The Allied Countries and the Jews

by H. G. Enelow

Within the last few days our attention has been focused upon Italy, because of the reverses which have befallen her army, so soon after its notable heroic achievements. Knowing the innate courage and heroism of the Italians, we must hope that their military misfortunes are only temporary. Meantime, this situation serves to increase our interest in the relation that has existed between Italy and the Jews—a question which our association with her in the present world-struggle has brought to the fore.

It is well to remember that the Jewish community of Italy is the oldest Jewish community of Europe. Moreover, if the origin of the Jews in other countries is shrouded in mist, this is not the case here. The full light of history illumines the earliest period of Jewish life in Italy.

In Talmudic literature we read of the journeys of famous rabbis to Rome and of their activities there; in the New Testament we hear of the Jews of Italy, and of their synagogues, which formed the scene of activity for the founders of the new faith; in Philo, the great Jewish writer of the first century, we have a description of the Jewish community of Rome in the days of Augustus, with references to their communal life and religious observances. Similarly, there is an allusion to the Jews, their number and their influence, at Rome, in one of Cicero's famous orations.

All this teaches us in unmistakable language that even before the beginning of the Christian era, Jews in considerable numbers established themselves in the capital of the Roman empire, and that before long they attained to a position of marked prosperity and power, thanks not only to their own industry and intelligence, but also to the good-will of some of the emperors. When Caesar died, it is said, the Jews kept vigil at his tomb for three nights.

But the history of the Jews in Italy is remarkable not only for its antiquity. It is remarkable also for its uninterrupted glory and magnificence. Italy, it has been said, is the one country in which there has never been such a thing as Jewish persecution on a large scale. In England and in France there were periods when the Jews were banished. In Italy they were spared such a wholesale calamity.

This is not to say that the Jews of Italy were not called upon time and again to face hardship and misery. This is not to say that now and then one city or another did not try to expel them. Nor is this meant to cover up the fact that in Rome, from the year 1555 to the year 1848, the Jews were made to live in a ghetto, which contributed beyond measure to their material and spiritual degradation. In Italy, as everywhere else, the Jews had more than their share of sorrow and misery to endure, owing to the fanaticism of popes and the vacillation of the masses. But the one thing that never did occur was a wholesale expulsion of the Jews from all her domain, similar to the one from England in 1290, from France in 1393, and from Spain in 1492.

As a result, the history of the Jews of Italy affords today a record of uninterrupted activity and glory, extending over more than the entire period of Christian history. In every century of Italian Jewish history, we find men and movements of importance, bearing witness to the energy of the Jew and to the opportunities for its exercise. And this long period of the past is worthily crowned by the position that the Jews occupy in the Italy of today. Though their number is small, there being but about forty thousand of them in Italy, their influence is striking, seeing that in every sphere they have risen to exalted positions, unsurpassed, in this respect, if equalled, by their brethren in any other part of the world.

When we try to account for this, various facts have to be considered. First, there is the condition of the country. Then, the character of the people. And, finally, the part of the Jew himself.

For hundreds of years Italy was broken up into many independent towns and rival principalities, competing and contending with one another, which frequently proved to the advantage of the Jew, who, when driven from one part, found refuge in another. Then, the Italians have always been known for their love of liberty and justice, of education and enlightenment, in addition to being a pre-eminently practical and commercial people. This, in its turn, could not help but make them hospitable to the Jews.

But all this would not have availed to make the history of Israel in Italy illustrious were it not for the Jews themselves and for what they have accomplished in various spheres. It is these latter things particularly that we must consider in a survey of the Jew's history in Italy.