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The 27,300 Jews living in Italy today form a thriving community concentrated in the major cities of Rome, Milan, Turin, Florence, and Leghorn (Livorno). Interest in Jewish culture is widespread among the wider Italian population, though knowledge about Judaism is often limited.
Today, Italy’s affiliated Jews number fewer than 30,000 out of a total population of 60 million. Around three quarters live in Rome and Milan with the rest in a handful of other towns and cities, almost all in northern Italy.
Tematy dnia
The history of the Jews in Italy spans more than two thousand years to the present. The Jewish presence in Italy dates to the pre-Christian Roman period and has continued, despite periods of extreme persecution and expulsions, until the present.
Many Italian Jews today have "Levantine" roots, for example in Corfu, and before the Second World War Italy regarded the existence of the eastern Sephardic communities as a chance to expand Italian influence in the Mediterranean.
The Institute for Jewish Policy Research uses four key definitions to describe the size of the Jewish population in Italy: ‘Core’ Jewish population, population with Jewish parents, ‘Enlarged’ population, and ‘Law of Return’ Jewish population.
Today, fewer than 30,000 Italians are formally recognized as Jewish, based on the members of the officially recognized Orthodox communities. But since intermarriage is high, the number of Italians of Jewish descent is believed to be at least twice as many.
There are about 30,000 Jews living in Italy today, the majority in Rome and Milan, according to the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, an umbrella organization.
