The Jewish Community of Pisa

According to the traveler Benjamin of Tudela, twenty Jewish families were living in Pisa, in Tuscany, Italy, in the late twelfth century. In 1322, Jews were required to wear a badge, although it seems that this rule was not enforced rigorously. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Jews from Provence and Spain, fleeing persecution, and from Rome settled in Pisa. Among the latter was the da Pisa family, which became one of the most important banking families in Tuscany. However, the community dwindled due to struggles between Florence and Pisa and the war of 1496 to 1509. In the mid-sixteenth century, the community began to recover, and the rulers of Tuscany, the Medicis, invited Jews and New Christians from Spain and Portugal, and later from Germany and Italy, to settle in Pisa as part of a quest to increase the city’s prominence. The Jewish community grew, and Jews developed new industries, including glass and textiles, enjoying relative tranquility. The first public synagogue opened in 1591. At the beginning of the seventeenth century some six hundred Jews lived in Pisa.