Campania Sacra, 18 (1987), 21–77; C. Colafemmina, Per la storia degli ebrei in Calabria (1996); D. Noy, Jewish Inscriptions of Western Europe, I (1993), 180; A.K. Offenberg, A Choice of Corals. Facets of Fifteenth-Century Hebrew Printing (1992); N. Zeldes, "The Former Jews of This Kingdom." Sicilian Converts after the Expulsion, 1492–1516 (2003); D. Abulafia, "Il mezzogiorno peninsulare dai bizantini all'espulsione," in: Storia d'Italia. Annali 11, Gli ebrei in Italia. Dall'alto Medioevo all'età dei ghetti, ed. Corrao Vivanti (1996), 5–44.

[Ariel Toaff /

Nadia Zeldes (2^nd ed.)]

Calabria Region in s Italy, including the provinces of Catanzaro, Cosenza and Reggio di Calabria. The capital is Reggio di Calabria. The local economy is almost exclusively agricultural. Area: 15,080sq km (5822sq mi). Pop. (2001) 2,043,288.