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FOR A SAMPLE OF THE REQUIRED FORMAT, see the following article on "The Secret Jews (Neofiti) of Sicily." As noted, endnotes are only for explanatory purposes. References within the article should follow the format in the following "Secret Jews" articles. For example, to include a reference, put in parentheses the last name of the author, a comma, and the page number. If you have already referenced the author by name just before the reference, put only the page number in parentheses, preceded by p.; for example: (p. 172).. If you have two or more references to the same author published in different years, then indicate the year of the relevent reference before the page number. For any possible situations, please look at the "Secret Jews" article. For any questions, contact the editor-in-chief at lavender@fiu.edu. The purpose of this format is to save space as well as to more easily inform the reader of the source.
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SAMPLE ARTICLE FOR ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES WITHIN BODY OF THE ARTICLE:
The Secret Jews (Neofiti) of Sicily: Religious and Social Status Before and After the Inquisition
Abraham D. Lavender
Florida International University
Italy has the oldest surviving uninterrupted Jewish community in the West, over two thousand years. There have been major temporal changes, and much local diversity, and Sicily has played a major role. As Claudia Roden has concisely described the overall history,
The earliest and largest settlements of Jews had been in Rome and southern Italy, and especially in Sicily, until their expulsion in the late 15th century. The Jewish communities in Sicily had been at one time the richest in culture and tradition among the Jews of the diaspora. They benefited from their position at the heart of the Mediterranean traffic and from the cultural and economic impact of foreign occupiers, who included Arabs, Normans, Angevins, and Aragonese. Under Muslim rule from 831 to 1061 the Jewish population increased greatly with new immigrants from Muslim lands. The communities traded with the East and became Arabized in their tastes (p. 351).
Sierra also writes that “Jewish learning flourished in Sicily, particularly in the Middle Ages…Learned Sicilian Jews knew Hebrew, Italian, Greek, and Arabic, and some of them also Latin. Hence, they could take part in the important task of translating scientific works, particularly from Arabic, into Hebrew or Latin” (p. 542).
As I wrote in Volume 1 of this journal, relatively little attention, in English, has been given to the effects of the Inquisition in southern Italy. Most attention has been given to Spain or Portugal. But, in fact, there has been much historical research and writings on the Jews and crypto Jews of southern Italy, especially Sicily. In 1853, Heinrich Graetz, in the first publicizing of his eleven-volume magnum opus, History of the Jews, discussed the Inquisition in Italy. It was not much, but it was early recognition. Henry Charles Lea’s The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies was published in 1908. Cecil Roth’s The History of the Jews of Italy in 1946, with some attention to Sicily, was the first major study in English on Italian Jewry. In 1963, in Italian, Attilio Milano published his Storia Degli Ebrei in Italia (History of the Jews in Italy). Recent works include Lynn M. Gunzberg’s Strangers at Home: Jews in the Italian Literary Imagination in 1992, and Francesco Renda’s La Fine del Giudaismo Sicliano (The End of Sicilian Judaism) in 1993 and L’Inquisizione in Sicila in 1997. Also recent (2000) is Bernard D. Cooperman and Barbara Garvin’s edited The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity.
Focusing on crypto Jews, Sicily has been of major concern. In Italian, the term for crypto Jews is neofiti (neophyte: newly “planted” or newly baptized). Major works include Henri Bresc’s Arabes de langue, juifs de religion. L’evolution du judaisme sicilien dans l’environnement latin, XII-XV siecles (2001), and Carmelo Trasselli’s numerous works. Specifically on Sicily is Stanislao G. Pugliese’s edited book The Most Ancient of Minorities: The Jews of Sicily, in 2002. Shlomo Simonsohn’s research publications on Italy, especially on Sicily, are prodigious, ranging from History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua in 1977 to Jews in Sicily: Under the Rule of Aragon and Spain, Volume 18 in his series of research records, in 2010.
In addition to books, many articles also have valuable information, but have not received attention from English readers because they are not published in English. Many English-speaking researchers are fluent in Spanish or French, but few are fluent in Italian (or Portuguese), limiting knowledge of Italy, Portugal, and Brazil.
In short, there has been a failure to sufficiently recognize that Sicily, and other parts of southern Italy, also suffered greatly under the “Spanish” Inquisition. Many Jewish exiles from Spain and Portugal were welcomed into various areas in northern Italy, but southern Italy, controlled by Spain, suffered from the same Inquisition that was exiling Sephardim from Spain and Portugal. A small number of Iberian exiles went to Sicily, hoping for better treatment, but suffered greatly when the Inquisition followed them there.
But these Iberian exiles to Sicily were small in number compared to the native Jews of Sicily, Jews who had lived in Sicily for at least fifteen hundred years, under various rulers, without being devastated. By 535 CE Sicily was under the control of the mostly Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire, and Jews were there. In 827 CE the Muslim Saracens began their occupation of Sicily, and the Jews remained, and in 1060 the Normans began their occupation, which they completed in 1090, and the Jews remained. The house of Hohenstaufen (German) succeeded the Normans in 1194, but they were soon overthrown in 1266 by Charles I of Anjou. In 1282, Sicily became independent and chose as its king Pedro III (of Aragon). In 1296 Sicily was separated from Aragon, and was ruled by a branch of the Aragonese family for over a century. But, Sicily was reunited with Aragon, and Ferdinand V, king of Castile, married to Isabella of Aragon, appointed himself ruler. Hence, the Inquisition was extended from Spain to Sicily.
A recent book that analyzes the story of the Inquisition and the neofiti of Sicily is The Former Jews of This Kingdom: Sicilian Converts After the Expulsion, 1492-1516, by Nadia Zeldes, published in 2003. In the first sentence on page 1 of her Introduction, Zeldes states the case very accurately and directly:
A growing awareness of the differences between the political units forming the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon has led present day scholars to consider separately the expulsions in 1492 and their aftermath in each of the dominions ruled by the Catholic Kings. Even so, the expulsion of the Jews from the kingdom of Sicily, which was part of the Crown of Aragon, has received relatively little attention from scholars, compared with the prolific literature concerning the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian kingdoms (p. 1).
Zeldes notes that the Edict of Expulsion was published in Sicily on June 18, 1492, “ending the thousand-year-long Jewish presence on the island and at the same time giving birth to the ‘problem of the New Christians,’ or neofiti…” (p. 2). The presence of a large number of converts justified the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily, which for fifty years, between 1500 and 1550, acted mainly against New Christians of Jewish descent (p. 2).
The first attempt to establish the Spanish Inquisition in the Kingdom of Sicily actually was in 1487, with the appointment of the first Spanish Inquisitor, the Dominican friar Antonio de La Pena, who “had already proved himself a fervent and fanatical preacher against Jews and conversos in his hometown of Segovia” (Zeldes, p. 127). Previous attempts had failed, with Pope Sixtus IV writing to Queen Isabella in 1483 saying that he was aware of “a plague of neofiti” in Sicily, and that he had already addressed the matter with papal bulls. His position was that “the old institution was sufficient to combat heresy in Sicily” (Zeldes, p. 127). Pope Innocent, in 1486, had nomi-nated Tomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor General in all the Spanish dominions, including the Kingdom of Sicily, and in October 1487 King Ferdinand confirmed Torquemada’s appointment of de La Pena. As Zeldes writes, “This signaled the triumph of royal policies over papal interests and local traditions, for in Sicily there had already been a functioning Inquisition” (p. 126).
Renda suggests that King Ferdinand began working seriously for the establishment of the Inquisition in Sicily in 1497, possibly because Rodrigo Borgia had become Pope Alexander VI in 1492, and was known to be favorable to Spanish interests. Zeldes (p. 129) notes that recent research has been somewhat favorable to Alexander VI, showing him “as the pontiff who welcomed Iberian exiles to Rome.”
But, Zeldes, noting that timing has not received much attention, posits that the “effective birth” of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily was in June 1500, when two new Inquisitors (Reginaldo Montoro and Giovanni Sgalambro) were appointed, followed five months later with an official edict “announcing the final establishment of the Spanish Inquisition on the island” (p. 128). Zeldes notes that even Lea did not discuss the details of this, although “he did see the connection between the presence of a large number of converts in Sicily after the Expulsion and the establishment of the Inquisition” (Zeldes, p. 128; Lea, p. 4). Zeldes also notes that Inquisition research in Sicily has been limited because of the destruction of many records, and because the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily “acted against those suspected of Judaizing only for the first fifty years after its establishment in Sicily” (p. 130), a relatively short time compared to Spain and Portugal.
Partly to show contrasts with Spain, Zeldes discussed in detail the trial of Pietro and Caterina de Monteverdi (October 1494 to July 1495) in Mazara. The converted couple had been accused of Juda-izing, and their trial is the only known surviving trial dealing with Sicilian “Judaizantes” (p. 133). Unlike trials in Iberia, names of accusers were not kept secret, and witnesses could be discredited by proving malice or not being trustworthy. Neofiti and Old Christians also testified in favor of the accused to help prove that the accused were considered good Christians, that “they were regular church-goers and that they confessed regularly, and not just occasionally or when threatened with a trail of faith” (p. 141). Pietro and Caterina de Monteverdi were acquitted and released, largely because the witnesses against them were viewed as unreliable. Zeldes also suggests that the leniency was partly a result of the view of the court and local religious authorities that “the accused were newly converted and needed time to adjust to their new faith” (p. 142). Thirty years later, after Pietro’s death, he was condemned for Judaizing and his bones were dug up and burned! There is no later record of Caterina.
Sicily has a unique history, differing from Iberia in many ways. Zeldes notes that Jews “had their own particular traits, such as the use of a Judeo-Arabic dialect, which survived until the fifteenth century. These distinctive cultural traits were not wiped out by conversion” (p. 3). Zeldes emphasized that there is much to be learned from a com-parison, writing that “Comparing social and economic profiles and religious attitudes offers an insight into the experience of the various converso minority groups in Christian society” (p. 3).
Abulafia says, for example, that Jewish communities of Spain and southern Italy (not only Sicily) shared many traits, but also had some major contrasts. The Sicilian Jews did not have close relations with Kings, were more attached to their regions, lived in a more ethnically diverse world, were less involved with the Maghreb, and were much more diverse economically and geographically (2000, p.82).
Using the census of 1505, Zeldes notes that the population of Sicily was probably between 550,000 and 600,000 inhabitants, and that opinions varied about the size of the Jewish population, but that “most studies agree that there were about 30,000 Jewish individuals on the eve of the Expulsion” (p. 5). She notes that there was probably “a tendency among Sicilian Jews to move about the island, leaving some of the larger cities to settle in the smaller urban centers” (p. 4). From 1453, with the fall of Islamic Constantinople, to 1571, with the victory of Lepanto (the Catholic Holy League defeated the Islamic Ottoman Empire), Sicily and southern Italy were frontier regions with Sicily in constant danger of invasion from the Ottoman Empire. Zeldes describes the fear of Turkish invasion during this period, and how this affected the Jewish community because “the continual lack of manpower and the constant menace of a Turkish invasion were important factors in the attempts of certain members of the Sicilian nobility to prevent the expulsion of the Jewish population” (p. 9).
There are still disagreements about Jewish life in Sicily, including economic life. Zeldes reports the differences. Trasselli “expressed the view that at the time of the Expulsion the better-off Jews converted and remained in Sicily, whereas the poor, who had nothing to lose, left the island” (p. 13). There has been much discussion about the economic loss to Spain when many Jews took their skills with them into exile, but Trasselli concludes that this was not a factor in Sicily because “most Jewish artisans converted and remained in Sicily” (p. 100). But, Ashtor said that “the wealthier elements sold their property and went into exile” and that “the majority of converts [who stayed] were poor, uneducated, and therefore less attached to their ancestral faith” (p. 13). Zeldes writes that the majority of converts were “ordinary people who continued to ply their trades as merchants, artisans, labourers and the like” (p. 20), and she disagrees with Renda’s conclusion that most of the converts were poor or very poor. She writes that “Some Sicilian Jews were successful merchants, rich bankers and well-to-do physicians. A large number of them were artisans whose contributions to Sicily’s economy was extolled by the highest officials of the land in an attempt to prevent the Expulsion. Even the Jews of Palermo were not all that poor…” (p. 101). She concludes that many of the converts had the same trades after the Expulsion as they previously had, and that in general “the converted Jews were engaged in all occupations, including agriculture” (p. 103). The Sicilian converts also did not generally engage in tax farming or in international trade, although there was a small group of “the wealthiest group among the converts” who engaged in these occupations. Although most of the converts were city-dwellers, a good number also owned small amounts of land.
Regarding the very important topic of religion, Zeldes concludes that “the neofiti of Sicily were considered a group apart long before anyone brought up the question of religion orthodoxy” (p. 2). She also strongly deemphasized the problem of Judaizing, “despite the fact that it is usually the focus of studies on conversos and the Inquisition” (p. 2). Zeldes believes that religious heterodoxy was only part of the problem, and that neofiti, as a distinct minority group, were “regarded first and foremost as converted Jews; hated by some elements of society and seen as deserving a special protection by others.” She suggests that the neofiti “behaved as a minority group aware of a separate identity,” and she believes that “the Sicilian converts represent a unique case” (p. 2). She explains that she chose the book title, Former Jews of this Kingdom, from a phrase in official royal documents “which seems best to capture the ambiguous status of the Sicilian Converts,” explaining that “their status in fact resembled that of the Jews prior to the Expulsion in almost every sense” (p. x).
The history and current status of the neofiti population in Sicily is still debated. There were occasional Jewish conversions to Christianity, but unlike Spain which had the 1391 riots, there was no one specific point in Sicilian history that marked a turning point. Some scholars believe that there were many converts before the 1492 Expulsion, but others disagree. Zeldes notes that a growing population of converted Jews in Sicily before the Expulsions did not go completely unnoticed (p. 19), but she concludes that the majority of conversions were after the Edict of Expulsion in Sicily on June 18, 1492, and that the conversions occurred over a period of months rather than all at once. But, it is difficult to estimate the number of converts. She concludes that Sicilian Jews maintained contacts (frequently close) with converted relatives, and that only a few turned against their former co-religionists (p. 20).
The publication of the Edict encouraged some conversions, but some local officials also encouraged conversions. Zeldes believes that “There is no reason to suppose that their [Christian] favourable atti-tude toward converts was motivated by considerations other than Christian piety and a belief in the economic capacities of Jews and former Jews” (p. 25). In order to add more validity to their conversions, “Many of the converts took the names of greater and lesser nobles or members of the royal administration or of city officials …..And a few even took the names of the oldest families of the Sicilian nobility” (p. 24). This practice of taking new names, and the readiness of “important persons to act as godfathers (padrinos)” suggests that these old Christians approved of and even encouraged conversions. However, “the temporal advantages which would follow from the Faith: namely, that they would be spared the expulsion and keep their own property” (p. 23) also played a role in some people converting. But, as Zeldes concludes, “The decision about whether to convert and remain, or to persevere in one’s ancestral faith and go into exile, was not an easy one. Families were torn apart” (p. 26).
Naples played a major part for Sicilian Jews, with many taking refuge there to try to maintain their Judaism. But, that ended as the Inquisition expanded. Unlike in Iberia, most of those returning to Sicily did so in a relatively short period of time, from 1494 to 1500. Some scholars estimate that as many as 100,000 exiles went to the Kingdom of Naples, but Zeldes thinks that this is a great exaggeration, suggesting that the number was about 10,000 or 15,000 (p. 27). Those who returned to Sicily as Christians could recover their property, but “only after a deduction of forty-five percent of its value by the Crown” (p. 31). It is not surprising that “The debtors, who undoubtedly had been greatly relieved when the Jews left Sicily, seemingly for good, became angry when the former Jews returned unexpectedly” (p. 32).
Zeldes gives return figures by towns, suggesting variations in return rates. Trapani, for example, apparently had a high rate of return, including both wealthy and people of modest means. But, Palermo, which had the largest Jewish population before the Expulsion (estimated at 5,000 Jews), seems not to have had a high rate of people returning. Zeldes suggests that Palermo had a large concentration of Jewish poor who probably formed the majority of those who left and had less reason for returning. Nevertheless, Palermo had the highest rate of converted Jews in Sicily. In Messina, which had the wealthiest and most assimilated Jewish community, it appears that about one fourth of those who left returned and converted to Catholicism.
Trasselli suggested that Jews or converts were welcomed back to the feudal towns which did not have merchants or an artisan class, but Zeldes writes that this did not apply in all areas (p. 43). There were also the non-Sicilian exiles, mostly from Spain or Portugal. Some came voluntarily with hope, and some were caught while on their way by boat to the Ottoman Empire. In 1510, the conquest of Tripoli “brought a large number of Jewish slaves to Sicily,” and Zeldes thinks that “It is reasonable to suppose that a certain number converted” (p. 49). In general, the Iberian Jews who came voluntarily as exiles and those who were captured on their way to the Ottoman Empire were treated more severely than Sicilian Jews.
Why were those who returned and converted to Catholicism welcomed back to Sicily? Zeldes suggests four reasons: there were economic benefits to the government because converts had to pay the forty-five percent charge to recover their property, some Catholics hoped to get more converts, many were members of the professional artisan class which was needed in Sicily, and Sicily was under-populated and needed more people for defense against foreign enemies. The number of those who returned was significant. Zeldes writes that “documentary evidence indicates that the number of returning ‘former Jews’ was not negligible” and that “those who returned had clearly intended to remain Jews, before circumstances forced them to change their minds” (p. 58). Zeldes concludes that “an evaluation of the total number of neofiti in Sicily after the Expulsion is not a simple matter…Nevertheless, they indicate that a significant percentage of the Jewish population did convert and remain in Sicily after the Expulsion” (p. 59).
In analyzing religious identity, Zeldes also concludes that there was not much evidence of Judaizing. Relatively few Christian cult objects were found in neofiti homes, but neither were many Jewish ritual objects found (they was dangerous if found!). Synagogues, rabbinical courts, cemeteries, and other things necessary for retaining Judaism, were not available. Even Judaizing Jews would find it difficult to have items which would be left in inventories.
But, Zeldes does note that there were some examples of a willful rejection of Christianity. One way was to maintain a strong Jewish group identity, primarily through strong family ties and marriage within the group. She agrees with Renda that the family was the most important way of preserving Jewish identity, and that education of children was especially important. Zeldes notes that occasionally New Christians, acting as a group, would even appeal to authorities for the protection promised to New Christians. But, secret escapes from Sicily were also organized as groups, usually based on a city. These escapes increased after 1530, but there were still many conversions.
Why were there so many conversion in Sicily? Zeldes rejects the idea that Sephardim, contrasted with Ashkenazim, were less attached to their faith. She notes that Sephardim, contrasted to Ashkenazim, did not accept as halakhically binding the aggadic texts which extolled martyrdom. She notes Bernard Lewis’s suggestion that “lingering Islamic traditions influenced Sephardic Jewry,” and argues that Arabic cultural influence was even more influential among Sicilian Jews than among Spanish and Portuguese Jews. She refers to Mark Cohen, writing that generally under Islam “unwilling converts were allowed to return to Judaism, even after two or three generations. They could therefore live for a while as nominal Muslims, knowing that this was only for a limited time.” She suggests that this “might explain their conversion [to Christianity], on the assumption that it was a temporary condition” (p. 290). She concludes, however, that the Sicilian Christians “were no more convinced of the sincerity of conversions than their Iberian counterparts” (p. 292).
Bejarano-Gutierrez, in an excellent analysis of the Islamic concept of taqiyya, discussing conversions among Jews in Spain, agrees with Cohen. Ashkenazim (living with Christians) tended to agree with the Christian concept of martyrdom. Sephardim (living with Muslims) tended to agree with the Islamic concept of taqiyya (“tongue”): what is in the heart in more important than what is on the tongue. Bejarano-Gutierrez writes that “Islamic practice was also much closer to Judaism than Christianity was.….The effects of almost six hundred years of Arabic-Islamic religious, cultural, and social influences cannot be ignored” (p. 47). Zimmels, in his classic study, wrote that “There is almost no department in which they [Sephardim and Ashkenazim] did not differ” (p. 7). Lavender wrote that the Sephardim “have been influenced by an almost entirely different set of conditions than have the Ashkenazim” (1981, p. 25). Shenhav (2006; with a strong ideological approach) has also proposed that more attention should be given to the Arab-Islamic influence on Jewish identity. Carroll notes, for example, that Moses Maimonides, “the most revered of all Jewish sages, wrote mainly in Arabic, not Hebrew” (p. 133). Students of crypto Judaic studies need to understand the importance of Arabs and Islam in the history of crypto Jews from Iberia or Sicily.
After the Jews converted to Christianity, either without leaving Sicily or by returning after conditions turned terrible in Naples and other locations, how were they treated? Zeldes discusses the historical formation and composition of the neofiti population in Sicily. She notes that from the High Middle Ages until the Expulsion, the Jews “were considered the king’s property (peculeum camera regie) and were entitled to royal protection and certain privileges” (p. 69). The Jews had to pay a tax specific to Jews, but “they were not slaves, nor were they in a genuine state of servitude. Sicilian Jews were free to dispose of their property, make contracts or leave one town for another” (p. 69). They also had to pay the poll-tax “as they had done as dhimmis at the time when the island was under Muslim rule” (p. 69). Generally under the Muslims there had been a certain level of toleration and protection of religious practices, but now the status was applied to both Jews and Muslims. But, the level of toleration and religious freedom was less than it had been under the Muslims.
As new Christians, the former Jews were supposed to be equal with old Christians, but in fact “official policies tended to create a distinct status for the New Christians, at least in the first and second generations after the Expulsion, rather than to integrate them into Sicilian society.” They were identified as New Christians in official documents, and they were forced to give 45 percent of their property value to the Crown. They were “sometimes treated worse than Jews” (p. 70). The requirement to forfeit the 45 percent made it easier to identify Jews in later years, and , ironically, Zeldes suggests that “It can even be argued that in Sicily there was no need for statures of purity of blood since everyone knew who the New Christians were” (p. 82). There was selected animosity toward converts who returned to Sicily, partly over conflicts about who owed whom for property, payment of previous debts, and basic anti-Semitic attitudes related to religion. At times there was violence against converts. Zeldes writes that “The attacks directed at converts, even when motivated by fear of commercial rivalry, unpaid debts and the like, indicate that the new converts did not gain easy acceptance into Sicilian society” (p. 93). But, despite these situations, conflicts between Old Christians and New Christians were not as severe as they were in Iberia.
Regarding living patterns, Jews in Sicily had never been segregated residentially before the Inquisition, and the same remained afterwards. Jews, as other ethnic groups, did tend to live in their own quarter (the giudecca), and this continued after the Inquisition: “many converts remained in the neighbourhoods they had formerly occupied as Jews” (Zeldes, p. 94). There were some mutual suspicions, but also frequent interactions, and some business partnerships, labor contracts, and intimate relations. Zeldes concludes that mixed marriages were not very common, and that converts chose to follow the frequent pattern of marrying within their own group.
Language also encouraged an extended family or group interaction. The majority of Sicilian converts were local Jews whose spoken language was Judeo-Arabic or the Sicilian dialect. David Abulafia notes that Arabic did not continue in Sicily in general, but that it was the koine of the Jews (p. 117), He states that “Among the Sicilian Jews, Arabic remained an everyday language until their expulsion at the end of the fifteenth century, though in the late fifteenth century it was used more in the compilation of documents (in Hebrew characters) than in daily speech. They gave children Arabic as well as Hebrew names; yet they do not seem to have been socially or economically isolated from their Christian neighbors, at least in the smaller towns, until the mid-fourteenth century” (p. 118).
David Abulafia notes that Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, who lived in Sicily in the late 1200s, implied that Italian was used with Christians and Arabic was used within the Jewish community. David Abulafia compares this to Castilian Spanish (Ladino) being used by Spanish Jews in the Ottoman Empire, as a way of keeping group identity. Renda suggests that Sicilian Jews were even more “Sicilian” than they were “Jewish,” and that they were integrated into the “fabric of everyday life.” Zeldes concludes that her findings generally support Renda’s position, but she also reminds the reader that there were also converts of Iberian origin in Sicily. However, unlike the Iberian converts, the Sicilian Jews and converts did not hold high positions in the royal administration. They were in agriculture, industry, trade, commerce (including some international trade and shipping), and most professions (especially craftsmen and physicians), but the majority were laborers, on the land and in town.
Zeldes writes that “Conversion was for the Sicilian Jews a means to retain more or less the same social and cultural position they had had as Jews” (p. 286), that we know of no great Jewish scholar or influential political figure of Sicilian origin, and that “they did not create important immigrant communities in European countries or the New World. Sicilian neofiti were a local phenomenon” (p. 286).
Zeldes (with significant disagreement) concludes that the Sicilian neofiti “never numbered more than a few thousand.” She concludes that about 80 percent probably left Sicily, many to the Ottoman Empire, where they became part of the Sephardic community and eventually lost their Sicilian identity. She believes that those who stayed in Sicily disappeared into the general Sicilian population, but she acknowledges that “The task of drawing a picture of the Sicilian converts is fraught with difficulties, since no personal documents or literary works written by any of them have yet been found. The lack of internal sources leaves unexplored the domain of inner thoughts, self-perceptions, and personal beliefs” (p. 217).
Zeldes agrees with Renda’s “attempt at characterization,” that the converts “observed as much of Christianity as they had to and as much of Judaism as they could” (1993, p. 130).
Endnotes
1Zeldes recognized much past research, but said many questions remain: how many converted to Christianity, how they fared, are their descendants in Sicily today? She relied heavily on Simonsohn’s Volumes 2-17, and referenced other recent scholars including Carmelo Trasselli, Pietro Burgarelli, Francesco Renda, Henri Bresc, and Angelo Scandaliato. This article includes many authors but emphasizes Zeldes because of her recency and breadth.
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Renda, Francesco. 1993. La Fine del Giudaismo Sicliano (The End of Sicilian Judaism). Palermo: Sellerio.
Renda, Francesco. 1997. L’Inquisizione in Sicila. Palermo: Serrerio.
Roden, Claudia. 2000. “The Dishes of the Jews of Italy” in Cooperman and Garvin, pp. 349-356, op. cit.
Roth, Cecil. 1946. The History of the Jews of Italy. Philadelphia; Jewish Publication Society.
Shenhav, Yehouda. 2006. The Arab Jews: A Postcolonial Reading of Nationalism, Religion, and Ethnicity. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Simonsohn, Shlomo. 2002. Jews in Sicily: Under the Rule of Aragon and Spain. Leiden, Boston: Brill.
Zeldes, Nadia. 2003. The Former Jews of This Kingdom: Sicilian Converts After the Expulsion, 1492-1516. Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2003.
Zimmel, H.J. 1958. Ashkenazim and Sephardim: Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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SAMPLE ARTICLE FOR ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES WITHIN BODY OF THE ARTICLE:
The Secret Jews (Neofiti) of Sicily: Religious and Social Status Before and After the Inquisition
Abraham D. Lavender
Florida International University
Italy has the oldest surviving uninterrupted Jewish community in the West, over two thousand years. There have been major temporal changes, and much local diversity, and Sicily has played a major role. As Claudia Roden has concisely described the overall history,
The earliest and largest settlements of Jews had been in Rome and southern Italy, and especially in Sicily, until their expulsion in the late 15th century. The Jewish communities in Sicily had been at one time the richest in culture and tradition among the Jews of the diaspora. They benefited from their position at the heart of the Mediterranean traffic and from the cultural and economic impact of foreign occupiers, who included Arabs, Normans, Angevins, and Aragonese. Under Muslim rule from 831 to 1061 the Jewish population increased greatly with new immigrants from Muslim lands. The communities traded with the East and became Arabized in their tastes (p. 351).
Sierra also writes that “Jewish learning flourished in Sicily, particularly in the Middle Ages…Learned Sicilian Jews knew Hebrew, Italian, Greek, and Arabic, and some of them also Latin. Hence, they could take part in the important task of translating scientific works, particularly from Arabic, into Hebrew or Latin” (p. 542).
As I wrote in Volume 1 of this journal, relatively little attention, in English, has been given to the effects of the Inquisition in southern Italy. Most attention has been given to Spain or Portugal. But, in fact, there has been much historical research and writings on the Jews and crypto Jews of southern Italy, especially Sicily. In 1853, Heinrich Graetz, in the first publicizing of his eleven-volume magnum opus, History of the Jews, discussed the Inquisition in Italy. It was not much, but it was early recognition. Henry Charles Lea’s The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies was published in 1908. Cecil Roth’s The History of the Jews of Italy in 1946, with some attention to Sicily, was the first major study in English on Italian Jewry. In 1963, in Italian, Attilio Milano published his Storia Degli Ebrei in Italia (History of the Jews in Italy). Recent works include Lynn M. Gunzberg’s Strangers at Home: Jews in the Italian Literary Imagination in 1992, and Francesco Renda’s La Fine del Giudaismo Sicliano (The End of Sicilian Judaism) in 1993 and L’Inquisizione in Sicila in 1997. Also recent (2000) is Bernard D. Cooperman and Barbara Garvin’s edited The Jews of Italy: Memory and Identity.
Focusing on crypto Jews, Sicily has been of major concern. In Italian, the term for crypto Jews is neofiti (neophyte: newly “planted” or newly baptized). Major works include Henri Bresc’s Arabes de langue, juifs de religion. L’evolution du judaisme sicilien dans l’environnement latin, XII-XV siecles (2001), and Carmelo Trasselli’s numerous works. Specifically on Sicily is Stanislao G. Pugliese’s edited book The Most Ancient of Minorities: The Jews of Sicily, in 2002. Shlomo Simonsohn’s research publications on Italy, especially on Sicily, are prodigious, ranging from History of the Jews in the Duchy of Mantua in 1977 to Jews in Sicily: Under the Rule of Aragon and Spain, Volume 18 in his series of research records, in 2010.
In addition to books, many articles also have valuable information, but have not received attention from English readers because they are not published in English. Many English-speaking researchers are fluent in Spanish or French, but few are fluent in Italian (or Portuguese), limiting knowledge of Italy, Portugal, and Brazil.
In short, there has been a failure to sufficiently recognize that Sicily, and other parts of southern Italy, also suffered greatly under the “Spanish” Inquisition. Many Jewish exiles from Spain and Portugal were welcomed into various areas in northern Italy, but southern Italy, controlled by Spain, suffered from the same Inquisition that was exiling Sephardim from Spain and Portugal. A small number of Iberian exiles went to Sicily, hoping for better treatment, but suffered greatly when the Inquisition followed them there.
But these Iberian exiles to Sicily were small in number compared to the native Jews of Sicily, Jews who had lived in Sicily for at least fifteen hundred years, under various rulers, without being devastated. By 535 CE Sicily was under the control of the mostly Greek-speaking Byzantine Empire, and Jews were there. In 827 CE the Muslim Saracens began their occupation of Sicily, and the Jews remained, and in 1060 the Normans began their occupation, which they completed in 1090, and the Jews remained. The house of Hohenstaufen (German) succeeded the Normans in 1194, but they were soon overthrown in 1266 by Charles I of Anjou. In 1282, Sicily became independent and chose as its king Pedro III (of Aragon). In 1296 Sicily was separated from Aragon, and was ruled by a branch of the Aragonese family for over a century. But, Sicily was reunited with Aragon, and Ferdinand V, king of Castile, married to Isabella of Aragon, appointed himself ruler. Hence, the Inquisition was extended from Spain to Sicily.
A recent book that analyzes the story of the Inquisition and the neofiti of Sicily is The Former Jews of This Kingdom: Sicilian Converts After the Expulsion, 1492-1516, by Nadia Zeldes, published in 2003. In the first sentence on page 1 of her Introduction, Zeldes states the case very accurately and directly:
A growing awareness of the differences between the political units forming the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon has led present day scholars to consider separately the expulsions in 1492 and their aftermath in each of the dominions ruled by the Catholic Kings. Even so, the expulsion of the Jews from the kingdom of Sicily, which was part of the Crown of Aragon, has received relatively little attention from scholars, compared with the prolific literature concerning the expulsion of the Jews from the Iberian kingdoms (p. 1).
Zeldes notes that the Edict of Expulsion was published in Sicily on June 18, 1492, “ending the thousand-year-long Jewish presence on the island and at the same time giving birth to the ‘problem of the New Christians,’ or neofiti…” (p. 2). The presence of a large number of converts justified the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily, which for fifty years, between 1500 and 1550, acted mainly against New Christians of Jewish descent (p. 2).
The first attempt to establish the Spanish Inquisition in the Kingdom of Sicily actually was in 1487, with the appointment of the first Spanish Inquisitor, the Dominican friar Antonio de La Pena, who “had already proved himself a fervent and fanatical preacher against Jews and conversos in his hometown of Segovia” (Zeldes, p. 127). Previous attempts had failed, with Pope Sixtus IV writing to Queen Isabella in 1483 saying that he was aware of “a plague of neofiti” in Sicily, and that he had already addressed the matter with papal bulls. His position was that “the old institution was sufficient to combat heresy in Sicily” (Zeldes, p. 127). Pope Innocent, in 1486, had nomi-nated Tomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor General in all the Spanish dominions, including the Kingdom of Sicily, and in October 1487 King Ferdinand confirmed Torquemada’s appointment of de La Pena. As Zeldes writes, “This signaled the triumph of royal policies over papal interests and local traditions, for in Sicily there had already been a functioning Inquisition” (p. 126).
Renda suggests that King Ferdinand began working seriously for the establishment of the Inquisition in Sicily in 1497, possibly because Rodrigo Borgia had become Pope Alexander VI in 1492, and was known to be favorable to Spanish interests. Zeldes (p. 129) notes that recent research has been somewhat favorable to Alexander VI, showing him “as the pontiff who welcomed Iberian exiles to Rome.”
But, Zeldes, noting that timing has not received much attention, posits that the “effective birth” of the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily was in June 1500, when two new Inquisitors (Reginaldo Montoro and Giovanni Sgalambro) were appointed, followed five months later with an official edict “announcing the final establishment of the Spanish Inquisition on the island” (p. 128). Zeldes notes that even Lea did not discuss the details of this, although “he did see the connection between the presence of a large number of converts in Sicily after the Expulsion and the establishment of the Inquisition” (Zeldes, p. 128; Lea, p. 4). Zeldes also notes that Inquisition research in Sicily has been limited because of the destruction of many records, and because the Spanish Inquisition in Sicily “acted against those suspected of Judaizing only for the first fifty years after its establishment in Sicily” (p. 130), a relatively short time compared to Spain and Portugal.
Partly to show contrasts with Spain, Zeldes discussed in detail the trial of Pietro and Caterina de Monteverdi (October 1494 to July 1495) in Mazara. The converted couple had been accused of Juda-izing, and their trial is the only known surviving trial dealing with Sicilian “Judaizantes” (p. 133). Unlike trials in Iberia, names of accusers were not kept secret, and witnesses could be discredited by proving malice or not being trustworthy. Neofiti and Old Christians also testified in favor of the accused to help prove that the accused were considered good Christians, that “they were regular church-goers and that they confessed regularly, and not just occasionally or when threatened with a trail of faith” (p. 141). Pietro and Caterina de Monteverdi were acquitted and released, largely because the witnesses against them were viewed as unreliable. Zeldes also suggests that the leniency was partly a result of the view of the court and local religious authorities that “the accused were newly converted and needed time to adjust to their new faith” (p. 142). Thirty years later, after Pietro’s death, he was condemned for Judaizing and his bones were dug up and burned! There is no later record of Caterina.
Sicily has a unique history, differing from Iberia in many ways. Zeldes notes that Jews “had their own particular traits, such as the use of a Judeo-Arabic dialect, which survived until the fifteenth century. These distinctive cultural traits were not wiped out by conversion” (p. 3). Zeldes emphasized that there is much to be learned from a com-parison, writing that “Comparing social and economic profiles and religious attitudes offers an insight into the experience of the various converso minority groups in Christian society” (p. 3).
Abulafia says, for example, that Jewish communities of Spain and southern Italy (not only Sicily) shared many traits, but also had some major contrasts. The Sicilian Jews did not have close relations with Kings, were more attached to their regions, lived in a more ethnically diverse world, were less involved with the Maghreb, and were much more diverse economically and geographically (2000, p.82).
Using the census of 1505, Zeldes notes that the population of Sicily was probably between 550,000 and 600,000 inhabitants, and that opinions varied about the size of the Jewish population, but that “most studies agree that there were about 30,000 Jewish individuals on the eve of the Expulsion” (p. 5). She notes that there was probably “a tendency among Sicilian Jews to move about the island, leaving some of the larger cities to settle in the smaller urban centers” (p. 4). From 1453, with the fall of Islamic Constantinople, to 1571, with the victory of Lepanto (the Catholic Holy League defeated the Islamic Ottoman Empire), Sicily and southern Italy were frontier regions with Sicily in constant danger of invasion from the Ottoman Empire. Zeldes describes the fear of Turkish invasion during this period, and how this affected the Jewish community because “the continual lack of manpower and the constant menace of a Turkish invasion were important factors in the attempts of certain members of the Sicilian nobility to prevent the expulsion of the Jewish population” (p. 9).
There are still disagreements about Jewish life in Sicily, including economic life. Zeldes reports the differences. Trasselli “expressed the view that at the time of the Expulsion the better-off Jews converted and remained in Sicily, whereas the poor, who had nothing to lose, left the island” (p. 13). There has been much discussion about the economic loss to Spain when many Jews took their skills with them into exile, but Trasselli concludes that this was not a factor in Sicily because “most Jewish artisans converted and remained in Sicily” (p. 100). But, Ashtor said that “the wealthier elements sold their property and went into exile” and that “the majority of converts [who stayed] were poor, uneducated, and therefore less attached to their ancestral faith” (p. 13). Zeldes writes that the majority of converts were “ordinary people who continued to ply their trades as merchants, artisans, labourers and the like” (p. 20), and she disagrees with Renda’s conclusion that most of the converts were poor or very poor. She writes that “Some Sicilian Jews were successful merchants, rich bankers and well-to-do physicians. A large number of them were artisans whose contributions to Sicily’s economy was extolled by the highest officials of the land in an attempt to prevent the Expulsion. Even the Jews of Palermo were not all that poor…” (p. 101). She concludes that many of the converts had the same trades after the Expulsion as they previously had, and that in general “the converted Jews were engaged in all occupations, including agriculture” (p. 103). The Sicilian converts also did not generally engage in tax farming or in international trade, although there was a small group of “the wealthiest group among the converts” who engaged in these occupations. Although most of the converts were city-dwellers, a good number also owned small amounts of land.
Regarding the very important topic of religion, Zeldes concludes that “the neofiti of Sicily were considered a group apart long before anyone brought up the question of religion orthodoxy” (p. 2). She also strongly deemphasized the problem of Judaizing, “despite the fact that it is usually the focus of studies on conversos and the Inquisition” (p. 2). Zeldes believes that religious heterodoxy was only part of the problem, and that neofiti, as a distinct minority group, were “regarded first and foremost as converted Jews; hated by some elements of society and seen as deserving a special protection by others.” She suggests that the neofiti “behaved as a minority group aware of a separate identity,” and she believes that “the Sicilian converts represent a unique case” (p. 2). She explains that she chose the book title, Former Jews of this Kingdom, from a phrase in official royal documents “which seems best to capture the ambiguous status of the Sicilian Converts,” explaining that “their status in fact resembled that of the Jews prior to the Expulsion in almost every sense” (p. x).
The history and current status of the neofiti population in Sicily is still debated. There were occasional Jewish conversions to Christianity, but unlike Spain which had the 1391 riots, there was no one specific point in Sicilian history that marked a turning point. Some scholars believe that there were many converts before the 1492 Expulsion, but others disagree. Zeldes notes that a growing population of converted Jews in Sicily before the Expulsions did not go completely unnoticed (p. 19), but she concludes that the majority of conversions were after the Edict of Expulsion in Sicily on June 18, 1492, and that the conversions occurred over a period of months rather than all at once. But, it is difficult to estimate the number of converts. She concludes that Sicilian Jews maintained contacts (frequently close) with converted relatives, and that only a few turned against their former co-religionists (p. 20).
The publication of the Edict encouraged some conversions, but some local officials also encouraged conversions. Zeldes believes that “There is no reason to suppose that their [Christian] favourable atti-tude toward converts was motivated by considerations other than Christian piety and a belief in the economic capacities of Jews and former Jews” (p. 25). In order to add more validity to their conversions, “Many of the converts took the names of greater and lesser nobles or members of the royal administration or of city officials …..And a few even took the names of the oldest families of the Sicilian nobility” (p. 24). This practice of taking new names, and the readiness of “important persons to act as godfathers (padrinos)” suggests that these old Christians approved of and even encouraged conversions. However, “the temporal advantages which would follow from the Faith: namely, that they would be spared the expulsion and keep their own property” (p. 23) also played a role in some people converting. But, as Zeldes concludes, “The decision about whether to convert and remain, or to persevere in one’s ancestral faith and go into exile, was not an easy one. Families were torn apart” (p. 26).
Naples played a major part for Sicilian Jews, with many taking refuge there to try to maintain their Judaism. But, that ended as the Inquisition expanded. Unlike in Iberia, most of those returning to Sicily did so in a relatively short period of time, from 1494 to 1500. Some scholars estimate that as many as 100,000 exiles went to the Kingdom of Naples, but Zeldes thinks that this is a great exaggeration, suggesting that the number was about 10,000 or 15,000 (p. 27). Those who returned to Sicily as Christians could recover their property, but “only after a deduction of forty-five percent of its value by the Crown” (p. 31). It is not surprising that “The debtors, who undoubtedly had been greatly relieved when the Jews left Sicily, seemingly for good, became angry when the former Jews returned unexpectedly” (p. 32).
Zeldes gives return figures by towns, suggesting variations in return rates. Trapani, for example, apparently had a high rate of return, including both wealthy and people of modest means. But, Palermo, which had the largest Jewish population before the Expulsion (estimated at 5,000 Jews), seems not to have had a high rate of people returning. Zeldes suggests that Palermo had a large concentration of Jewish poor who probably formed the majority of those who left and had less reason for returning. Nevertheless, Palermo had the highest rate of converted Jews in Sicily. In Messina, which had the wealthiest and most assimilated Jewish community, it appears that about one fourth of those who left returned and converted to Catholicism.
Trasselli suggested that Jews or converts were welcomed back to the feudal towns which did not have merchants or an artisan class, but Zeldes writes that this did not apply in all areas (p. 43). There were also the non-Sicilian exiles, mostly from Spain or Portugal. Some came voluntarily with hope, and some were caught while on their way by boat to the Ottoman Empire. In 1510, the conquest of Tripoli “brought a large number of Jewish slaves to Sicily,” and Zeldes thinks that “It is reasonable to suppose that a certain number converted” (p. 49). In general, the Iberian Jews who came voluntarily as exiles and those who were captured on their way to the Ottoman Empire were treated more severely than Sicilian Jews.
Why were those who returned and converted to Catholicism welcomed back to Sicily? Zeldes suggests four reasons: there were economic benefits to the government because converts had to pay the forty-five percent charge to recover their property, some Catholics hoped to get more converts, many were members of the professional artisan class which was needed in Sicily, and Sicily was under-populated and needed more people for defense against foreign enemies. The number of those who returned was significant. Zeldes writes that “documentary evidence indicates that the number of returning ‘former Jews’ was not negligible” and that “those who returned had clearly intended to remain Jews, before circumstances forced them to change their minds” (p. 58). Zeldes concludes that “an evaluation of the total number of neofiti in Sicily after the Expulsion is not a simple matter…Nevertheless, they indicate that a significant percentage of the Jewish population did convert and remain in Sicily after the Expulsion” (p. 59).
In analyzing religious identity, Zeldes also concludes that there was not much evidence of Judaizing. Relatively few Christian cult objects were found in neofiti homes, but neither were many Jewish ritual objects found (they was dangerous if found!). Synagogues, rabbinical courts, cemeteries, and other things necessary for retaining Judaism, were not available. Even Judaizing Jews would find it difficult to have items which would be left in inventories.
But, Zeldes does note that there were some examples of a willful rejection of Christianity. One way was to maintain a strong Jewish group identity, primarily through strong family ties and marriage within the group. She agrees with Renda that the family was the most important way of preserving Jewish identity, and that education of children was especially important. Zeldes notes that occasionally New Christians, acting as a group, would even appeal to authorities for the protection promised to New Christians. But, secret escapes from Sicily were also organized as groups, usually based on a city. These escapes increased after 1530, but there were still many conversions.
Why were there so many conversion in Sicily? Zeldes rejects the idea that Sephardim, contrasted with Ashkenazim, were less attached to their faith. She notes that Sephardim, contrasted to Ashkenazim, did not accept as halakhically binding the aggadic texts which extolled martyrdom. She notes Bernard Lewis’s suggestion that “lingering Islamic traditions influenced Sephardic Jewry,” and argues that Arabic cultural influence was even more influential among Sicilian Jews than among Spanish and Portuguese Jews. She refers to Mark Cohen, writing that generally under Islam “unwilling converts were allowed to return to Judaism, even after two or three generations. They could therefore live for a while as nominal Muslims, knowing that this was only for a limited time.” She suggests that this “might explain their conversion [to Christianity], on the assumption that it was a temporary condition” (p. 290). She concludes, however, that the Sicilian Christians “were no more convinced of the sincerity of conversions than their Iberian counterparts” (p. 292).
Bejarano-Gutierrez, in an excellent analysis of the Islamic concept of taqiyya, discussing conversions among Jews in Spain, agrees with Cohen. Ashkenazim (living with Christians) tended to agree with the Christian concept of martyrdom. Sephardim (living with Muslims) tended to agree with the Islamic concept of taqiyya (“tongue”): what is in the heart in more important than what is on the tongue. Bejarano-Gutierrez writes that “Islamic practice was also much closer to Judaism than Christianity was.….The effects of almost six hundred years of Arabic-Islamic religious, cultural, and social influences cannot be ignored” (p. 47). Zimmels, in his classic study, wrote that “There is almost no department in which they [Sephardim and Ashkenazim] did not differ” (p. 7). Lavender wrote that the Sephardim “have been influenced by an almost entirely different set of conditions than have the Ashkenazim” (1981, p. 25). Shenhav (2006; with a strong ideological approach) has also proposed that more attention should be given to the Arab-Islamic influence on Jewish identity. Carroll notes, for example, that Moses Maimonides, “the most revered of all Jewish sages, wrote mainly in Arabic, not Hebrew” (p. 133). Students of crypto Judaic studies need to understand the importance of Arabs and Islam in the history of crypto Jews from Iberia or Sicily.
After the Jews converted to Christianity, either without leaving Sicily or by returning after conditions turned terrible in Naples and other locations, how were they treated? Zeldes discusses the historical formation and composition of the neofiti population in Sicily. She notes that from the High Middle Ages until the Expulsion, the Jews “were considered the king’s property (peculeum camera regie) and were entitled to royal protection and certain privileges” (p. 69). The Jews had to pay a tax specific to Jews, but “they were not slaves, nor were they in a genuine state of servitude. Sicilian Jews were free to dispose of their property, make contracts or leave one town for another” (p. 69). They also had to pay the poll-tax “as they had done as dhimmis at the time when the island was under Muslim rule” (p. 69). Generally under the Muslims there had been a certain level of toleration and protection of religious practices, but now the status was applied to both Jews and Muslims. But, the level of toleration and religious freedom was less than it had been under the Muslims.
As new Christians, the former Jews were supposed to be equal with old Christians, but in fact “official policies tended to create a distinct status for the New Christians, at least in the first and second generations after the Expulsion, rather than to integrate them into Sicilian society.” They were identified as New Christians in official documents, and they were forced to give 45 percent of their property value to the Crown. They were “sometimes treated worse than Jews” (p. 70). The requirement to forfeit the 45 percent made it easier to identify Jews in later years, and , ironically, Zeldes suggests that “It can even be argued that in Sicily there was no need for statures of purity of blood since everyone knew who the New Christians were” (p. 82). There was selected animosity toward converts who returned to Sicily, partly over conflicts about who owed whom for property, payment of previous debts, and basic anti-Semitic attitudes related to religion. At times there was violence against converts. Zeldes writes that “The attacks directed at converts, even when motivated by fear of commercial rivalry, unpaid debts and the like, indicate that the new converts did not gain easy acceptance into Sicilian society” (p. 93). But, despite these situations, conflicts between Old Christians and New Christians were not as severe as they were in Iberia.
Regarding living patterns, Jews in Sicily had never been segregated residentially before the Inquisition, and the same remained afterwards. Jews, as other ethnic groups, did tend to live in their own quarter (the giudecca), and this continued after the Inquisition: “many converts remained in the neighbourhoods they had formerly occupied as Jews” (Zeldes, p. 94). There were some mutual suspicions, but also frequent interactions, and some business partnerships, labor contracts, and intimate relations. Zeldes concludes that mixed marriages were not very common, and that converts chose to follow the frequent pattern of marrying within their own group.
Language also encouraged an extended family or group interaction. The majority of Sicilian converts were local Jews whose spoken language was Judeo-Arabic or the Sicilian dialect. David Abulafia notes that Arabic did not continue in Sicily in general, but that it was the koine of the Jews (p. 117), He states that “Among the Sicilian Jews, Arabic remained an everyday language until their expulsion at the end of the fifteenth century, though in the late fifteenth century it was used more in the compilation of documents (in Hebrew characters) than in daily speech. They gave children Arabic as well as Hebrew names; yet they do not seem to have been socially or economically isolated from their Christian neighbors, at least in the smaller towns, until the mid-fourteenth century” (p. 118).
David Abulafia notes that Rabbi Abraham Abulafia, who lived in Sicily in the late 1200s, implied that Italian was used with Christians and Arabic was used within the Jewish community. David Abulafia compares this to Castilian Spanish (Ladino) being used by Spanish Jews in the Ottoman Empire, as a way of keeping group identity. Renda suggests that Sicilian Jews were even more “Sicilian” than they were “Jewish,” and that they were integrated into the “fabric of everyday life.” Zeldes concludes that her findings generally support Renda’s position, but she also reminds the reader that there were also converts of Iberian origin in Sicily. However, unlike the Iberian converts, the Sicilian Jews and converts did not hold high positions in the royal administration. They were in agriculture, industry, trade, commerce (including some international trade and shipping), and most professions (especially craftsmen and physicians), but the majority were laborers, on the land and in town.
Zeldes writes that “Conversion was for the Sicilian Jews a means to retain more or less the same social and cultural position they had had as Jews” (p. 286), that we know of no great Jewish scholar or influential political figure of Sicilian origin, and that “they did not create important immigrant communities in European countries or the New World. Sicilian neofiti were a local phenomenon” (p. 286).
Zeldes (with significant disagreement) concludes that the Sicilian neofiti “never numbered more than a few thousand.” She concludes that about 80 percent probably left Sicily, many to the Ottoman Empire, where they became part of the Sephardic community and eventually lost their Sicilian identity. She believes that those who stayed in Sicily disappeared into the general Sicilian population, but she acknowledges that “The task of drawing a picture of the Sicilian converts is fraught with difficulties, since no personal documents or literary works written by any of them have yet been found. The lack of internal sources leaves unexplored the domain of inner thoughts, self-perceptions, and personal beliefs” (p. 217).
Zeldes agrees with Renda’s “attempt at characterization,” that the converts “observed as much of Christianity as they had to and as much of Judaism as they could” (1993, p. 130).
Endnotes
1Zeldes recognized much past research, but said many questions remain: how many converted to Christianity, how they fared, are their descendants in Sicily today? She relied heavily on Simonsohn’s Volumes 2-17, and referenced other recent scholars including Carmelo Trasselli, Pietro Burgarelli, Francesco Renda, Henri Bresc, and Angelo Scandaliato. This article includes many authors but emphasizes Zeldes because of her recency and breadth.
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