The Most Ancient of Minorities: The Jews of Italy

(Hardback)

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A volume of essays that examine more than 2000 years of Italian Jewish history, from ancient Rome to contemporary developments concerning assimilation, literature, and the recent trial of a former SS captain implicated in crimes against humanity. The essays make clear that the Italian Jews have a unique history in Europe. A Jewish colony existed in Rome 200 years before the birth of Christ; the Eternal City therefore represents the oldest Jewish community in the Western world. Successive waves of immigrants created dozens of Jewish communities on the peninsula. Depending on the time and the place, Italian Jews could expect tolerance, discrimination, persecution, or outright violence. Still, they fared better than their brethren in other parts of Europe. Because of their long history on the peninsula, the volume covers an astonishing variety of subjects: from legal discrimination and historical sources to Jewish dancing masters in the Renaissance and architecture; from architecture to contradictory interpretations of the Holocaust; from the special section on the linguistic and moral power of Primo Levi to child-rearing manuals in 17th-century Livorno. In addition, two Holocuast survivors recount their experiences in an extraordinary section, "The Language of the Witness." Engaging essays for scholars, students, and researchers interested in Italian Studies and the roles the peninsula's Jewish population played through history.

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This contribution to Jewish-Italian studies probes multiple aspects of this joint history, from Rome as the oldest Jewish community in the Western world to account by Italian Holocaust survivors including Primo Levi.-Reference & Research Book News
"This contribution to Jewish-Italian studies probes multiple aspects of this joint history, from Rome as the oldest Jewish community in the Western world to account by Italian Holocaust survivors including Primo Levi."-Reference & Research Book News

Author Bio

STANISLAO G. PUGLIESE is Associate Professor of History at Hofstra University and a Fellow of the Italian Academy for Advanced Studies, Columbia University. He has published widely on Italian and Italian-American subjects and is the author of Carlo Rosselli: Socialist Heretic and Antifascist Exile, which was awarded the 2000 International Ignazio Silone Prize.