Stars of David in Taormina and the abandoned Jewish quarter of Palermo
Palermo/Taormina (gro) The first Jews came to Palermo and other areas of Sicily in the first half of the 2nd century, when their home state had been dissolved after a revolt against Roman rule and Jerusalem had been destroyed. Today, there are at best small Jewish circles of friends in Sicily. Jewish community life has not existed since the 15th century. Only traces of a better time can be found, such as two encircled Stars of David that adorn Taormina’s former town hall. And the Giudecca, the so-called Jewish quarter in the old town of Palermo, from which the Jewish population was completely expelled by the Spanish at the end of the 15th century.
A respected social group.
By the time of their expulsion, the Sicilian Jews had worked their way up to become a highly esteemed social group in Sicilian society. Even under the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich II, who ruled the German Empire from Palermo during the first half of the 13th century, Jewish physicians and scientists were part of the emperor’s court alongside Arab scholars.
Under the Spanish came the end of tolerance.
Cultural and religious tolerance came to an end at the end of the 15th century, when Sicily was taken over, ruled and administered by the Spanish, first by the House of Aragon, then by the Bourbons. Lastly, the dreaded Holy Inquisition also settled in Palermo for 150 years, in Palazzo Steri in what is now Piazza Marina. Before being driven out, the Jews, who had made it prosperous as teachers, merchants and craftsmen, had all their possessions seized by the Spaniards, who plundered Sicily in collusion with the local nobility until the mid-19th century.
Leoluca Orlando makes sure to remember.
That the former Jewish fellow citizens are finally remembered again in recent times – Leoluca Orlando, the man who became famous above all for his fight against the Mafia, made sure of that. During his first two terms as mayor of Palermo (1985 to 2000), the traces of the Jews in Parlermo were retraced. As a sign of remembrance and as a gesture for peace in the new Arab-Palestinian homeland of the Jews, numerous streets, alleys and squares in the city center were equipped with trilingual street signs. The names can be read there in Italian, Hebrew (Jewish) and Arabic. By the way: In May 2012, Leoluca Orlando, who is also a member of the European Parliament, was re-elected mayor of Palermo.