History of the Jews in Apulia

Apulia (from the Greek Ἀπουλία, in Italian: Puglia, pronounced [ˈpuʎʎa]) in Hebrew:פוליה) is a region in the "heel of the boot" of the peninsula of Italy bordering the Adriatic Sea.

The Jews of Apulia had a rich Rabbinic tradition and also had a sizeable Jewish population in the central Mediterranean prior to their expulsion.

Other legends tell of Jewish captives deported from Judea by the Roman Emperor Titus after the fall of Jerusalem in the year 70.

Official documents from the Western Roman emperor Honorius in the year 398, confirm there were several Jewish communities in Apulia.

Inscriptions found in the town of Venosa (nowadays in Basilicata but previously in Apulia) mention the communal organization of Jewish life in southern Italy.

In 875 and 925, Arab armies invaded and occupied parts of Apulia, resulting in much misery for the Jews, which forced many of them to flee for their lives.

The Jewish court physician Shabbethai Donnolo lived Calabria/Apulia area in the tenth century and wrote of these times.

During the early period of the Middle Ages, Calabria, Basilicata and Apulia forming the Catepanate of Italy were under Byzantine rule.

In 1311 King Robert directed that those who had either secretly practised or relapsed back into Judaism should be severely punished; the order was renewed in 1343 by Joanna I.

Both Jews and Neofiti who had again settled in Apulia in the 15th century were subjected to mob attacks occurring in Bari and Lecce in 1463.

In 1495, the Kingdom of Naples fell to the French and King Charles VIII ordered more restrictions to be placed on the Jews of Apulia.

The Spanish Inquisition reached Apulia because of the large number of Jews, Crypto-Jews and Neofiti living in the area.

A congregation of Jews of San Nicandro and Apulian Gerim descended from Neofiti families, worship in the synagogue regularly.

After the decline of the Roman Empire, The Jewish Koine became to Judaeo-Greek and Judeo-Latin gave way to different forms of Judeo-Italian known as "Italki".

[8][9] After the expulsion of the Jews from southern Italy, either Yevanic and Italki remained their mother tongue[10][11] in their new settlements in Greece.

An Apulian Jew by the name of Paltiel, a descendant of Hananeel ben Amittai and owing his distinction to astrology, became the friend and counselor of the calif Abu Tamim Maad, conqueror of Egypt and builder of Cairo.