The Scolanova Synagogue (

Judeo-Italian Judeo-Italian (or Judaeo-Italian, Judæo-Italian, and other names including Italkian) is an endangered Jewish language, with only about 200 speakers in Italy and 250 total speakers today. The language is one of the Italian languages. Some word ...

for new synagogue) is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...

in Trani, Italy. It was built as a synagogue in the 13th century, confiscated by the church during a wave of

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

around the year 1380, and converted for use as a church known as Santa Maria in Scolanova. In 2006, the building was

deconsecrated Deconsecration, also called secularization, is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches or synagogues to ...

by the Church and returned to its original use.

History

By 1541 all of the four synagogues in Trani had been converted to churches and the 310 Jews remaining in the city forcibly converted to Christianity. The four confiscated synagogues were renamed Santa Maria in Scolanova, San Leonardo Abate, San Pietro Martire, and Santi Quirico e Giovita (since renamed Sant'Anna), which was once the Scolagrande synagogue. San Pietro was later demolished. A plaque still visible on the northern wall of Sant'Anna explains that it was built on the site of a demolished synagogue in 1247.Sacerdoti, pp. 186–189"The Italian Synagogue through the Ages", Noemi Cassuto, in ''Synagogues Without Jews and the Communities That Used and Built Them'', Rivka & Ben Zion Dorfman, Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2000, p. 301. San Leonardo has undergone such extensive renovation that little of the synagogue building survives."In Trani when they studied Talmud; Isaiah ben Mali, one of the great Talmudic scholars of all time, was born in Trani", Oreste Spagnuolo, ''Italy Magazine'

/ref> In 2006 the Scolanova Synagogue, which had been standing as an empty and disused church since the 1950s, was de-consecrated and returned to the Jewish community. The individuals principally responsible for the reconsecration of the synagogue were Professor and Mrs. Francesco Lotoro, descendants of Italian

Anusim Anusim ( he, אֲנוּסִים, ; singular male, anús, he, אָנוּס ; singular female, anusáh, , meaning "coerced") is a legal category of Jews in ''halakha'' (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically ...

. Professor Lotoro is a pianist and conductor, who had studied the music of the Nazi concentration camps. The community now includes descendants of

Neofiti The neofiti ( en, Neophytes) were a group of Italian ''anusim'', also known as crypto-Jews, living in Southern Italy. History The ''neofiti'' were descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Roman Catholicism in 1493. They continued to ...

(Italian crypto-Jews) and San Nicandro Jews. A very old oil painting of St. Mary hangs in the niche that once held the

Torah ark A Torah ark (also known as the ''Heikhal'', or the ''Aron Kodesh'') refers to an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark, also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' or ''aron ha- ...

. The Church has refused to allow the painting to be moved to another church or to a museum. Moreover, the building is a protected historic site, so the Jewish congregation is not allowed to move the painting. The solution has been to hang a large image of a menorah in front of the painting.

Architecture

The synagogue was converted for use as a church without significant alterations being made to the interior of the building. The Gothic synagogue is a rectangular, masonry building, 49 by 21 feet. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is 36 feet high. There are three windows in the eastern wall, one on each side of the Torah Ark, and one above it.Cassuto, Noemi "The Italian Synagogue through the Ages", in: Rivka & Ben-Zion Dorfman ''Synagogues Without Jews and the Communities That Used and Built Them'', Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2000, p. 301. The cut-stone surround for the

still exists. The ark was once reached by a flight of seven steps. It featured a central column that divided two separate arched openings. The building next door once contained the synagogue's women's gallery and, in the basement, the stairs and pool of the medieval ''

mikveh Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity. Most forms of ritual impurity can be purifi ...

'' which survive.

References

Sources

External links

*http://www.jewishitaly.org/detail.asp?ID=254 *https://www.flickr.com/groups/synagogues/discuss/72157594418164779/ *https://web.archive.org/web/20130828181737/http://charlesborlam.com/synagogue_in_trani.htm {{coord, 41.2700, N, 16.4176, E, source:wikidata, display=title Buildings and structures in Trani Conversion of non-Christian religious buildings and structures into churches Gothic architecture in Apulia Romanesque and Gothic synagogues 13th-century synagogues Synagogues in Italy Italki Jews topics