New Christians, new Jews: from Toledo, to Livorno and Tunis
18
JULY
2012
Jewish wealthy merchants, experts in international trade, had been forced to become Christian in Spain and the Portugal, but some of them remained Jewish in secret. Invited in 1393 by Ferdinand de Medicis, they settled in the new port of Leghorn (Livorno) where, with the privileges of the "Livornina", they benefited from the Tuscany citizenship, could return freely to the faith of their fathers, live in Leghorn (Livorno), establish their laws and be led by their own elected officials, the Massari.
Following the English blockade of the port of Leghorn (Livorno), they left in the 19th century to Tunisia where some of them, the Granas, had preceded them; they constituted a strong Portuguese community of 3000 members, separated from the community of native Jews. Victims of Mussolini racism in 1938, anti-Semitism of Pétain in 1940 and eventually persecuted during the Nazi occupation, they retained however their Italian citizenship by gratitude to Tuscany. This has earned them again for the inconvenience at the return of France (third house arrest of 200 Leghorn - Livorno - Jewish people, requisition of housing, dissolution of Portuguese community, suppression of their separate cemetery).
Finally, like all Jews of Tunisia, they left after the independence of the country and are now scattered in Italy, France, the United States and Israel.
Speaker | Location |
---|---|
Giacomo NUNEZ |
Louis Armstrong C & D |