[Equality
step by step (1815-1938)]
[Different
restrictions since 1815 - resettling Jews in Naples -
anti-Jewish edict in the Papal State since 1827]
<The record of the half century that passed between the
reestablishment of many ghettos and their final abolition
differed in the various regions. In Tuscany, after the
restoration of the grand duchy in 1815, the Jews there
were granted relative equality, only the army and public
office remaining barred to them. In the duchy of Parma,
the most stringent restriction was that prohibiting Jews
from residing in the (col. 1127)
capital. In the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom under Austrian
rule, where there were the important communities of
Mantua, Venice, Verona, and Padua, and the growing
community of Milan, conditions were not particularly
irksome. In Naples, where Jews had begun to resettle, the
only restriction was that they were not allowed to
constitute an official community. Elsewhere, however,
their situation was now again deeply humiliating,
especially in contrast with the freedom they had tasted.
In the duchy of Modena, all the old disabilities were
restored. The same applied to the Kingdom of Sardinia,
comprising Piedmont and Genoa, where the only relaxation
was that the Jewish badge was not reimposed. In the Papal
States intolerance increased, until in 1827 Pope *Leo XII
even resuscitated the notorious anti-Jewish edict of 1775.
(col. 1128)
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Italy, vol. 9, col. 1136.
Receipt for a donation to the Hevrat (Ḥevrat) Mattir
Asurim, Florence, 1835. The woodcut illustrates the
society's namee by showing the releasing of a prisoner.
Jerusalem, E. Gorodesky Collection.
[Emancipation
movements - emancipation and restitution of restrictions
- ghettos in the Papal State]
However, those Jews once more living in such sad
conditions now no longer had to rely only on the
assistance, mainly ineffectual, of their more fortunate
brethren. The middle-class Italian population, which was
struggling to liberate the country from reactionary
regimes, especially the Carboneria
and the Giovine Italia
movements, had among their aims the elimination of all
anti-Jewish discrimination.
Distinguished politicians and writers such as Vincenzo
Gioberti, Niccolò Tommaseo, Ugo Foscolo, and Cesare Balbo
fought for the same ideas. Some expressed these aims in
writings which reached a wide public, for instance Carlo
*Cattaneo in his Ricerche
economiche sulle interdizioni imposte dalla legge civile
agli israeliti (1837), on the economic
restrictions imposed on the Jews, ans Massimo d'*Azeglio,
Dell' emancipazione
civile degli israeliti, which appeared at the end
of 1847. On their part, the Jews did not wait for their
aspirations to freedom to be fulfilled through outside
assistance and took an active share in the struggle.
The Risorgimento movement, which started in Piedmont in
1820-21, became more daring in Modena in 1831 and
culminated in the 1848-49 revolutions in Milan, Rome, and
Venice - the last under the leadership of Daniele *Manin.
The movement included in its ranks many Jewish volunteers
from various parts of Italy.
Before the uprising broke out in 1848, even the most
reactionary governments hastened to grant the Jews some
concessions. Pope *Pius IX (1846-78), having abolished
compulsory Jewish attendance at conversionist sermons and
other humiliating regulations, admitted Jews into the
civic guard; in 1848 he ordered that the gates and walls
of the ghettos should be demolished in Rome and in other
towns of the Papal States. In Piedmont, in June 1848 the
house of Savoy introduced into the constitution of the
kingdom a provision that established equal civil and
political rights for all citizens, without religious
distinction. (col. 1128)
In some retrogressive centers popular insurrections later
broke out, after which, in 1849, two Jews were members of
the constitutional assembly of the newly proclaimed Roman
republic, and in Venice two others, Isaac Pesaro and Leone
Pincherle, became ministers in the provisional republican
government. When, at the end of 1849, some of the ousted
rulers returned and attempted to reimpose the humiliating
anti-Jewish measures, they succeeded in doing so only on
paper because they no longer had the support of wide
sectors of the public. The darkest reaction indeed still
prevailed in the towns of the Papal States: Rome, Ancona,
Ferrara, and Bologna. The Jews here were again confined to
the ghettos, although the gates were not locked at night.
Jewish students were excluded from the public schools, and
Jews were debarred from commercial partnerships with
Christians. They were subjected to pressures to accept
conversion; these culminated in the notorious kidnapping
of the child Edgardo Mortara in Bologna in 1858 (see
*Mortara Case), and of Giuseppe Coen in Rome as late as
1864.
Even in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, the Austrian
government became hostile to the Jews, who were suspected
of holding liberal ideas. Only Piedmont upheld the
emancipation of 1848, and as it extended its jurisdiction
over the new areas which in 1861 became the Kingdom of
Italy, additional Jewish groups were admitted to complete
equality.
Between 1859 and 1861 Emilia, Romagna, Tuscany, Lombardy,
the Marches, and the Kingdom of Naples were absorbed; in
1866 Veneto and in 1870 Rome were incorporated in the new
Italian kingdom. Trieste, which remained outside the
boundaries of the Kingdom of Italy until 1919, had a large
Jewish community under Austrian rule, generally
well-disposed toward Jews.
[Equality
of the Italian Jews in policy and business since 1871
[?]]
As soon as equality had been extended to the Jews [[in
1871?]] , the fact was accepted by the Italian people,
anxious to demonstrate that the previous segregation had
been (col. 1129)
imposed by political and ideological considerations and
did not reflect popular feelings. The Jews reciprocated
with alacrity. The principle that religion should not be
an obstacle, whether in law or in fact, and the total
absence of ill feeling or prejudice between Christians and
Jews led to two far-reaching consequences. First, Jews
felt free to embrace any career - political, military,
academic, professional, administrative, or commercial -
and to attain the highest positions. Secondly, freedom to
associate on equal terms with other citizens encouraged
Jews to minimize existing differences - some even
concealed their Jewish identity or rejected it.
The Jewish population formed 0.15% of the total in 1861
and 0.13% in 1938; yet 11 Jews sat in the chamber of
deputies in 1871, 15 in 1874, and nine in 1921; in the
senate there were 11 in 1905, and 26 in 1923. In the
universities the proportion of Jewish professions was 6.8%
in 1919, and 8% in 1938. The proportion of Jews in the
liberal professions and public administration was 6.4% in
1901 and 6.7% in 1928. Jews attained outstanding positions
in several branches of national life, not only
quantitatively but qualitatively. Among many examples were
Luigi *Luzzatti, for almost 20 years minister of finance,
who became prime minister in 1910; Giuseppe *Ottolenghi,
minister of war in 1902-03; Leone *Wollemborg, minister of
finance from 1901; after 1923 Ludovico *Mortara was for
many years president of the Court of Appeals and, for a
time, minister of justice.
[Jewish
community life 1840-1938]
In this period, the structure of the Jewish communities
changed radically. In 1840 there existed about 70
organized communities, in 1938 only 23. In 1840 Italian
Jewry numbered 37,000, in 1931 47,485 (including many
newly-arrived immigrants). The distribution of the Jewish
population also changed. Many small rural communities
disappeared, while medium-sized urban ones suffered
through migration to the larger centers. Before the
establishment of (col. 1130)
united Italy, each community had its own administrative
and social structure, the central organization imposed by
Napoleon lasting for only a short while. A first step
toward introducing some measure of coordination among the
communities was established by the Rattazzi Law of July
1857. But it was only in 1911 that a "Union of Italian
Jewish Communities" (Consorzio delle comunità israelitiche
italiane) was set up on a voluntary basis. Finally the law
of Oct. 30, 1930, established on an obligatory national
basis the Unione delle
comunità israelitiche italiane defined its
administrative competence and that of the individual
communities. It also defined the prerogatives of the
rabbis, including authorization to perform marriages
provided that the relevant articles of the Italian legal
code were read. The law laid down that all those
considered Jews by Jewish law automatically belonged to
the community if they did not make a formal renunciation.
[Jewish
schooling - Jewish colleges]
The upheavals which took place in Jewish life in Italy in
the 19th century had important consequences on the nature
of Jewish scholarship. Isaac Samuel *Reggio (1784-1855), a
disciple of Moses *Mendelssohn and of N.H. *Wessely,
propagated the view that it was necessary to diverge from
rigid orthodoxy and give a wider place to secular studies.
These ideas he wished to put into practice in the
rabbinical college of Padua (later *Collegio Rabbinico
Italiano) founded in 1829. However, when Lelio della
*Torre and Samuel David *Luzzatto, one of the great
pioneers of the scientific study of Judaism, directed the
college they followed the traditional path, and under
their control it became one of the most highly esteemed
rabbinical seminaries in Europe. Luzzatto was an
outstanding scholar and an acute exponent of vast portions
of the Jewish heritage, (col. 1131)
including the philosophy of religion, history, literature,
ritual, and Hebrew linguistics. Luzzatto's death marked
the end of the college in Padua; its functions were partly
assumed by the rabbinical college of Leghorn [[Livorno]],
under the direction of Elia *Benamozegh. The Padua college
itself, after brief vicissitudes, was transferred to
Florence in 1899 under the dynamic Samuel Hirsch
*Margulies; after his death in 1922 it relapsed into
inactivity to be resuscitated later in Rome.
Among those trained in these institutions were Mordecai
*Ghirondi, Marco *Mortara, David *Castelli, Umberto
*Cassuto, Dante *Lattes, and Elia S. *Artom. These and
other scholars were able to publish the results of their
researches and studies on general problems in the numerous
Jewish periodicals that appeared in Italy from the second
half of the 19th century.
[A.MIL.]> (col. 1132)
