JACOB JR, MY JEWISH WORLD. THE GHETTO. PADOVA/ITALY

Sunday, Iyar 7, 5778. April 22, 2018.

Shalom! World.

Padova. Prosperity in the Fourteenth Century.

City of upper Italy, 22 miles West of Venice, on the Bacchiglione; capital of the province of the same name. It's Jewish congregation, for  centuries one of the most important of Italy, with the Synagogue and cemetery, existed as early as 1300.

The first Jew in Padova known by name was  the physician Jacob Bonacosa, who, in 1255, translated there the "Colliget" of Averroes (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebersetungen," p.671). Toward the middle of  the fourteenth century numbers of Jews from Rome, Pisa, Bologna, and the Marches of Ancona established themselves in Padova as Money-lenders; and many  of the Jews who had been persecuted inn Germany and the Alpine countries removed to Padova after 1440. The statutes of  the community were liberal; the population was tolerant; and the Jews were admited  without restrictions. They were placed on an equal footing with others foreigners; and occasionallly they were even made citizens of the town. 

Thus they obteined full liberty with respect to their commerce and their loan-banks, the demand for banks being very great in that district. As the court of the Carraresi and the students of the university lived in high style, more and more merchants moved to Padova; and the conngregation assumed a size which was quite considerable for that period. The condition of the Jews remained equally favorable when the Carraresi made themselves másters of  the city: they were not hindered  from carrying on their trade in merchandise, they could even engage in agriculture, and were taxed only moderately. The authorities were directed to protect the Jews, and were required to pay an indemnity if any injury which might have been prevented was done to the later. The Jews built a Synagogue and laid out a cemetery in the district in which they lived, outside the city, on the opposite side of the river. When their burial-ground was filled, Francesco Novello da Carrara permitted them to buy an adjacente plot; and for their benefit he repealed a law according to which only citizens were alllowed to buy real estate. 

Shalom! Aleichem.

Cultural Support:  Jacob Jr. B.A.C.E., avec L'Integration d'Association avec Israel et dans le Monde/Cz .