SALUZZO

SALUZZO, town in Piedmont, N.W. Italy. From 1142 to 1548 Saluzzo was the capital of the marquisate of the same name, long a bone of contention between France and the house of Savoy. Jews are first mentioned there in the 15th century; they ran 16 loan-banks in 1588, four at Saluzzo, two at Carmagnola, and the others in minor centers like Venesco, Verzuolo, and Piasco. In 1589 Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy confirmed the existing privileges granted to the Jews by the French kings. In 1616 he gave the monopoly of Jewish loan-banking in Saluzzo to Leon Segre, who was murdered a few years later, though it is not known whether his death was caused by Christian reaction or the vengeance of his Jewish competitors. The Jews at Saluzzo formed a community in 1724 and were confined to a ghetto in September of the same year, in spite of attempts by the governor, Count Rovero, and the bishop, Giuseppe Morazzo to prevent this. The Jews in the ghetto, who were required to wear a yellow armband, were excluded from military service and the magistrature, funerary honors were denied them, and they were forbidden to keep Christian servants. Vittorio Amedeo of Sardinia forbade the Jews to pawn at the local loan-bank (Monte di Pietà ). A new ghetto was established in a more salubrious area in 1795. In that year the community founded a talmud torah and mutual aid institution aimed at propagating the Torah and providing assistance; special care was devoted to Jewish education. There were three Jewish burial grounds; the synagogue, located in the ghetto courtyard, was rebuilt in 1832. When in 1848 the Jews in the independent kingdom of Sardinia were granted a statute by King Charles Albert, those of Saluzzo also became full citizens. The community set up three important communal institutions, the Gemilut Ḥasadim (1865), Ḥevrat Baḥurim, and Ḥevrat Nashim. By a royal decree of September 1931, the community of Saluzzo became part of the larger one in turin . Some Jews from Saluzzo distinguished themselves as magistrates or politicians, such as Consul David Segre and Emanuel segre , an attorney general in Turin. Noteworthy rabbis included Marco Tedeschi, B. Artom, E.D. Bachi, and R. segre . About 100 Jews lived in the marquisate in the middle of the 16th century. There were nine in 1759, 90 in 1767, 210 in 1807, 320 in 1860, and 59 in 1931: 29 of these were victims of the Nazis. There were five Jews in Saluzzo in 1970. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Roth, Italy, 136–7, 341, 512; Milano, Italia, 13, 257; F. Servi, in: Corriero Israelitico, 6 (1867–68), 278–80; R. Bachi, in: RMI, 12 (1938), 197–201; S. Foa, ibid., 21 (1955), 331–3; 520–1, includes map of the Marquisate. (Alfredo Mordechai Rabello)