This area, which is a mix of mountains and rich fertile plains, is south of Rome but north of Calabria and Apulia.
And, unlike the southern provinces, there seems to be no interest by neofiti descendants to revive the Jewish faith.
[1] The town of Aliano, located in Potenza, is the setting of the Jewish author, Carlo Levi's memoir, Christ Stopped at Eboli.
The regions of Apulia, Calabria and Basilicata remained firmly under Byzantine control until the 11th century.
The Jews of Amalfi were a small community, engaged in silk manufacture, garment dyeing and trade.
In 1065, the Prince of Benevento oversaw a number of Jews being forced to convert to Christianity, and was reproved by Pope Alexander II.
Two Hebrew inscriptions on a sepulchral stone from 1153 also attest to the existence of a Jewish community in this period.
Under Papal rule, Benevento was spared the Jewish expulsion from southern Italy by the Spanish Crown in 1541.
The Jewish community flourished in the 10th century, and the ancestors of Ahimaaz ben Paltiel were prominent within it.
And his son, Samuel ben Hananel was appointed supervisor of the treasury and the mint of Capua.
In 1231, Emperor Frederick II granted the Jews the monopoly of the dye-works in the area.
During the Jewish persecutions in southern Italy in 1290–94, many Jews in Capua were forcibly baptized to Christianity.
The Jewish community grew when Sephardic refugees from Spain and Sicily arrived in Capua in 1492 and 1493.
In 1510, Spain won control of the city and expelled the Jews, but those who paid 300 ducanti were permitted to stay.
Between 1942 and 1943, 50 Jews of Naples were saved from German deportation by being hidden by villagers in the area of Caserta.
Archeological records have proven the existence of a Jewish population in Pompeii, Herculaneum and Stabia prior to the infamous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in the year 79.
An inscription on a tombstone testifies to a Jewish settlement in Salerno, possibly as early as the 3rd or 4th century.
By the Middle Ages, the town was known for a medical school founded by Jews around the year 800.
In 1485, Rabbi Obadiah ben Abraham lived in Salerno and studied at the medical school.