Ghetto of Gorizia

Gorizia was the seat of an important Jewish community, now reduced to a section of the Jewish community of Trieste.

The presence of Jews in Gorizia has been attested since the 16th century. The Morpurgo and Pincherle families were engaged in loan activities. In 1698 the ghetto was established.

The forced residence did not affect the demographic development of the community which from 256 people in 1764 passed to 270 in 1788, which became 314 in 1850. The Jewish component, mainly Ashkenazi or of German origin, has left numerous signs and donated illustrious personalities to the city : Carlo Michelstaedter (1887-1910), Graziadio Isaia Ascoli (1829-1907), and others.

It was essentially linked to the Italian component of the city, many Jews were fervent Italian patriots (eg Carolina Luzzatto, and Ascoli himself). The vital Jewish community of Gorizia was practically wiped out with deportation and extermination in the concentration camps between '43 and '44. The youngest deportee, Bruno Farber, is remembered with the title of the garden adjacent to the synagogue: he was three months old.

Evidence of the Jewish presence in Gorizia also remains the ancient cemetery of Valdirose (now in Slovenian territory, in Nova Gorica). The 1876 census counted 692 tombstones, the oldest of which dates back to 1371. Today many of them have been lost or are hard to read.

Despite the almost complete disappearance of a Jewish presence in the city, what remains of the old ghetto district was the subject of important restoration works after the war with the recovery of the local synagogue. In it, in April 2009, after more than sixty years, the first marriage between two Israeli citizens took place, one of which was born in Gorizia.

Synagogue of Gorizia.

Map: Ghetto of Gorizia