Jewish Community: Comunita Israelitica di Livorno, Via del Tempio, 3, Leghorn; (058) 624290 [October 2001]
Chevrà Kadishà: e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Livorno.html has Jewish history and picture.Ferdinand I(1587-1609), in 1593, offered asylum. Jews and other nationalities were given many rights and privileges including religious freedom, amnesty from previous crimes, full Tuscan citizenship and special courts with civil and criminal jurisdictions. Safe passage of goods and persons was guaranteed. Jews could own houses, inherit property, carry arms at any hour, open shops in all parts of the city, have Christian servants and nursemaids, study at the university, work as doctors and did not have to wear the Jewish badge. Unlike many other cities in Tuscany, Jews did not have to live in a ghetto. "Marranos and Levantines and the Jewish population grew from 114, in 1601 to 3,000 by 1689. Jews came to be the most important nation living in Livorno. Spanish and Portugese became the official language of Jewish merchants in Livorno and remained so until the late 18th century." The city archives (City Archives in the Palazzo della Prefettura) contain a lot of information about the Jewish community of Livorno. [January 2009]
REFERENCES:
http://www.italian-family-history.com/jewish/Livorno.html has links for Jewish genealogy in Livorno.
Funke, Phyllis Ellen. "Livorno and Pisa." Hadassah Magazine - The Jewish Traveler.
Heller, Marvin J. "Hebrew printing in Livorno."
"The Jews and the Medici." Medici Archive Project.
"Leghorn." Encyclopedia Judaica. CD-ROM Edition. 1995
Tuscany Jewish Itineraries: Place, History and Art. Edited by Dora liscia Bemporad and Anna Marcela Tedeschi Falco.Marsilio Publisher 1997.
Zeldis, Leon. "Some Sephardic Jews in Freemasonry." Freemasonry in Israel.
CEMETERIES: "The first Jews of Livorno buried their dead at the Milinacci beach. In 1648 Jews were given permission to use an open field near Via Pompilia, known as campaccio, for a cemetery. A second cemetery was opened in 1738 at Via Corallo. These two cemeteries were expropriated in 1939 and the gravestones were moved to the new cemetery in the Stagno area, which was opened in 1837. This third cemetery is still in use and contains plaques commemorating those who died in World War I and those who perished in the Holocaust." Source. http://www.livornonow.com/image/tid/425 has photos.