The Jewish Ghetto of Nicastro

As a result of its characteristic layout, the Jewish ghetto of Nicastro was naturally closed off and secluded, surrounded as it was by two waterways that constituted a kind of natural defense which precluded the need for a surrounding wall. The only entrance was from below, over a terraced incline. For these reasons, and also for the restrictions imposed on the ghetto from outside, the Jewish community was like an extraterritorial institution, with its own practices, customs, laws, and privileges.

The Jewish ghetto of Nicastro, because of its geographic location, constituted a reference point for hospitality for transient Jews who, especially in times of persecution, were moving south to lower Calabria. Under the Aragonese, the Nicastro ghetto became one of those Jewish communities, periodically submitted to a general inventory and evaluation of its holdings. The procedure was executed under the scrutiny of a royal commissioner. The declarations were checked and then forwarded to Naples. There were taxes to pay such as a reimbursement of a thousand ducats for the general coffers, a subsidy for the inquisitors, and a fee whenever the Jews of the ghetto were exempt from wearing their distinctive sign. And there were other taxes that the Jews of Nicastro had to pay, the same as the Christians, whenever they resorted to the court, as in cases of weddings, coronations, births, and even in cases of war. These were the so-called donations or collections. Another specific tax to be paid was the morthafa, which allowed the Jews the liberty to practice their religion. This fee was paid to the bishop who carried out his authority of the ghetto through certain canon priests of the cathedral. It was upon the levying of this particular fee that there were often differences between the bishop and the government of the town, since both laid claim to it.

The Bridge Leading to the Jewish Ghetto

The population of Nicastro always displayed a certain clear distrust towards the Jews, if not actual intolerance. In those times of extreme misery, the Jews were looked upon with envy and aversion, above all because of their wealth. Bur they were indispensable, not only for the upper classes who needed money, but also for the general public who resorted to them for small loans and security pledges to enable them to meet their exorbitant tax obligations. What was the language that the Jews spoke in Nicastro? How did they communicate with others? In their own families, or when they didn’t want to be understood by Christians, they obviously spoke Hebrew. But with others—at least from 1200 onward, as the experts maintain---they expressed themselves in a language based on the local dialect intermixed with a Hebraic vocabulary. A characteristic of the Jews was to give their discourses a particular intonation, pronouncing the words in a different manner (as outsiders do even today).

By examining some of the financial records preserved in the State Archives of Naples, one finds that even in the Nicastro ghetto, as in other centers of Calabria, the Calabrese were traders in textiles (silk, wool, cotton) and in jewels. Some, using the waters of the Canne stream, were tanners of hides and dyers of cloth. Others traded in grain and cattle, and others dealt in general foodstuffs. Among their other occupations were blacksmithing and copper working, in typical forges, as well as gold and silversmithing.

A captain oversaw public order in the quarter. The entryway to the ghetto was opened at sunrise and closed at sunset. For that reason, Christians could enter only during the day to make purchases, seek loans or exchange security for financial obligations.

Even though the Jews constituted a marginalized community that did not participate in the political or administrative life of the town, they overcame linguistic obstacles and inserted themselves powerfully into the town’s economic fabric. They were a constant daily presence at the marketplace below the Jewish quarter, and above all they played a preponderant role in the fairs that took place in Nicastro and in nearby towns. From 1476 onward they got an exemption from participating in the solemn ceremonies that opened the city fair, with public authorities preceded by the town banner, if the opening happened to coincide with the Jewish Sabbath or some other Jewish festival.

Side by side with the better-endowed Jews who operated primarily as merchants, there were also small artisans, peddlers, and dealers in second-hand goods. Together, with their varied activities, they constituted the first true nucleus of entrepreneurs in the city, contributing their interdependence and hard work to an economic transformation of the Nicastro territory. Their presence was exclusively urban, not only because agriculture was an occupation less responsive to Jewish attitudes but also because the law prohibited them from being landowners. We must not forget that it was they who first introduced the silk industry into Nicastro, with all that it brought with it in terms of work, commerce, and the circulation of money. We recall that the first silk market in Italy was in nearby Catanzaro in 1400, and that this activity was concentrated completely in Jewish hands. In addition, the Jews were the first to introduce the dyeing of cloth with indigo.