Nadene Goldfoot
The scene is set. In 70 CE Jerusalem was attacked and destroyed by the Roman army. Jews were starved and slaughtered or taken as slaves to Rome. There were Jewish businessmen already there and elsewhere. Some Jews escaped by being taken as part of the Roman army and found themselves stationed in army outposts. Some had made their way to what was later known as Spain.
By the mid 1200s, an Italian city called Padua had a Jewish community within itself. In this community were Jewish bankers from Rome of the southern part of Italy and from Germany to their north.
By the 1300s the Jews found themselves doing business with the university students. Some of the Jews were permitted to study medicine from this time to the 1600s and 1700s in Padua.
It was in this period from about 1482 to 1565 that Rabbi Isaac Katzenellenbogen (the Maharam of Padua) lived and died.
Padua was one of the few places in all of Europe where Jews were allowed to graduate as physicians. Some of these students had come there from Germany and Poland.
Italy is known for starting the ghetto system, so one was started in Padua in 1602. Notice how close Padua is to Venice, where the ghetto originated. Jews were segregated in Venice earlier in 1517.
The ghetto meant Jewish quarter, set up by law to keep Jews in as they were locked in during night hours. It was Pope Paul IV who ordered that Jews in the Papal States should be forced to live in separate quarters. It was immediately carried into effect in Rome and became the rule throughout Italy in the course of the next generation "Ghetto" was then universally applied. It became common under the name Judengasse, and also in Germany, Prague where the Judenstadt was famous, and in some Polish cities. It became a town within a town. They were often victims of overcrowding as they were not allowed to expand their size and therefore suffered from fires. Often they were subjected to forced baptisms as well. They had to wear a Jewish badge and forced conversionist sermons and occupational restrictions. This continued until in the French Revolutionar Period and reintroduced locally in the 1800s and came to an end when Rome united with the kingdom of Italy in 1870. This record was similar in other countries. One point to remember; they could not leave. It was a form of prison.
This made the Jews easy victims of the plague of 1631. Dead bodies are seen carted off in carts in Milan's Melchiorre Gherardin Piazza S. Babila. The Italian Plague of 1629–1631 was a series of outbreaks of bubonic plague which ravaged northern and central Italy. This epidemic, often referred to as the Great Plague of Milan, claimed possibly one million lives, or about 25% of the population. This episode is considered one of the later outbreaks of the centuries-long pandemic of bubonic plague which began with the Black Death.
German and French troops carried the plague to the city of Mantua in 1629, as a result of troop movements associated with the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Venetian troops, infected with the disease, retreated into northern and central Italy, spreading the infection.
They had a narrow escape from massacre during the riots at the time of the siege of Buda, where Jews were alleged to be aiding the Turks in 1684. The Siege of Buda (1686) was fought between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire, as part of the follow-up campaign in Hungary after the Battle of Vienna. The Holy League took Buda (modern day Budapest) after a long siege.
In the 1700s, the Padua Jewish community was so reduced in wealth that it became bankrupt in 1761.
From 1829 to 1871, the Italian Rabbinical College was situated at Padua. The community members, however, numbered less than 200 by 1990.
Only one of its former synagogues is still in use. Padua is one of the stops on a Kosher Travel list.
Resource: The Y-DNA Genetic Signature and Ethnic Origin of the Katzenellenbogen Rabbinical Lineage
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1629%E2%80%931631_Italian_plague
Finding Our Fathers, By Dan Rottenberg
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| German Jews of 1200s and how they were forced to dress stand out from others |
By the mid 1200s, an Italian city called Padua had a Jewish community within itself. In this community were Jewish bankers from Rome of the southern part of Italy and from Germany to their north.
By the 1300s the Jews found themselves doing business with the university students. Some of the Jews were permitted to study medicine from this time to the 1600s and 1700s in Padua.
It was in this period from about 1482 to 1565 that Rabbi Isaac Katzenellenbogen (the Maharam of Padua) lived and died.
Padua was one of the few places in all of Europe where Jews were allowed to graduate as physicians. Some of these students had come there from Germany and Poland.
Italy is known for starting the ghetto system, so one was started in Padua in 1602. Notice how close Padua is to Venice, where the ghetto originated. Jews were segregated in Venice earlier in 1517.
 |
| Ghetto in Venice in 1516 |
The ghetto meant Jewish quarter, set up by law to keep Jews in as they were locked in during night hours. It was Pope Paul IV who ordered that Jews in the Papal States should be forced to live in separate quarters. It was immediately carried into effect in Rome and became the rule throughout Italy in the course of the next generation "Ghetto" was then universally applied. It became common under the name Judengasse, and also in Germany, Prague where the Judenstadt was famous, and in some Polish cities. It became a town within a town. They were often victims of overcrowding as they were not allowed to expand their size and therefore suffered from fires. Often they were subjected to forced baptisms as well. They had to wear a Jewish badge and forced conversionist sermons and occupational restrictions. This continued until in the French Revolutionar Period and reintroduced locally in the 1800s and came to an end when Rome united with the kingdom of Italy in 1870. This record was similar in other countries. One point to remember; they could not leave. It was a form of prison.
This made the Jews easy victims of the plague of 1631. Dead bodies are seen carted off in carts in Milan's Melchiorre Gherardin Piazza S. Babila. The Italian Plague of 1629–1631 was a series of outbreaks of bubonic plague which ravaged northern and central Italy. This epidemic, often referred to as the Great Plague of Milan, claimed possibly one million lives, or about 25% of the population. This episode is considered one of the later outbreaks of the centuries-long pandemic of bubonic plague which began with the Black Death.
German and French troops carried the plague to the city of Mantua in 1629, as a result of troop movements associated with the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). Venetian troops, infected with the disease, retreated into northern and central Italy, spreading the infection.
They had a narrow escape from massacre during the riots at the time of the siege of Buda, where Jews were alleged to be aiding the Turks in 1684. The Siege of Buda (1686) was fought between the Holy League and the Ottoman Empire, as part of the follow-up campaign in Hungary after the Battle of Vienna. The Holy League took Buda (modern day Budapest) after a long siege.
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| Rabbi Sabbato Marini of Padua This is Rabbi Dr. Shabbetai Aharon Chaim Marini (1685-1762), a rebbe (teacher) of Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal. He was a physician and מורה צדק Tzaddik of Padua. |
In the 1700s, the Padua Jewish community was so reduced in wealth that it became bankrupt in 1761.
From 1829 to 1871, the Italian Rabbinical College was situated at Padua. The community members, however, numbered less than 200 by 1990.
Only one of its former synagogues is still in use. Padua is one of the stops on a Kosher Travel list.
Resource: The Y-DNA Genetic Signature and Ethnic Origin of the Katzenellenbogen Rabbinical Lineage
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1629%E2%80%931631_Italian_plague
Finding Our Fathers, By Dan Rottenberg
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