The Jewish Community of Trieste

Trieste

Port in North Italy.


Jews may have lived there before the end of the 14th century, but there is no authoritative information. After the city's annexation to Austria in 1382 Jews from Germany settled there; some were subject to the dukes of Austria and some to the local rulers. Jews soon took the place of Tuscan moneylenders in the economic life of the city. During the middle ages they were engaged in loan-banking and trade; in the 14th century one of them served as the official city banker in the town hall. The Jewish banker Moses and his brother Cazino, who lived in the Rione del Mercato, are mentioned in 1359. The Jews tended to live in the Riborgo neighborhood, then the civic and commercial center. During the middle ages they were

The 15th century was a period of development for the small Jewish community. Two Jewish bankers dominated the period; Salomone D'oro and Isacco da Trieste. In 1509 the emperor Maximilian I granted to Isacco the position of schutzjude, or the protected Jew. It is important to stress the position of Jewish women, who sometimes directed the family's banking establishment. As in the other imperial possessions, Jews were obliged to wear the yellow badge. In 1583 there was an abortive attempt to expel the Jews.

During the 17th century Trieste's patriciate took an unfavorable stand towards the Jews, asking the imperial authorities for their expulsion. The imperial authorities resisted the pressure and the Jews were not expelled. However, in 1695 the 11 Jewish families in the city, around 70 people, were enclosed in the so-called Old Ghetto, or Trauner Ghetto. The Jews petitioned the authorities successfully for healthier site, and in 1696 the Jewish ghetto was erected in the Riborgo neighborhood, near the harbor.

However, by the middle of the 18th century Jews had again begun to live outside the ghetto. At that time they were traders and craftsmen and some of them were factors to the Austrian court. Emperor Joseph II's Toleranzpatent of 1781 gave legal sanction to the gradually improving condition of the Jews in Trieste, and in 1785 the gates of the ghetto were destroyed. In 1746 the Universita degli Ebrei, or Jewish community, was constituted. In this period there were 120 Jews living in Trieste. The most important families were the Morpurgo, Parente, Levi, and Luzzatto. In the same year the first synagogue was erected, the so-called Scuola Piccola. Maria Theresa permitted the richest Jewish families to live outside the ghetto. Moreover, Marco Levi, head of the community, received the title of Hoffaktor in 1765. In 1771 Maria Theresa granted a series of privileges to the Nazione Ebrea.

In the 18th century Jews were traders and craftsmen and some of them were factors to the Austrian court. One of the most distinguished scholars of the mid-18 century was Rabbi Isacco Formiggini. Emperor Joseph II in 1782 gave legal sanction to the gradually improving conditions of the Jews in Trieste, and in 1785 the gates of the ghetto were destroyed. There were around 670 Jews in 1788. In 1775 the Scuola Grande or the Great Synagogue was erected, the building also included a Sephardi synagogue.

The rabbis and scholars of the community, from the 17th to Isaac Formiggini, Mordechai Luzzatto, Raphael Nathan Tedeschi, joseph Hezekiah Gallico, Abraham Eliezer Levi, Rahel Morpurgo (the poetess), Vittorio Castiglioni, A. Curiel, and H. P. Chajes. Samuel David Luzzatto ("shadal"), was a native of Trieste. The writer Italo Svevo lived in Trieste which was the locale of his novels. Il Corriere Israelitico, a Jewish newspaper in Italian, was published in Trieste from 1862 to 1915.

In 1796 the community inaugurated a Jewish school under the chief rabbi Raffael Nathan Tedesco. This school was in part inspired by the proposals of N.H. Wessely. The first Hebrew work printed in Trieste was Samuel Romanelli's Italian-Hebrew grammar, published in 1799. Tedesco was followed by Abramo Eliezer Levi, who was the chief rabbi of Trieste between 1802 and 1825. In 1800 1,200 Jews lived in Trieste.

The 19th century was the golden age of Trieste Jewry. During that time, some members of the community played an active part in the Risorgimento and the irredentist struggle which culminated in Trieste becoming part of Italy in 1919. Trieste Jews, such as writer Italo Svevo and the poet Umberto Saba, were central in creation of the Italian intellectual world. Il Corriere Israeliticom, a Jewish newspaper in Italian, was published in Trieste from 1862 to 1915. In the 1850s some Hebrew books were printed, including Ghirondi –Neppi's 'Toledot Gedolei Yisrael' (1853). The Jewish printer Jonah Cohen was active in the 1860s. His illustrated Passover Haggadah with and without Italian translation (1864) was a memorable production.

The number of Jews increased gradually in the 19th century. In 1848 there were around 3,000 Jews, in 1869 there were 4,421, and in 1910, 5,160 Jews lived in Trieste. The monumental new synagogue in Via Donizzetti opened in 1912 and it was inaugurated by chief rabbi Zvi Perez Chajes. It followed the Ashkenazi rite. After World War I Trieste was the main port for Jews from Central and Eastern Europe who immigrated to Erez Israel.

According to the census of 193, the Jewish community of Trieste had 4,671 members. Census data for 1938 recorded 5,381 Jews in Trieste, belonging for the most part to the lower and middle sectors of the middle class. The racial laws at the end of 1938 caused an initial period of disorientation, including many conversions, the withdrawal of membership of many community leaders and members, and the emigration of most foreign Jews. In October 1941, the first visible acts of intimidation occurred. Temples were defaced with anti-Semitic slogans and red ink. Vandalism and violence recurred in July 1942 when several fascist squads devastated the temple and assaulted defenseless passers-by, shops were sacked, and by then, the Jewish community of Trieste had no more than 2,500 members.

During the holocaust the Nazis executed raids against the Jewish population on October 9, 1943 and January 20, 1944, the latter against aged and ill people in the gentilome home. Jews who were recovering in hospitals throughout the city, including a hospital for the chronically ill were seized. After being arrested, the Jews were taken to the Coroneo prison and to the Risiera di San Sabba, the only concentration camp with a crematorium in Italy. From October 1943 to February 1945, about 60 convoys left Trieste, all headed for the concentration camps of Central and Eastern Europe. According to estimates, 708 Jews were from Trieste, and only 23 returned. Some Jews from Trieste joined the partisans and died in combat. The number of those who were converted to Catholicism in that period was very high, in comparison with other Jewish communities in Italy. During the struggle to liberate Italy, Rita Rosani, a Trieste-born Jewish partisan was particularly distinguished.

After the war about 1,500 Jews remained in Trieste; by 1965 the number had fallen to 1,052, out of a total of 280,000 inhabitants, partly because of the excess of deaths over births. In 1969 the community, numbering about 1,000, had a synagogue and a prayer house of Ashkenazi rite, school, as well as a home for the aged.

In the early 21st century the Jewish population of Trieste was around 600.

Gorizia

City in Friuli, N.E. Italy.

Gorizia was part of the Austrian empire until 1918 though for centuries its culture had been Italian. Jews were first mentioned in the years 1299-1363. In 1348 and from then on they practiced money lending, however, it was only in 1548 did Jews sign the first charter with the local authorities. In 1624 the first Jew from Gorizia, Joel Pincherie, obtained from Emperor Ferdinand II the title of Hoffaktor. In 1696 Emperor Leopold I legislated the erection of the ghetto, activated in 1698. The community followed the Ashkenazi rite. Until the 18th century the Jews of Gorizia were mostly moneylenders. The most important banking families were that of Pincherie, Gentili, and Morpurgo. In the 18th century Jews engaged in the manufacture of silk and wax (the latter by the Murpurgo brothers) which dominated the city's economy. In 1756 the synagogue in the Via Ascoli was consecrated. After they had been expelled from the smaller Venetians town in 1777, more Jews moved to Gorizia. The 1781 "Toleranzpatent" of Joseph II allowed the Jews to be even more integrated in civic life. In 1788 the town's Jewish population numbered 270. The intellectual life of Gorizia Jews at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th was dominated by the figures of two rabbis, Isacco Samuele Reggio and his son Abram Vita Reggio. During the 19th century the community slowly developed. In 1846 there were 266 Jews living in Gorizia. In 1900 there are already 865 living there.

In 1938 there were 183 Jews in Gorizia, mostly engaged in business, commerce and services. Of these, 109 were Italians and 76 were foreigners, primarily from central and Eastern Europe. Since the beginning of the century, the population of Gorizian Jews had decreased, that of foreign Jews had significantly increased, and assimilation had grown. A strong demographic decline occurred soon after the appearance of the racial laws of 1938, caused especially because of the exodus of foreign Jews and by conversions or withdrawal from the community. When the German occupation began in September 1943, Jews who were most aware of the danger moved elsewhere or went into hiding, while the old, the sick, and those without adequate means remained at home and were arrested and deported. The first arrests and imprisonment occurred in September 1943. There followed the roundup of November 23, in which 22 people were arrested, imprisoned at Coroneo in Trieste, and deported to Auschwitz on December 7. In the following months, other Gorizian Jews who had gone into hiding there or in other Italian towns and cities such as Ferrara, Genoa, and Florence, were caught. In all, 47 Jews from Gorizia were deported, of whom only two, Iris Steinmann and Giacomo Jacoboni, returned. Because of the drastic decrease in the number of Jews in Gorizia after the war, the historic local Jewish nucleus of the Isonzo area was incorporated into the Jewish community of Trieste in 1969 ceasing to exist as an independent Jewish body.

Istria

Peninsula in the northern Adriatic, Croatia.

History

Jews were living in Istria in the latter part of the 14th century, as there is record of them opening a money lending enterprise in Capodistria in 1380. Other such businesses were established in the towns of Isola, Pirano, Rovigno, Pola, and Veglia.

Jews from Germany settled in Istria in the 1480s, mainly in the towns of Trieste, Muggia, Pirano, Parenzo, and Capodistria. They engaged in banking and trade under the protection of local rulers, and later the republic of Venice.

The most important of the banks was in Pirano. “ Capitoli,” agreements between the municipality and the bankers, approved by the republic of Venice in 1484, show that Pirano was obliged to provide the Jews with animals for slaughter according to Hebrew rites, a field for a cemetery, and to permit them to invite other Jews, including teachers for their sons, to settle in the city. Jewish males above the age of 13 were required to wear an “O” (from GuideO, Italian for Jew) on their clothing, except when travelling through Venetian domains.

In 1502 a German Jew Asher Lemmlein (Lammlin) appeared in Istria announcing the coming of the Messiah within six months, providing the Jews showed great repentance and practiced charity. He predicted that a pillar of cloud and smoke would precede the Jews on their way to Jerusalem. Lemmlein gained many adherents including Christians but he suddenly died or disappeared when his prophecies were not fulfilled. The movement he began came to an abrupt end.

Jewish banks in Istria continued to function with interruptions until the middle of the 17th century. In 1634 a Monti di Pieta, a form of organized charity granting loans at moderate interest run by the Catholic Church as an alternative to money lenders, was established in Pirano, and subsequently others were opened elsewhere in Istria. By the end of the 17th century, having lost their hold on the business of money lending, most Jews left Istria and settled in Italy.

After the middle of the 18th century the only significant Jewish community remaining in Istria was that of Trieste.  

אקויליאה

Aquileia 

עיר מצפון מערב לטרייסטה, צפון איטליה.

בחפירות בשנים 1948, 1950 נתגלתה בעיר רצפת פסיפס ו-36 כתובות, שנוטים ליחס אותן לבית-הכנסת העתיק. מציבות יהודיות נמצאו מן התקופה הרומאית המאוחרת ומן המאה ה-12. מבני המקום ראויים לציון ר' מנחם, תלמידו של אלעזר בן יהודה מוורמס (המאה ה-13), והחוקר והמשורר דוד בן מרדכי אבולעפיה, בן המאה ה-18.

Oskar Danon (1913-2009), composer and conductor, born in Sarajevo, Bosnia (then part of Austria-Hungary). He studied music in his native Yugoslavia, then in Prague, Czech Republic, earning a PhD in musicology from Charles University. He was a conductor in Sarajevo until Yugoslavia was invaded by Nazi Germany and its allies in 1941.

During the war, Danon joined the partisan forces led by Josip Broz Tito. He served as deputy commander in a number of partisan battalions and reached the rank of major. In 1944 he was transferred to the Cultural Department of the Partisan General Staff and was one of the founders of the partisan theater and choir. He composed several songs, including Uz Maršala Tita ("Together with Marshal Tito"), the Yugoslav partisan anthem which became popular in German occupied Yugoslavia.

After the war he served as the musical director of the Belgrade Opera between 1944-1965. He was director of Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana from 1970 to 1974, of the Radio Zagreb Symphony Orchestra, and of the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra. Danon conducted the festive concert celebrating 400-year of Sarajevo Jewry held on October 14, 1966 in Sarajevo, attended by representatives of the local government and representatives from Israel.

Danon directed various orchestras in the world, among them the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London (1962-1963), Vienna State Opera (1964), the Verdi Theatre in Trieste, Italy. He recorded a large number of works by Smetana, Enescu, Dvořák, Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev, Stravinsky Saint-Saëns, Wagner, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Puccini, Kalman, Stravinsky, Cesar Franck and others.

Danon was a professor at the Belgrade Music Academy. He was a member and president of the Association of Music Artists of Serbia. Danon was awarded the October Award of the City of Belgrade. He died in Belgrade, Serbia.

TRIESTE

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birthplace, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

This family name is derived from Trieste, a port city and the capital city of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy. Jews may have lived there before the end of the 14th century.

Places, regions and countries of origin or residence are some of the sources of Jewish family names. But, unless the family has reliable records, names based on toponymics cannot prove the exact origin of the family.

Trieste is documented as a Jewish family name with Celina Trieste, a resient of Venice, Italy, who was born in Padova, Italy, in 1906 and perished in the Holocaust.

MUGGIA

Surnames derive from one of many different origins. Sometimes there may be more than one explanation for the same name. This family name is a toponymic (derived from a geographic name of a town, city, region or country). Surnames that are based on place names do not always testify to direct origin from that place, but may indicate an indirect relation between the name-bearer or his ancestors and the place, such as birthplace, temporary residence, trade, or family-relatives.

This family name is derived from Muggia, the name of n Italian town in the extreme south-east of the Province of Trieste in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia on the border with Slovenia.

Places, regions and countries of origin or residence are some of the sources of Jewish family names. But, unless the family has reliable records, names based on toponymics cannot prove the exact origin of the family.

Muggia is documented as a Jewish family name with Franca Muggia, a resident of Venice, Italy, who was born in 1909 and perished in the Holocaust.