| La Piccola Gerusalemme Interview with Elena Servi President of the Association "La Piccola Gerusalemme" ("Little Jerusalem") in Pitigliano about the history of the Jewish Community |
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Yes. The Jews were certainly in Pitigliano from time to time from the 1400 but there was no fixed community. They were in Sovana and Siena. It has been historically proved that they were here in the mid-1500s. We have proof that the first Jewish person to establish himself in Pitigliano was Nicolo Orsini IV’s personal doctor. His name was David Depomis and he came from Spoleto. Evidently he was the doctor of the area which includes Pitigliano, Sorano and Sovana, because he called it ?the land of refuge.“
He was previously the doctor of Magliano Sabina in Lazio, under the Pontifical State, and he was probably "kicked out" from there, as we would say today. Whatever happened, he came to Pitigliano where he lost his two daughters and some time later he also lost his wife. He received a piece of land where he could bury his wife from Nicolo Orsini IV. This later became the Jewish cemetery, as we know it now. This doctor stayed here only six years from 1556 to 1562 and was subsequently replaced by a Catholic doctor.
Later two Jewish people opened loan banks (pawnbrokers?) First they opened an establishment in Sovana and then in Pitigliano. This was in 1571, after the doctor had already left Pitigliano. It is possible that they were the doctor’s relations. Their establishment was closed in 1608. In the second half of the 1500’s a Jewish community gradually established itself. In fact, in 1598, the Synagogue was built.
Now, the motives as to why the Jewish people came to Pitigliano and stayed here were for different reasons. Pitigliano was an independent fiefdom. Count Nicolo Orsini had an imperial nomination and certain autonomy despite the fact that the Orsini had Popes in their family. They were relatively good in their welcome of Jewish people, possibly through necessity. We will see why! The doctor was the personal doctor of Nicolo Orsini when the loan bankers arrived. They were useful to the Count and to the population in general. The Pitiglianese population were essentially peasants. It was a rather poor rural economy and even artisans were not available, whereas the Jews were artisans. Unfortunately, in those times, the Jews were not allowed to exert other superior professions, except for the doctors. They were shoemakers, carpenters and bookbinders, which were non-existent in Pitigliano. This, of course, was one of the reasons for settling here, because they found good working conditions.
Another reason was that Pitigliano is on the border of Lazio, which at that time was the border of the Roman Papal State, so that Jews, who were periodically driven away by the State authorities, found easy refuge in Pitigliano.
The Jewish community increased in number even in the following century. For example, when the city of Castro was destroyed, many Jews came to Pitigliano. Slowly the Jewish population increased, reaching its height around the second half of the 1700s and the beginning of the 1800s. At this time the community had hundreds of members and it is said that there were possibly over 400 members, but certainly there were more than 300, which was about 10% of the population.
The Jews were in Pitigliano for four centuries. A good period, which was during the time of the Orsini, but subsequently in 1608, the county passed into the hands of the Medici. Initially, there were no changes and it remained more or less the same. The Jews had received a great many privileges from the Orsini: for example, they could own land, which was not allowed in other parts of the country. They were free to come and go as they pleased, they were not enclosed in a ghetto, nor did they have to wear any kind of sign. They had their commerce and activities, but all this changed when the Medici arrived though not immediately. In 1619 the Medici opened a ghetto in Sorano and then in 1622, they opened one in Pitigliano. The ghetto was only within a few small streets around the synagogue and not from the Piazza down to Capisotto, as people commonly believe.
Under the Medici the situation certainly deteriorated, the first thing was that the Jews were enclosed in the ghetto. They were then obliged to wear a sign. In Spain the Jews wore a yellow sign but in Pitigliano the sign was red: a little red card for the men and a red sign on the sleeve for women. At this time the taxes imposed were very high which led to the local money losing its value. This happened to the money circulating in Sorano.
The fountain in the Piazza della Repubblica in Pitigliano, the one on the right when coming from the ghetto was constructed with tax money imposed on the Jews. So, many of the privileges enjoyed by the Jewish community were taken away. Even the relationship with the local population changed. Whereas in the initial period the relationship had been quite good, it gradually deteriorated. The Medici were partly responsible in that they occupied themselves with the north of Tuscany and did not bother themselves with this area.
We need however to go back a bit and explain why the country passed from the Orsini to the Medici . The Orsini family had declined over the years and an exchange was made between the two families. The Orsini had Monte San Savino and the Medici took over the county of Pitigliano.
Change came again in the 18th century when the county passed to the Grand Dukes of Lorraine who became the Grand Dukes of Tuscany. The Lorraine were enlightened and liberal people. In fact in the Pitigliano synagogue there are two plaques and a plasterwork, which record the visit of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany to this very synagogue. First there was Pietro Leopoldo in 1773 and then Ferdinando III in 1823 and finally the last Grand Duke Leopoldo II in 1829.
There is an episode that might interest you and which I consider to be unique in Italian history. It happened in 1799 which actually ended the segregation in the ghetto. This event saw the change in the relationship between Catholics and the Jewish population. The Jews had not as yet left the ghetto despite the fact that the Grand Dukes had given them many privileges, nevertheless they still continued to live there.
In the summer of June 1799 in Pitigliano as in many other parts of Tuscany the Sanfelisti band based in Arezzo arrived. What happened in that year was that Napoleon had lost his war in Egypt and throughout the north of Italy and in other parts of the country, but especially in Tuscany, there was a rise in anti-French feeling. Naturally, the population not only took it out on the Jacobins but also on the Jews. This was due to the fact that the Jews quite openly supported the ideas of the French revolution. Liberty, fraternity and equality were ideas that fitted them perfectly, so it was a fact that because of this anti-French feeling massacres ensued in many communities where there were Jews. For example, the community in Monte San Savino was totally destroyed and was never re-established. In Siena on the same day that the insurgents arrived in Pitigliano, there was a massacre when thirteen Jews were killed; many of whom were burned alive. The same thing happened in many other parts of Tuscany.
The first insurgents arrived in Pitigliano from Arezzo helped, no doubt, by the local people. They cut down the Tree of Liberty and sacked the ghetto in what could be considered a real pogrom. They ransacked, robbed and broke into houses. Thirteen Jews were arrested. One of those arrested died a few days later because of his head injuries. This happened in June. A few weeks later, on a Sunday evening in July, another group, Dragoons on horseback, arrived in Pitigliano from Orvieto. They had other intentions. They had come to recruit volunteers for the Papal State and knowing that Pitigliano had a Jewish community, they started to harass the Jews. They made impossible requests: they also wanted material which was to be sewn to fit their needs in a very short time.
The worst act was the profanation of the temple and they insulted the Rabbi. Even the local clergy realised that the Dragoons had overstepped the limits of decency. When the peasants returned from their fields at sunset with their donkeys, they heard that the Dragoons had insulted the Jewish population and made impossible requests. Apparently the local population believed that these Dragoons could not possibly be Jacobins, and this is what appears in the court papers of that time. There was a popular revolt against these Dragoons and they were severely attacked. Four were killed and the others were taken prisoner.
This intervention by the Catholic population prevented other incidents of this kind and changed the relationship between the two communities. It is from this time that the segregation ended, although segregation in Pitigliano was not the same as in other parts of Italy. There was mutual respect and friendly relations which have continued to this day. It is true to say that during the period of racial laws and more precisely during the persecution in 1943, my family, and other Jewish families, received concrete help from our Catholic friends.
I forgot to mention that in 1930 or1931 (I think it was) the small population of this town, because of a state law, was put under the larger community of Livorno. There was still a Rabbi here in Pitigliano, but despite this, we were placed under the jurisdiction of Livorno and even though there are very few of us left, we still remain a section under that jurisdiction.
In 1938/39 when the racial laws were applied we were in all 60 people, residents and neighbours, who used to celebrate the Jewish feasts. Unfortunately, during this period many professional people lost their state jobs: amongst them were teachers, the town's engineer who was Jewish, and the Director of the Monte di Paschi Bank. Apart from the laws those who had their own businesses, like my father, suffered many very painful episodes. Many left the town. The Jewish school was opened here, in a classroom which was almost a corridor. There were about seven or eight of us in a mixed level class. The first year the Rabbi's wife taught us but in 1940 she had to leave, and subsequently, a newly qualified teacher who could not find work, became our teacher.
We took our exams every year as private citizens and it was specified on the certificates that we obtained, that we were of the Jewish race. This was also stamped on our identity documents. I, like many others frequented the first and second elementary classes at the state school, until in 1938 my father returned home and told me that I could not go to the state school. I asked him what I had done to deserve that. In general one is not allowed to go to school if one has done something bad. My father, with tears in his eyes, told me I had not done anything wrong. It was at this time that discrimination started. We began to feel that we were different, and rejected.
I frequented the third elementary with one of the two teachers who had been turned out of their posts. The next year the authorities gave permission for a school for Jewish children to be opened. I actually left school after the third elementary classes and returned to school at the third level of the middle school. Up till now, we have been talking about the past.
Now when did the Jewish community organise itself, develop and thrive? Well, there was a school, there was a Talmudic school, and there was the oven for Jewish bread (pane azzimo), a butcher and the cemetery, everything that a community needs. The Jewish community in Pitigliano started to diminish and slowly lose its importance. Just after the unification of Italy in 1861 when the Jews obtained equal rights, about one hundred left for the bigger cities, Rome, Florence and possibly some went to Livorno to be able to study and go to University. This they did to be able to take up professions previously denied to them. But, it should be noted that these Pitiglianese who went to live elsewhere still had an affection for Pitigliano. They often returned to the town every year for Easter, for Yom Kippur, they still asked to be buried in Jewish cemetery or have even bought plots there.
Can you tell me a little about the story of the synagogue?
Well, we left in 1943 and as I have said before, many families had already
gone and many of those had young children of sixteen and seventeen years who needed to study. They went to Florence and Rome where Jewish high schools existed and where they hoped to find work. These families did not return to Pitigliano. We, and other families left because the situation here was really painful in 1938/39 and in 1940. At that time our friends our friends were not allowed to visit us and were not allowed to greet us in the street. For example, my father had clients that were farmers but who were privately administered by a local Fascist. They were not allowed to visit my father's shop because it was not an "Aryan" shop.
In 1941/42 things began to calm down, but in 1943 after the armistice unfortunately the Germans arrived, so some of the other members of my family started to leave. My sisters left, as did my brother-in-law, and in November of 1943 even some of our Catholic friends pleaded with us to leave. We ran away on the 11th November and were taken in by the peasants. Some of them had been my father's clients, others did not know us, but when it became dangerous in one place, they found other places for us to hide. In this way, we remained outside the town, moving from one small agricultural plot to another and even in a grotto in the lush valley. We lived this life from November 1943 to June 1944. The last three months we lived in the grotto, where a farmer took us under his protection. They brought us food and some locals even came on foot from Pitigliano to see us.
When we finally returned to Pitlgliano, all those who had left in the previous period never came back. We were only about 30 people and we opened the temple only for Yom Kippur. There was no longer the required number of men, nor was there a Rabbi for the religious functions. We continued in this way until 1959. The last day and the last celebration was the day of forgiveness (Yom Kippur) which was the 12th of October 1959, and then we had to close the synagogue because the roof was falling in.
I got married in 1961 and the roof was really in a bad state. My husband and I put an advertisement in a Jewish newspaper "Israel" to collect signatures to enable us to save the temple. We did not manage to collect enough funds for the reconstruction, and then, at a certain point, the roof finally fell in. Everything had been taken out of the synagogue, the furnishings, the books etc. The Commune of Pitigliano told the Jewish Community of Livorno that the synagogue had to be reconstructed or else it would be pulled down because it was in a dangerous condition. The Community in Liverno, probably because of a lack of funds were unable to do anything so the remaining edifice was demolished.
That was the way it remained for many years until the Commune and the present Mayor, Brozzi, who was also the Mayor of the town at that time, decided to rebuild.
The whole project took a long time from the 1980 to 1990 (we know how long things take when public funds are involved). Nevertheless it was completed.
The reconstruction was done by the Commune with loans and also with the help of a permanent donation from the Jewish Community in Livorno, but only a part of it, the synagogue, was rebuilt. There was a library where there is now a terrace: where the lift is now situated there were the stairs that led to the school.
During the 30's Baldini in one of his books dedicated a chapter to the Jews of Pitigliano. He writes that there is a possibility that under the actual synagogue there is a small auditorium, a small room, where the first Jews who established themselves here got together to pray and study. There is no real proof.
The Commune however, did a great job of reconstruction. They also restored the Jewish Oven (Forno dei Azzimi) and about a year ago they began reconstruction work on the other rooms. There are two rooms: one of the bigger rooms, we hope will house a museum and the other, we hope, will become a Congress Centre. There are of course other rooms, one is the room for the ritual baths and there is a lovely cellar. I remember the families that lived there although my family lived elsewhere. The Rabbi also had his house down there, the family of Edda Servi.
Was Edda Servi any relation of yours?
No, she wasn't or maybe she was a very distant relation. There were at least seven branches of the family. Edda Servi wrote in one of her books that we were not related although the families knew each other well.
Going back to the synagogue, we do not know what the future will be. We, the last people left, have started an association which was created in 1996.
My son was the last Jewish person to have been born in Pitigliano and although he is not a practising Jew he feels this family tradition. He often says that because he is the last Jew who was born in Pitigliano, he felt that he had to do something. We had a huge problem: the Jewish cemetery, which was still in use. We were alone and the cemetery is extremely old and difficult to maintain because it is terraced.
As private people, we could not collect funds so we received offerings from visitors or from those who had tombs here. This money was deposited in the bank. However, the cemetery needs a great deal of assistance. It was my idea to ask the Commune if they could undertake the maintenance of the cemetery and the actual Mayor, Brozzi, took this decision. It does need everyday maintenance, sweeping for example. A relation of Edda Servi's who was living in Milan and who did not have any heirs, left a large sum of money for the site. Some very important work was carried out with this donation.
Despite this money, maintenance has to be carried out year after year, so my son, legally, created a cultural association which would permit us to collect funds other than those destined for cultural activities such as concerts, exhibitions etc. The funds that remain go towards carrying out maintenance in those parts of the cemetery which the Commune does not cover. We have had some tombs cleaned and closed those that were damaged. We called the association "Little Jerusalem" because this was the name given to Pitigliano in olden times by the Livornese, because the community here was an industrious one, religious, cultural and active. Our association also has non-Jewish members and there are many of them, amongst which are three priests from here. There are members all over Italy, in Milan, Rome and Florence and we even have members in the United States.
Thanks to the Commune and our own efforts, with our little museum, exhibitions and concerts, we have brought back some of the foundations of our culture. During the last few years we have managed to re-establish that friendly relationship and affection which probably has not existed in other places. We hope to continue in this way.
We wish you all the best in your endeavours, Mrs. Servi, and thank you so much for this most interesting interview.