Jews of San Nicandro

According to John A. Davis, professor of Italian history at the University of Connecticut, the Jews of San Nicandro represent "the only case of collective conversion to Judaism in Europe in modern times".

[1] Beginning in the late 1920s, the Jewish community of San Nicandro developed as a result of the conversion to Judaism of Donato Manduzio (1885–1948),[2] a crippled World War I veteran who was inspired by his own reading of the Bible.

[1][2] Donato was the son of Giuseppe Manduzio and Concetta Frascaria, poor Roman Catholic peasants from San Nicandro.

[2] By 1930, he read the Bible and claimed to have had a vision, abandoned Christianity, and started to spread his message among the folk of San Nicandro,[1][2] exhorting them to live according to the Law of Moses and follow a Jewish lifestyle.

[1][2] Later, he contacted the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Rome and organized the formal conversion of his followers to Orthodox Judaism.