Discover Jewish Trieste
This is an invitation. An invitation to visit Trieste and to discover history through events and vicissitudes of the Jewish community.
Right from the Middle Ages, the history of the town is interwoven with the history of the community, up to the 19th century when Trieste’s history was influenced by many renowned members of the community, giving life to economical and entrepreneurial development by founding or heading banks, insurance companies, industries and shipping companies.
“Trieste Gateway to Zion”: Trieste port of salvation for those escaping from Europe during the period of racial persecution, leaving by sea to Palestine and South America.
Trieste has the biggest synagogue in Europe and sadly, the only extermination camp in Italy: the Risiera di San Sabba.
Please accept our invitation, choose one of the packages and discover places, persons and the beauty of Jewish Trieste.
Welcome.
Personalities
Italo Svevo, whose real name was Aron Hector Schmitz, was born in Trieste in 1861. He might be the leading figure of the Jewish intelligentsia of Trieste, but this good friend of James Joyce certainly was not the only one. Other famous sons of Jewish Trieste are the poet Umberto Saba, Edoardo Weiss pupil of Sigmund Freud and Fiorello La Guardia Mayor of New York City from 1933 to 1945. Their lives are part of Trieste’s history.
>>read more
Sites
The ghetto behind the commercial district of the town, the Jewish Museum abounding in silverware and fabrics, the historical Café San Marco, the fascinating home museum of the bankers Morpurgo, and the Jewish cemetery with the names of the founders of the Generali Insurance Company and managers of the Austrian Lloyd. These are only a few of the places and sites to discover the traces of Jewish Trieste that reveals the history of the town.
>>read more
Video
Fiorello Henry La Guardia was born in New York in 1882, his father was Achille La Guardia, his mother Irene Coen, a Jew from Trieste of Hungarian origin. The video shows the various stages of the life of the future Mayor of New York and in particular the years of adolescence spent in Trieste. Watch the video
James Joyce arrives at Trieste in 1908 and very soon becomes fraternal friend of novelist Italo Svevo with whom he exchanges letters written in Trieste dialect. Watch the video
