Published: 26 April 2018
Last updated: 4 March 2024
HIDDEN AWAY IN a remote village in southern Italy stands a small and unique synagogue that is virtually under female control. It all began almost a century ago, when ‘prophet’ Donato Manduzio fell in love with Judaism and gathered a community of believers.
After dozens of residents converted and made Aaliyah, those left behind were mostly women who married local non-Jews. Together, they keep celebrating Shabbat and festivals, eating exclusively kosher food and studying Torah. “Every day when I pray,” says Grazia Sochi, “I dream I’m at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.”
The women of the community maintain a flourishing Jewish lifestyle in the heart of a devout Catholic area. In most cases, their husbands are Catholics and many of them are not considered Jewish according to Jewish law—but this does not prevent them from feeling that they are proud Jews.
The unique synagogue is located in a small building which the women, many of whom are engaged in agriculture, bought in 1994 with money they had collected on their own, lira by lira, and without any external help, so that they would have a place to pray. “We would tell our husbands that the price of the dress we bought was a bit more expensive, and we would save the difference in money for the purchase of the synagogue,” one says with a wry smile.
We came to visit the village together with Michael Freund, the founder and chairman of Shavei Israel—an international Jewish organisation based in Jerusalem. Its goal is to reach out to communities around the world with Jewish ancestry as well as those who want to connect with the Jewish people.
FULL STORY The Jews-by-choice of San Nicandro, Italy (Ynet)
Photo: Michael Freund at a Torah scroll introduction ceremony. The small Jewish community has only eight children, and the women fear there will be no Jews left
