The Jews of Palermo

During a recent visit to Palermo in Sicily, I was intrigued to find evidence of Jewish prisoners in the cells of the Carceri dell’Inquizione. The first Jews to arrive in Sicily probably settled as traders in Syracuse during the final centuries of the Greek era. The Romans brought some Jews to Sicily as slaves or poorly-paid servants. By the time the Arabs arrived there were flourishing communies in a number of towns including Panormas (Palermo). The Normans were tolerant and even protective of the Jewish Population and the Jews of Sicily experienced relavely little overt antagonism from fellow islanders unl the fourteenth century.

Things changed in 1492 when an edict was issued in an atmosphere of zeal at a time when Catholicism’s influence, including the Inquision, had replaced those of the tolerant twelfth century. At that time there were about 20,000 Jews in Sicily of which 5000 lived in Palermo. The Jews of Sicily were told that they were no longer welcome and had to leave or convert to Christianity. In Palermo their synagogue was demolished without trace and a new road was built, cutting right through the Jewish quarter, so that it is hard to determine where it once stood.

When the Inquision arrived on the Island to hunt down heresy, the first wave of oppression was against the Jews (Crypto-Judaism) and there were 30 burnings at the stake by 1513. Of the Jews who had converted to Catholicism, many had only pretended to do so and then continued to secretly practise their religious customs. The Inquisition was particularly suspicious of these newcomers and willingly accepted the corroboration of neighbours who reported not having seen smoke during the Sabbath or on the converts eating habits.

The Inquision connued for hundreds of years and the Holy Office was only closed in 1782. The Carceri dell’Inquizione was built 1603-1605 because the ‘Philippine Prisons’ inside the Chiaramonte Palace weren’t big enough to hold the growing number of prisoners. There were 8 cells on the ground floor and 6 on the first floor and they contained drawings on the cell walls, which were covered with plaster in the 19th century when the building became a Criminal Court. In 1906 Giuseppe Pitre discovered these drawings made by Jews, herecs, monks, nuns or inconvenient intellectuals.
I was parcularly interested in the drawings made by the Jews. One consisted of a group of kneeling Jews with their names such as Simon, Jacob, and Abraam (sic) printed above them.

It’s well worth vising this Museum of the Inquision and to be aware of the suffering of so many people during this period.

We always welcome new members.

Peter Leslie (Chair of the Israel Group)