Oratory of Santa Maria Al Sabto A chapel built over the ruins of the Great Synagogue of Palermo in Sicily has been transferred to the Jewish community to renew Jewish worship on the site for the first time in 500 years.
An official ceremony on January 12 saw the Oratory of Santa Maria al Sabato transferred from the control of the Archdiocese of Palermo on the anniversary of the day a decree ordering the expulsion of Jews from Sicily in 1493 (then under the control of Spain). It is thought there were between 37,000 and 50,000 Jews living on the island at that time, possibly the descendants of slaves brought to Sicily after the fall of Jerusalem in the 1st Century.
The process to restore the Great Synagogue was begun with a request from the Sicilian Institute of Jewish Studies and finalised by Archbishop Corrado Lorefice, who described the transfer as “the product of a genuine friendship and ongoing dialogue between the Church and Palermo’s Jewish community”.
Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities said the move served as “a gesture that will recover centuries of history”.
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