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History of the Jews in Malta
The history of the Jews in Malta spans two millennia. A Jewish community is attested on the islands by the 4th-5th century. Jews prospered in Malta under Arab and Norman rule. They were expelled in 1492, and a community could only re-establish itself after 1798 under British rule. In the 19th and 20th century, the Jewish community in Malta welcomed refugees from Italy and Central Europe, escaping Nazi rule. Today, a small community remains well established on the islands.
Traditionally, the first Jew to have set foot on Malta was Paul of Tarsus, whose ship according to the legend foundered there in 62 CE. Paul went on to introduce Christianity to the island population.
Six burial sites with carved menorahs in the Rabat catacombs (each with a dozen tombs) indicate that Jews lived side by side with Christians and pagans in Malta during the 4th and 5th centuries, during late Roman and then Byzantine times. The community, led by a council of elders (gerousia), could have gathered up to 300 persons.
There are no archeological or documentary findings of Jewish presence in Malta during the Fatimid Caliphate (870-1090 CE). In nearby Sicily, under the same Arab rule, Jews and Christians lived peacefully. There is no trace of Jewish presence during Norman rule starting in 1091. Only in 1241 do the chronicles of Gilibertus Abbate report as few as 25 Jewish families in Malta and 8 in Gozo compared to 681 Muslim and 1047 Christian families in Malta, and 155 and 203 respectively in Gozo, although the interpretation of these numbers is contested.
In 1285, the Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia from Zaragoza, after being expelled from the Jewish community of Palermo, retired to live his last years in solitude on Comino, where he taught and perhaps wrote Imrei Shefer, "Words of Beauty", or Sefer haOt, Book of the Sign. In 2003, the presumed remains of Abulafia and of other Jewish Maltese of the 1st century were symbolically reburied in the Jewish Cemetery, Marsa.
In medieval Mdina, the Jewish quarter, il-Giudecco, was the street along the north side of the Cathedral of the Assumption, Gozo (today's Triq il-Fosos); Jews paid a special tax to the town's Universita, being granted in exchange a monopoly on apothecaries and dyers. In the Militia List of 1419-1420 (a register of male adults in Malta, excluding Birgu and Gozo), the column for "la Giudecca" (the Jewish quarter of Mdina) lists 57 conscripted Jewish men. This leads to an estimate of up to 350 Jews in Malta at the time. Families had typical Jewish surnames such as Meyr/Mejr, Melj, Nefus, Levi, Catalanu, de Marsala.
In 1479 Malta and Sicily came under Aragonese rule and the 1492 Alhambra Decree by the Catholic Monarchs forced all Jews to leave Spanish territory. Because they made up such a large portion of the island's population, the Spanish Crown forced them even to pay compensation for the tax losses caused by their own expulsion. It is not clear where the Jews of Malta went, but they may have joined the Sicilian community in the Levant. It is also likely that several dozen Maltese Jews converted to Christianity to remain in the country, as did many Sicilian Jews.
In 1530 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, gave Malta to the Knights Hospitaller, who ruled the island until 1798. During these three centuries, the islands had no free Jewish population. Those Sicilian conversos who had moved to Malta, attracted by the Knights' liberal policy towards the Jews of Rhodes, had to continue practicing their religion in secrecy.
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History of the Jews in Malta
The history of the Jews in Malta spans two millennia. A Jewish community is attested on the islands by the 4th-5th century. Jews prospered in Malta under Arab and Norman rule. They were expelled in 1492, and a community could only re-establish itself after 1798 under British rule. In the 19th and 20th century, the Jewish community in Malta welcomed refugees from Italy and Central Europe, escaping Nazi rule. Today, a small community remains well established on the islands.
Traditionally, the first Jew to have set foot on Malta was Paul of Tarsus, whose ship according to the legend foundered there in 62 CE. Paul went on to introduce Christianity to the island population.
Six burial sites with carved menorahs in the Rabat catacombs (each with a dozen tombs) indicate that Jews lived side by side with Christians and pagans in Malta during the 4th and 5th centuries, during late Roman and then Byzantine times. The community, led by a council of elders (gerousia), could have gathered up to 300 persons.
There are no archeological or documentary findings of Jewish presence in Malta during the Fatimid Caliphate (870-1090 CE). In nearby Sicily, under the same Arab rule, Jews and Christians lived peacefully. There is no trace of Jewish presence during Norman rule starting in 1091. Only in 1241 do the chronicles of Gilibertus Abbate report as few as 25 Jewish families in Malta and 8 in Gozo compared to 681 Muslim and 1047 Christian families in Malta, and 155 and 203 respectively in Gozo, although the interpretation of these numbers is contested.
In 1285, the Jewish mystic Abraham Abulafia from Zaragoza, after being expelled from the Jewish community of Palermo, retired to live his last years in solitude on Comino, where he taught and perhaps wrote Imrei Shefer, "Words of Beauty", or Sefer haOt, Book of the Sign. In 2003, the presumed remains of Abulafia and of other Jewish Maltese of the 1st century were symbolically reburied in the Jewish Cemetery, Marsa.
In medieval Mdina, the Jewish quarter, il-Giudecco, was the street along the north side of the Cathedral of the Assumption, Gozo (today's Triq il-Fosos); Jews paid a special tax to the town's Universita, being granted in exchange a monopoly on apothecaries and dyers. In the Militia List of 1419-1420 (a register of male adults in Malta, excluding Birgu and Gozo), the column for "la Giudecca" (the Jewish quarter of Mdina) lists 57 conscripted Jewish men. This leads to an estimate of up to 350 Jews in Malta at the time. Families had typical Jewish surnames such as Meyr/Mejr, Melj, Nefus, Levi, Catalanu, de Marsala.
In 1479 Malta and Sicily came under Aragonese rule and the 1492 Alhambra Decree by the Catholic Monarchs forced all Jews to leave Spanish territory. Because they made up such a large portion of the island's population, the Spanish Crown forced them even to pay compensation for the tax losses caused by their own expulsion. It is not clear where the Jews of Malta went, but they may have joined the Sicilian community in the Levant. It is also likely that several dozen Maltese Jews converted to Christianity to remain in the country, as did many Sicilian Jews.
In 1530 Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, gave Malta to the Knights Hospitaller, who ruled the island until 1798. During these three centuries, the islands had no free Jewish population. Those Sicilian conversos who had moved to Malta, attracted by the Knights' liberal policy towards the Jews of Rhodes, had to continue practicing their religion in secrecy.