independent towns and rival principalities, competing and contending with one another, which frequently proved to the advantage of the Jew, who, when driven from one part, found refuge in another. Then, the Italians have always been known for their love of liberty and justice, of education and enlightenment, in addition to being a pre-eminently practical and commercial people. This, in its turn, could not help but make them hospitable to the Jews.

But all this would not have availed to make the history of Israel in Italy illustrious were it not for the Jews themselves and for what they have accomplished in various spheres. It is these latter things particularly that we must consider in a survey of the Jew's history in Italy.

There is, first of all, the part of the Jew in the commerce of Italy, as well as in her industries.

This we may name first, because history makes it quite clear that the Jews were first welcomed and appreciated in Rome and her dependencies and neighbor-cities because of their commercial ingenuity and enterprise. Well, there is good reason for believing that as far back as Augustus, the Jews had begun to play an important part as commercial factors between Italy and other countries.

In the middle ages, however, they became the commonly recognized bankers of Italy, particularly in the southern parts, so much so that in some cases the Jews were even compelled to maintain banks and in some instances their doing so was made part of diplomatic treaties between cities, as when Venice making an alliance with Ravenna, in the fifteenth century, it was stipulated by Ravenna that the Jews should conduct a bank there, and in one case, at least, on record, in Gubbio, a Jew was paid a salary by the city for maintaining a bank. In this way the Jews were expected to contribute to the trade of the town and the relief of the needy, though in the course of time they were called usurers for engaging in this sort of business, and it was made the cause of propaganda against them, and of persecution.

Nor is it fair to suppose that the Jews of Italy were merely engaged in money-lending and commerce. History tells us that they were also largely represented in the various trades and industries. The dye-making industry formed one of the chief occupations of the Jews of Italy in the thirteenth century. In Sicily, documents relate, almost all iron workers were Jews. In Sardinia there were among the Jews so many blacksmiths, locksmiths, weavers, and silversmiths that Ferdinand the Catholic felt impelled to make a law against their plying their noisy trades on Christian holidays.

It is hard for some people to get away from the notion that the Jew is nothing but a merchant. No matter how much they hear of tens of thousands of Jews engaged in various trades, to the extent of having trade unions of their own, they still cling to their preposterous notion that the Jews are a people of merchants only, (though every now and then they will change their tune and charge all Jews with being socialists, which certainly is not the special characteristic of merchants).

It is equally wrong to assume that in the Italy of the past, the Jews were only bankers and merchants; no, they were also artisans, engaged in all kinds of trades, including agriculture, and as such they were of vast importance to their country.

If the Jews of Italy are said to have invented the letter of credit, thanks to Jewish immigrants in Lombardy possessing valuable interests in other countries from which they had been expelled, and thus to have added an important instrument to the conduct of commerce, they were no less conspicuous in the diverse manual occupations. And the Italians, knowing the value of commerce and the crafts, stood ready to appreciate the worth of the Jew.

No less remarkable has been the spiritual history of the Jews of Italy. Macauley depicts the Italians as possessing a spirit so proud and fine as to make them equally eminent in the active and the contemplative life. Even if this description did not happen to apply to all Jews, it certainly would be applicable to the Jews of Italy. What would all their distinction in the industrial and commercial life have signified if they had failed to maintain their spiritual ideals? As a matter of fact, it is herein that the Jews of Italy have been especially fortunate.

From the very beginning to this day, as a French writer has put it, the fire has never died out upon their altars. They were always among the leaders in Jewish learning and loyalty. Their rabbis were among the most famous in the world. Some of their works are among the great classics of Jewish scholarship—such as the Arukh, the great Talmudic cyclopedia of Rabbi Nathan of Rome, or the Malmad, the popular homiletic work of Rabbi Jacob Anatoli, or the Mesiloth Yesharim, the celebrated ethical treatise Hayyim David Luzzatto. Some of their poets are among the most famous and permanent, like the satirist Immanuel of Rome, said to have been the friend of Dante.

Perhaps nothing testifies so clearly to the intellectual and spiritual energy of the Italian Jews as the promptness with which they adopted the art of printing and the vast number of Hebrew books they issued soon after the invention of the art. The first Hebrew printed works appeared in 1475-76, and in the sixteenth century Ferrara, Bologna, Naples, Cremona, Mantua, became veritable centres for the publication of Hebrew Bibles, the Talmud, the Zohar, and other rabbinic works. It is interesting to note that the first Spanish translation of the Old Testament appeared in Ferrara, and was the work of a Jewish exile, who by the maltreatment of Spain was not estranged from the love of her language.

Moreover, the culture of the Jews of Italy even centuries ago had something that was lacking among their contemporaries elsewhere—it had breadth, resulting from contact with a cultivated and enlightened people. Some of the foremost rabbis were also physicians, and were sought as such by popes, princes, cardinals, and other men of distinction.

Frequently, we find Jewish scholars acting as teachers and translators for eminent Christian scholars and patrons of learning, as, for instance, Jacob Anatoli, Leo Modena, Elijah Levita, and others.

This breadth of culture is the reason why some of their finest works were written in Italian, such as The Dialogues of Love by Leo Hebreo, in the beginning of the sixteenth century, and several of the religious and ethical treatises of such celebrated scholars as Leo Modena, Samuel David Luzzatto, and Elia Benamozegh. For breadth, as well as versatility, the products of Israel's spiritual genius in Italy have never been excelled.

Finally, one cannot study the history of the Jew in Italy without realizing the depth and ardor of his patriotism. "From the lowest to the highest," an Italian writer has said, "the Italian is always a patriot." This certainly may be affirmed of the Italian Jew. He has always stood for Italy, and been ready to defend her with his blood.

When in the year 536, Belizar, the commander of Justinian I, besieged Naples, it was the Jews who opposed the surrender of the city, and offered not only to participate in the defense, but to support the population with money during the siege. To them was assigned the defense of the most dangerous section of the city, facing the sea, and when the city was captured they were made to pay most severely for their patriotism. And the example of those heroic patriots was followed repeatedly by the Jews of Italy. It is such patriotism that made them defenders of