Sara Reguer
The Most Tenacious of Minorities: The Jews of Italy
Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2013. ISBN: 978-1618112446
Reviewed by Andrée Aelion Brooks*
Jews have lived on the Italian peninsula since ancient times. Yet remarkably few histories have been written about them. They came and went for a myriad of reasons, and from so many different lands and traditions, that the concept of a well-defined Italian Jew still raises quizzical looks and eyebrows.
Today, there are only about 27,000 of them, the lowest of any country in Europe except Switzerland. And even these were mostly born elsewhere. So, if you happen to meet someone with an Italian-sounding family name like Calabresi, Servi, Pugliesi or Bassano, you might be surprised to learn they are Jewish.
Sara Reguer, chair of the Department of Judaic Studies at Brooklyn College, has given us a delightful book to help fill this gap. Its style and clear choice of topics makes it easily accessible to students and the general public. There are maps at the end. Each chapter has a list for further reading that makes it much simpler to identify sources than a typical composite biography at the back. There are tables with a timeline comparing Jewish to general historical events. Even the typeface is welcoming. And scattered throughout are sidebars with direct and relevant quotes from Italian Jewish sages, and summaries of the lives of its outstanding personalities.
The relatively small communities of Italian Jews made up for their lesser numbers in quality rather than quantity. Italy gave us Flavius Josephus, the primary source for Jewish lives during Roman times; though like so many other Italian Jews he was born elsewhere. Southern Italy was arguably the most outstanding center of European scholarship during the Middle Ages, in large part because of its educated Jews. They participated in the early medical schools in Salerno and Padua.
They were active in the cultural fluorescence during the Renaissance, offering the world talented and creative people such as Salomone de Rossi, the noted orchestral innovator and composer; Sara Coppio Sulam, the poet whose work was praised by her non-Jewish contemporaries, and Immanuel of Rome, whose poems ranged from the salacious to the deeply religious; Leone de Modena, the scholarly rabbi of the Venetian ghetto; Guglielmo Ebreo of Pesaro, the dance master beloved by noble women; Benvenida Abrabanel and Dona Gracia Nasi, two outstanding business women of the period. Jewish art work even contributed to some of the altarpieces in its renowned churches, a fact that has only recently been recognized by scholars.
Compared to Jews in other parts of Europe during the Renaissance years, they also led highly assimilated lives. Paintings and contemporary accounts suggest they were mingling, dressing and living their days parallel to their Christian neighbors, to the point that this intermingling became fodder for stricter separation when the first ghetto was being created in Venice in 1516. The ghetto period would last for 300 years, until early in the 19th century. Yet, once the ghettos, which centered on northern Italy and the Germanic states, were abolished, the instant acceptance and rejoining of Jews to Italy’s larger society continued the ongoing close relationship between Italians and Jews over the centuries.
They quickly became leaders in modern politics, culture and the military. There was Luigi Luzzatti, who became prime minister in 1909, though he served for only a year; Ernesto Nathan, mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913; Amadeo Modigliani (1884-1920), the famous painter and sculptor. And of course, Margherita Sarfatti, the art and literature critic who became Mussolini’s mistress. At this time, they also built palatial synagogues in Florence and Rome that rivaled cathedrals (though by then, many of them were so removed from their Jewish lives that they rarely attended).
However, if there is a missing ingredient in the book it is the lack of stories, and an ability to touch and feel their lives. This is particularly true of the hardships they faced during the ghetto period. Though we have agonizing, eye witness accounts available, Reguer does not include them. We could have also welcomed some first-hand anecdotes at other periods.
But she does take an even-handed approach when it comes to the experience of Italian Jews during the Holocaust. Though other scholars have emphasized the hardships Jews faced, Reguer is quick to suggest that it was the incoming German troops, rather than the local Italians, who fostered roundups and deportation. There was little appetite among the Italians in general for persecuting or betraying Jews. “The main ploy used was delaying and obstructing in a play for time,” Reguer writes. Rather, they were known for concealing their Jewish neighbors where it was feasible, although some recent scholars have rounded up specific incidents that question the concept of the benign Italian. About 80 percent of Italian Jews survived the Holocaust.
Following the war years, there was no rush by Jews to move into Italy, attractive though it may seem to outsiders (and tourists). Their presence remained small, possibly because Italy was more economically depressed than other parts of Europe, especially in the south. It had never industrialized like Germany, or modernized like France or England. But once again, as during other times of persecution and fear, Jews started to slowly choose Italy after upheavals in Italian-speaking countries such as Libya and Egypt, and a revolution in Iran. It also became a way station for Jews fleeing the Soviet Union who were waiting for permission to settle in Israel and the United States. Today Jews can be found primarily in Milan and Rome.
Reguer tells her 2,000-year-old story with clarity and ease. Her organization is excellent. She is modest. She does not get bogged down in minutia to display her erudition, or suggest she has discovered information that is new to Italian Jewish scholarship. We are fortunate to have this readable book.
* Andrée Aelion Brooks is an author, historian and journalist. She is an Associate Fellow, Yale University. Brooks recently won a Rockover Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association.