Italian
Jews in Amsterdam and the rest of the Western Sephardic Diaspora
The Italian peninsula plays an important part in Western
Sephardic history: it is where the Western Sephardic diaspora was born. It was
in Italy where conversos from Portugal were first able to found openly Jewish
communties. In Ferrara, Venice, Pisa, and later Livorno and many other cities,
Portuguese Jewish communities were founded from the 16th century
onward. In some of these places, like Ferrara and Venice, Portuguese
communities coexisted with Italian-rite and German-rite Jewish communities. In
a few, such as Livorno and Pisa, the Portuguese community was the only Jewish
community and other Jews had no choice but to assimilate among them over time.
In both cases, however, mingling between Portuguese/Sephardic Jews and Italian
and Ashkenazi Jews took place. In Livorno, Pisa, and Genoa, many Jews from a
non-Iberian background joined the Sephardic community and adopted the Sephardic
rite. In places where an Italian rite and/or Ashkenazi community existed, over
time there were intermarriages, and -though rarely in the early days- people
also moved between congregations for reasons other than marriage. As we will
see, this assimilation of Italian Jews into Sephardic communities was not
limited to Italy.
Probably the first non-Sephardic Italian Jew to join the
Portuguese community in Amsterdam was Saul Levi Mortera. Levi Mortera was born
in Venice in 1596 to a prominent Ashkenazi family that was mostly based in
Verona, taking its name from a previous place of residence: Mortara. He arrived
in Amsterdam in 1616 in the company of the Portuguese Montalto family, and his
story is quite different from that of other Italian Jews in Amsterdam, but it is
likely that his presence -especially after having become the Chief Rabbi,
Haham, of the community- had its effect on the situation of later arrivals from
Italy.
The next famous Italian Jew we encounter in Amsterdam is the
artist Salom Italia. Born in Mantua in around 1619, he is active as an engraver
in Amsterdam from the 1640’s. He is mostly known for his illustrated meghillot
- scrolls of Ester, quetubot (marriage contracts), and for the portraits of
Menasse Ben Israel and Jahacob Jeuda Leon Templo. Although he had many dealings
with the Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam, and likely attended the Talmud Tora
synagogue, it is unclear if he was a registered member of the community. At
some point he left Amsterdam, and was back in Mantua in the 1660’s.
A significant number of the Portuguese (and some Spanish and
Levantine Sephardic Jews) came to Amsterdam by way of Italy. Many had lived in
Italian cities with Portuguese communities, like Venice, or had been born
there. So when Italian and Ashkenazi Italian Jews started arriving in
Amsterdam, they found local Portuguese Jews with whom they shared an Italian
past: some could have been former neighbours, maybe even childhood friends.
Others were business partners of Portuguese Jews, and in some cases that was
the very reason they had come to Amsterdam.
One of the first apparently Italian
names we find in the records of the Amsterdam medras is that of Ishac Meatob,
as one of the students of Haham Sasportas, and later the Jesiba de los Pintos.
Meatob was most probably a descendant of the Italian Del Bene family. The
Hebrew version of the Italian name is מהטוב - mēhaṭṭōḇ, and this
is how the Italian Del Benes and the Amsterdam -and later Hamburg- Meatobs
signed their name in Hebrew.
The Del Bene family in Italy
produced a kind of “rabbinical dynasty”, first in Bologna, where, besides Rome,
the family was mostly found in the 16th century, and later in Mantua. The
Mantuan branch produced rabbis who served in places like Ferrara, Cento, and
Ancona in the 17th century.
From Mantua was also Isac Del Bene, who,
in partnership with his brother in law Meir Sarfati alias Maggino di Gabriello,
set up a business in Livorno in 1593, being one of the first Jews to settle in
this future Portuguese Jewish centre. They occupied themselves with the
manufacturing of glass, and also silk. In Livorno and Pisa, they partnered with
local Portuguese Jews, and also with the Calò family, originally from Rome. As
we will see, members of the Livorno branch of the Calò family would also
immigrate to Amsterdam in the 17th century.
In 1652, an Isac de Vidal Del
Bene, with several of his brothers, was living in Amsterdam. In that year, Duke Francesco I
of Modena offered the brothers special privileges if they came to settle in
his states, likely with the intent to set up a business in silk production, and probably one or more of
the brothers accepted, as we see members of the Del Bene family in Modena in
later years. It is not unlikely that this Isac Del Bene and his brothers were
grandsons of the Isac Del Bene who settled in Livorno in 1593, who moved to
Amsterdam with some of their Portuguese partners in the silk business. An Ysaque
Mehatob had been admitted as a member in the Portuguese community in Amsterdam
in 1646, possibly the same individual.
Of the brothers there seems to be
no record in Amsterdam, but maybe a son or grandson of one of the brothers was in
Middelburg in 1683, when a Vidal Del Bene was granted the “burgerregt” (citizenship) and the
right to enter the tobacco merchants’ guild.
The Meatob family was also to
produce a number of rabbis and hazzanim. Abraham Meatob was Haham in Hamburg,
where he died in 1665. He could have been one of the brothers of Ishac, or a
son. Another Meatob of approximately the same generation was David Haim Meatob
of Glückstadt. David’s son Jehiel became hazzan of the Glückstadt synagogue,
while another son, Ishac, became the first Haham of Suriname.
To remain in Hamburg for a moment,
another Haham of Italian origin was a Jehuda Haim, locally known as Ribi Leão.
His place of birth is not known, but it could be Venice, where he had been a
student of R’ Leone Modena. His former teacher calls him יהודה המכונה ליאון מאזולה,
likely his family origins were in the Ashkenazi community of Asolo in Veneto.
Sometime before 1619 he came to Amsterdam, where he married Ester Israel Lopes,
but in 1626 he is already in Hamburg, where he served as a ribi (teacher) and
hazzan, and later as Haham, until his death in 1660.
Jehuda Carmi, also an Italian,
though his name suggests Provençal origins, was Haham in Hamburg and in nearby
Glückstadt. He died in Hamburg in 1672.
The Luria family of Hamburg also
appears to be of Italian origin, but I haven’t been able to confirm this.
Also in Middelburg, in the
Portuguese Jewish cemetery, a Haham Yshac Levi Fubini was buried in 1687. Many
of the people buried here were from Antwerp, which didn’t have a Jewish
cemetery at the time. The Antwerp Portuguese community at that time was known
to have hired Hahamim coming from Livorno, but Levi Fubini probably arrived from Amsterdam, where an Ishac Baruh Fubini was present in 1666. In Turin, Isach Levi Fubini had been an agent of the local Nazione Portoghese. The Levi Fubini family is originally from Fubine in Piedmont,
and before that from Casale.
Back to Amsterdam: The official
status of Italian Jews within the Portuguese community in the 17th
century is not clear. In the case of Haham Mortera, he was simply considered
Ashkenazi, like his colleague Uri Halevi. His descendants needed a special
permission to enter the Dotar, the dowry lottery, and obtained this permission
because Mortera’s wife was Portuguese, and because of his status as Haham in
the community.
In the 1660 statutes of the
Medras, the school/academy of Hes Haim, it was decided that Italians, Germans,
and Poles could not become members. In a later document we see the reason for
this: para evitar confusao no estudo, it would create confusion for the students. Confusion because of
differences in rabbinical traditions, and the pronunciation of Hebrew. For this reason, combined with the fact that vis-à-vis the Gentile authorities the Portuguese community at that time still had a certain patronage, and thus responsibility, over the Ashkenazim, who until now had still been under the greater umbrella of the Jewish (ie: Portuguese) community, it needed to “force” the German and Polish Jews to found their own institutions. The Portuguese community actively helped the German Jews to found their own synagogue for the same reason: on the one hand the Ashkenazim were now taken care of and organised, and on the other hand they were effectively removed from the Portuguese synagogues.
It didn’t take long for the decision to be reversed for the Italians. Since Italian Jews, including Ashkenazi Italian Jews, had a rabbinical tradition and a pronunciation of Hebrew that were close to those of the Portuguese, the argument for denying them entry didn’t hold. Also the need for the Ashkenazim to have their own institutions did not apply to the Italians, as they weren’t numerous enough to have their own synagogues and schools.
It is not clear
whether this acceptance of Italians into the Medras immediately also applied to the
community as a whole, the Kahal Kados Talmud Tora, but likely this was the
case, as these institutions and their rules for membership tended to be linked.
Fact is, that from here on out we see more and more family names of
non-Sephardic Italian origin appearing in the Portuguese community.
One of those names is the already mentioned Calò. Probably already at
least partially “sephardised” in Livorno, the family established itself in
Amsterdam in the second half of the 17th century and eventually also
London. Another Livornese Italian family of Amsterdam, Hamburg, and London was
the Ascoli family, and of similar origin were the Ottolenghi and Montefiore
families of London. The originally Mantuan Vigevano family had also been well
established in Livorno, both there and in Modena forming business relationships
with Portuguese Jews, and a branch of the family moved first to London and
later to Amsterdam and Hamburg. In 1762, another member of the Carmi (Carmy)
family came to Amsterdam with a testimony that he had been a member of the
Portuguese Nation of Livorno. Also coming from Livorno in the 18thc
was the Norsa family, while the Norsas of London appear to have come directly
from Mantua. Probably also the Livornese Pezaro family of Amsterdam was of
non-Sephardic origin, but because of various spellings of the name (Pezarro
etc.) I am not entirely convinced that its origin is from Italian Pesaro. Also
the rabbinical family of Meldola, spread all over the Western Sephardic
diaspora (Livorno, Pisa, Reggio, Bayonne, Amsterdam, Hamburg, London,
originally from Mantua) is a case of doubt, as despite their name being an
apparent Italian toponym, they have a tradition of being of Spanish origin, and
apart from Mantua exclusively served Sephardic communities.
From Venice, where Portuguese (Ponentine), Levantine, Italian, and
German Jews shared a ghetto; in the 17th century came the Rietti, Lazarus, and Bassan families to Amsterdam. The first of Italian
background, the other two from the German community. A branch of the Rietti
family also moved to London. Jacob Bassan, grandson of Eliaser Bassan, the
first Bassan to come to Amsterdam, moved to Hamburg to serve as Haham until his
death in 1769. The origin of a Sigala family, also from Venice, is not clear.
Still in the 17th century; from Mantua, a city with no
established Sephardic community, arrived to Amsterdam the Pavia, Seforni, and
Canton(i) families. In the same years, from Padua arrived the De Padua, Aletrino,
and Treves families. From Verona came the Carpi family, from Reggio the Ferrares
and Foa families, from Piedmont the Montagnana family, and from Ferrara arrived
individuals named Carbon and Vougier. I have failed to find the origin of the
last two names.
The Portuguese community of Amsterdam thoroughly vetted new immigrants
who asked to join, and when there was no local family member who could vouch
for an individual, they asked for testimonies from the previous place of
residence. These testimonies, many of which can be found online on the website
of the Amsterdam archives, provide a fascinating read.
One of those testimonies is one for a Jehuda Melhado from Turin, from
1761. Baruch Treves (probably the same as the contemporary Turinese Jew Benedetto Treves)
testifies that Jehuda’s parents are of Spanish origin. Since we have a
testimony from Turin from 20 years earlier, a testimony provided by the
parnasim and Haham of the Portuguese Nation of Turin, testifying that David
Latas Franco had been a member of said nation, it seems strange that no such
testimony was provided for Jehuda Melhado. Probably also the Amsterdam Mahamad
found this strange, and they apparently asked Jehuda’s cousin Salomon Balabrega
(Valabrega), already living in Amsterdam where in 1735 had married the
Portuguese Ribca Ximenes from Madrid, for clarification. Balabrega's testimony is dated
more than a year after the testimony from Treves, so either Jehuda took a while
to arrive to Amsterdam, or maybe Salomon had been away when Jehuda first
arrived. Balabrega’s testimony is a rather romantic story, saying that both
their families are ancient families who were exiled by the Romans to Sardinia,
etc. He does not confirm the claim of Spanish ancestry. It seems that Melhado’s
family name had really been Migliau, originally from the Provençal town of
Milhaud, and his mother’s family was Valabrega, also a Provençal family long
settled in Piedmont. Jehuda seems to have been in trouble in Turin, a
fascinating story that is beyond the scope of this article, and more or less
escaped to Amsterdam, probably following in the footsteps of his cousin Salomon.
Despite the lack of Spanish ancestry, the Amsterdam Mahamad seems to
have been satisfied with Balabrega’s testimony, as Melhado was accepted into
the community and became the ancestor of a large Portuguese family that exists
until today.
Besides the already mentioned Latas Franco (although the family belonged
to the Portuguese Nation in Turin, their origin is Provençal), Balabrega, and
Melhado from Turin, other Italian Jews settling in Amsterdam in the 18th
c were the Morpurgo, Canton, Porto, Capriles, D’Ancona, Della Bella, Fano, Vita Israel (likely Italian),
and possibly Moresco (origin unclear) families from Venice. The first four of
Ashkenazi origin, the others Italian. From Mantua arrived the Romanel/Romano, (2nd)
Porto, Sulam, Provensal families, and from Verona the Rimini family by way of
London. From Pesaro came the Mondolpho family, from Padua came Luzzatto, and
from Florence arrived a Segre.
Several members of the Capriles family, originally from Friuli, came to Amsterdam from Venice. But Joseph Capriles, who later settled in Curaçao, did so after a long and adventurous journey through Tunis and Malta, and conversions to Christianity and Islam, as described by Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini in 2015.
Also in the Portuguese community in London we find many names of Italian origin. Some of them have been mentioned above, but we also find Foligno, Basevi, Modigliani, Piperno, etc. In 1866, the Piedmontese Rabbi Benjamin Artom became Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese congregations of the United Kingdom.
Many of these families became large and well established Portuguese
Jewish families in Amsterdam and other places in the Western Sephardic
diaspora. The Morpurgos, the Treveses, the Riminis, the Calos, the Ascolis, the
D’Anconas, the Della Bella’s, the Vita Israels, the Melhados, the Aletrinos,
the Ferrareses, the Vigevanos, etc., were well represented in the 20th
century, and some of them still are today.
There are also a few families that are erroneously said to be of
non-Sephardic Italian origin. The most famous of these is the Levi
Vitoria/Italiaander family of Amsterdam, Amersfoort, Nijkerk, and Copenhagen.
Abraham Levi Vitoria was a Portuguese tobacco merchant from Venice who arrived in Amsterdam
in the 1660’s, or before. Because his first wife was Ashkenazi, and because his
nickname, adopted by many of his descendants as a surname, was Italiaender, several
researchers have concluded that he was not of Sephardic origin. But since Levi
Vitoria is a known family from Iberia, probably originally from Vitoria in
Basque Country, and because his descendants founded explicitly Portuguese rite communities
in Nijkerk and Copenhagen, it is quite clear that this conclusion was mistaken.
Another family said to be Italian, but in reality is most likely Portuguese, is the (de) Piza family. It is not so strange that many assumed
that this family came from Pisa in Italy, as there was a large Jewish family in
Italy carrying the name of da Pisa. But the Amsterdam Piza family, later also
present in London, Hamburg, and the Americas, was originally from Istanbul.
Before Istanbul, they had probably been of Portugal, as the name is attested
there as well. A Samuel de Piza Lusitano was rabbi in Venice in the 17th century.
The origin of the name is not known, it does appear to be a toponym. But unless
a member of the Italian da Pisa family moved to Portugal in the 15th
century or earlier, it has nothing to do with the Italian town of Pisa.
Origin of family names:
Aletrino – from the town of Alatri in Lazio
Alepron (Alpron)- from the city of Heilbronn in Germany
D’Ancona – from the city
of Ancona
Artom - unknown etymology, the family is from Piedmont
Ascoli – from the town
of Ascoli Piceno in the Marche region
Basevi - unclear etymology, possibly from Hebrew בת שבע - baṯ šeḇaʿ (from Verona, Ashkenazi)
Bassan – from the town
of Bassano del Grappa in Veneto (Ashkenazi)
Della Bella – probably a
nickname refering to the reputational beauty of a female ancestor. Originally from
Padua, also present in Venice and Pesaro. An Aletrino from Padua was known by
the nickname Della Bella, it could be that both families descend from a common
ancestor
Del Bene – “from the
good”, probably based on the character of an ancestor. Family from Rome and
Bologna
Calimani – patronym
from Kalman, ultimately from Greek Kalonymos. Found in Venice
Calò – apparently a
patronym from Greek Kalonymos, originating in southern Italy
Canton, Cantoni –
unclear, apparently of French origin. Venice, Mantua
Capriles - from Chiavris (Caprileis in Latin), near Udine in Friuli. Ashkenazi
Carmi – from the town
of Crémieu in Provence
Carpi – from the town
of Carpi near Modena in Emilia
Fano – from the town of
Fano in the Marche region
Fermi – from the town
of Fermo in the Marche region
Ferrares – probably from
Ferrara
Finzi – origin unclear,
possibly German
Fiorentino – from Florence
Foa, Fua – from the
town of Foix in France
Foligno - from the town of Foligno in Umbria
Formiggini - from the town of Formigine in Emilia
Franchette (Franchetti) - Mantuan family of French origin
(Levi) Fubini – from the town of Fubine in Piedmont, and before that from Casale
Gallico - "French"
Giron (Ghiron) - unclear, maybe from the Gironde region in France. Ashkenazi
Italia – from Italy
Lampronte (Lampronti) - evolution of the name Alpron, from the city of Heilbronn in Germany. Ferrara - Livorno
Latas, Lattes –
from the town of Lattes in Provence
Lazarus – patronym,
from Elʿazar. From Venice
Luria - unclear
Luzzatto – unclear, possibily from Lusatia-Lausitz in
Germany
Melhado – probably from
the town of Milhaud in Provence
Modena - from the city of Modena in Emilia
Modigliani - from the town of Modigliana in the Romagna region
Mondolpho – from the
town of Mondolfo in the Marche region
Montanana – from Montagnana, a town in Veneto (Ashkenazi)
Montefiore - from Montefiore dell'Aso, a town in the Marche region
Morpurgo – from the
city of Marburg in present day Germany
(Levi) Mortera – from the town of Mortara in Lombardy (Ashkenazi)
Norsa – from the town
of Norcia in Umbria
Olivette - probably Olivetti, from Oliveto near Bologna in Emilia
Ottolenghi – unclear,
maybe from Ettlingen in Germany, or from Odalengo in Piedmont
De Padua – from the
city of Padua in Veneto
Pavia – from the town
of Pavia in Lombardy
Piperno - from the town of Piperno (modern Priverno) in the Lazio region
Porto – from the town
of Porto Mantovano in Lombardy (Ashkenazi)
Porto Leon – probably Roman
Portaleone (Lion's gate), unclear origin, possibly a toponym
Provensal, Provençal
– from Provence
Recanati - from the town of Recanati in the Marche region
Rietti (Rieti) – from the town
of Rieti in Lazio
Rignano - from Rignano Flaminio, a town near Rome in Lazio
Rimini – from the town
of Rimini in the Romagna region
Romanel/Romano – from Rome
(Dei) Rossi – unclear origin, the name means “from the red”,
possibly referring to a physical trait the family was known for.
Segre – from the town
of Segré in France
Seforno (Sforno) – origin unclear, family from
Bologna
Sigala – Not clear,
maybe a German professional name from the word “seal”, like the name Segal?
Sonsino (Soncino) - from the town of Soncino in Lombardy
Sulam – from the
Provençal town of L’Escalette (Hebrew translation)
Supino – from the town
of Supino in Lazio
Tedeschi - meaning “german” in Italian
Toscana - from Tuscany
Treves – from the city of Trier in Germany
de Urbino - from the city of Urbino in the Marche region
Valabrega, Balabrega
– from the town of Vallabrègues in Provence
Vigevano – from the
town of Vigevano in Lombardy (Ashkenazi)
Vita Israel – probably a patronym,
from Venice. Unlikely to be of Sephardic origin
(Disclaimer: For now, this is just a blog post, and not an academic paper, so no citations. If you are looking for the source of a specific statement, just ask in the comments and I will certainly oblige.)
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