La Giudecca


La Giudecca was a term used In Southern Italy and Sicily to identify any urban district where Jewish communities dwelled and had their synagogues and businesses.
Unlike the compulsory ghettos of Northern Italy and elsewhere, in some Southern Italian hamlets and cities Jewish families and their members voluntarily chose to live in certain areas but were free to travel and even contribute together with their Christian neighbours to the success or commercial, cultural and artistic progress of a region. A very few Sicilian Giudeccas were unhealthy and declined, in fact, the majority included many craftsmen, doctors and tradesmen.

Etymology

Judeca and Giudecca are the corrupt or jargonized medieval versions of the Latin female adjective Judaica, meaning Jewish or Judaean. The Jewess or The Jewry are other plausible meanings.
It is not known why the Venetian island of Giudecca acquired that name, as there is no evidence of Jewish settlement there.
The word Giudecca is also used in Dante's Inferno for the lowest circle of Hell, in which Judas resides.

Jewish neighbourhoods in southern Italy

Italian RegionSouthern Italian cities, small towns, villages with their Hebrew districts
Sicily
  • Palermo: Meschita and Guzzetta. In the Arab Balarm these two sites were called Harat-Al-Yahud . · Odonyms: Piazza Croce dei Vespri, Piazza della Borsa, Vicolo della Meschita, Piazzetta della Meschita, Vicolo degli Agonizzanti, Via Calderai, Via Mastrangelo, Via Giardinaccio, Via del Ponticello, Via Bernabei, Via San Cristoforo, Vicolo Corpora, Via Lampionelli, Via Divisi. · Visible traces: Church of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino , Arco dei Cartai, Arco della Meschita.
  • Caccamo
  • Castelbuono
  • Castronovo di Sicilia
  • Polizzi Generosa
  • Termini Imerese: Celtigene.
  • Messina: Tirone and Paraporto.
  • Castroreale
  • San Marco d'Alunzio: Moschita.
  • Limina
  • Taormina: Giudecca.
  • Savoca: Visible traces: the Ruins of an old Synagogue .
  • Milazzo: Borgo Vecchio. Odonyms: Via Sinagoga.
  • Lipari
  • Catania: Giudecca Soprana, Giudecca Sottana, Piano di Giacobbe
  • Caltagirone: San Giuliano, Miracoli. · Odonyms: Via Madonna della Stella - Via Judeca.
  • Castiglione di Sicilia
  • Mineo: Contrada Rabbato. · Odonyms: Via Ebrei
  • Paternò
  • Randazzo:Santa Maria alla Iudeca
  • Syracuse: Giudecca, San Giovanni delle Grotte Pelopee.
  • Lentini:Serre di San Pietro or Serre della Scalderia, Judeca.
  • Palazzolo Acreide
  • Rosolini
  • Cittadella Maccari
  • Noto: Judaica Parva
  • Enna: Iudeca. Visible traces: In this area the Church of Saint Mark and the Nunnery of the Discalced Carmelites took the place of the ancient city's Synagogue.
  • Agira
  • Calascibetta
  • Piazza Armerina: Piano Canali.
  • Caltanissetta: Zingari.
  • Gela
  • Sofiana
  • Ragusa: La Chancata.
  • Caucana
  • Comiso
  • Modica: Cartellone.
Historical events: On 15 August 1474, the Christian community of Modica wreaked a brutal havoc on the Jewish dwellers of Cartellone, the so-called "Strage dell'Assunta".
This episode has been the first and most horrible antisemitic massacre to the detriment of the Sicilian Israelites.
During the evening of Assumption's Day, with a single collective raptus numberless citizens slaughtered about 360 innocents causing a total and fierce devastation.
The incitement that echoed through the streets was: "Hurrah for Mary! Death to the Jews!"
Calabria
  • Reggio: Giudecca. · Odonyms: Via Giudecca - Via Osanna - Via Aschenez .
  • Catanzaro: Cafarone
  • Cosenza: Giudeca or Iudaica
  • Nicotera: Musconà and Timpone
  • Gerace
  • Montalto
  • Altomonte
  • Monteleone
  • Castrovillari
  • Bisignano
  • Seminara
  • Acri
  • Santa Severina: Iudea
  • Nicastro
  • Crotone
  • Rossano
  • Corigliano
  • Campania
  • Naples: Monterone and San Marcellino, Patrizzano, Giudecca Vecchia di Forcella, Giudecca Grande di Portanova, Giudechella del Porto.
  • Sorrento
  • Amalfi
  • Salerno: Giudecca
  • Basilicata
  • Melfi
  • Apulia
  • Acquaviva delle Fonti
  • Altamura: Claustro giudecca
  • Bari
  • Barletta
  • Brindisi: Rione Giudea
  • Grottaglie: Porta sant'Antonio
  • Manduria: via giudecca
  • Martina Franca
  • Nardò
  • Oria: Rione Giudea
  • Ostuni
  • Taranto
  • Trani: Giudecca or La Giudea, Porta Antica and Scolanova
  • Sardinia
  • Cagliari: Giudaria di Castello
  • Oristano
  • Alghero
  • Some names and their meanings