CONEGLIANO

CONEGLIANO (Heb. קוניאן, Conian, as pronounced in the local dialect), small town in Venetia, northern Italy. Jewish moneylenders settled there before 1398. Attempts made by the municipality to expel the Jews in 1511, 1518, 1560, and 1567 were opposed by the Venetian authorities. Moneylending was prohibited to Jews in Conegliano between 1538 and 1541, and finally in 1548. A talmudic academy flourished there in the first decades of the 17th century under the direction of R. Nathan Ottolengo. Following restrictions on Jewish residence, construction of a ghetto began in 1637; it was moved to a different site in 1675. The number of Jewish residents in 1752   reached 58 people, including moneylenders, traders, owners of a silk factory and stores. In 1866 Marco Grassini was elected mayor of the town. By 1866 the Jews numbered 30, and subsequently almost all of them moved elsewhere. The community of Conegliano died out completely from the 1930s and in 1931 passed under the jurisdiction of the Jewish Community of Venice. The beautiful synagogue, built in 1701 but incorporating earlier elements, was transferred to Jerusalem in 1948 and reconstructed in the Italian Synagogue in 1952. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: F. Luzzatto, La communità ebraica di Conegliano Veneto ed i suoi monumenti (1957). ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: Archivio della Comunità ebraica di Venezia, Busta 92, Conegliano Veneto. (Attilio Milano)