The Jewish Community of Corfu

This account of the practice of the Jews of Corfu during Shavuot was found written in Hebrew with an Italian translation on the side. On the back of the paper was written, by an unknown person, the words “An edict from Rabbi A. Judah Bivas on the subject of Shavuot in Kardaki.” Kardaki is a city in Corfu; Bivas (ca. 1780–ca. 1852) was chief rabbi of the island in the middle of the nineteenth century. The customs alluded to had been practiced at the beginning of the eighteenth century, until R. Menaḥem Vivante abolished them; Bivas renewed the prohibition in the nineteenth century.