RECANATI

RECANATI, town in the Marches, central Italy. Already by the 13th century there was a Jewish community in Recanati, trading in wine, oil, and cereals. Around the end of the following century Jewish loan-bankers settled in Recanati. In the 15th and 16th centuries Recanati became the most important Jewish center in the Marches, and in 1448 delegates of the Jewish communities in the region were summoned to assemble there to consider ways of defending themselves against the prevailing anti-Jewish agitation. Other meetings took place in 1480, 1509, and 1515. In 1558 the apostate Fra Filippo (formerly Joseph Moro) burst into the synagogue during the Day of Atonement service and profaned the Ark. After he had been driven out of the synagogue by the furious congregation, he appealed to the ecclesiastical authorities and obtained a severe sentence against the Jewish community. In 1569, following a bull by Pius V, the Jews were expelled from Recanati, as they were from all other centers in the Papal States, except Rome and Ancona. They returned for a brief period under Sixtus V (1587) and opened loan-banks once again until 1593. The famous mystical exegete, Menahem (of) recanati , may have lived here in the 14th century. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Kaufmann, in: REJ, 23 (1891), 249–55; Servi, in: Vessillo Israelitico, 47 (1899), 79–81, 117f.; Ghetti, in: Atti e memorie della Regia deputazione di storia patria delle Marche, 4 (1907), 11–39; Milano, Bibliotheca, index; A. Bravi, Reminiscenze recanatesi (1878), 71–78. (Ariel Toaff)