Italqi
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 70,000 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Israel
|
10,000 |
 Italy
|
~50,000 |
 United States
|
10,000 |
| Languages | |
| Italian, Hebrew, Judeo-Italian languages and dialects (historically) | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Jews, Sephardi Jews, Ashkenazi Jews | |
Italian Jews (Italian: Ebrei italiani, Hebrew: יהודים איטלקים Yehudim Italkim) can be used in a broad sense to mean all Jews living or with roots in Italy, or, in a narrower sense, to mean the Italkim, an ancient community who use the Italian liturgy as distinct from the communities dating from medieval or modern times who use the Sephardic liturgy or the Nusach Ashkenaz.
Italian Jews historically fell into four categories.
Historically these communities remained separate: in a given city there was often an "Italian synagogue" and a "Spanish synagogue", and occasionally a "German synagogue" as well. In many cases these have since amalgamated, but a given synagogue may have services of more than one rite.
Today there are further categories:
Italian Jews can be traced back as far as the 2nd century BCE: tombstones and dedicatory inscriptions survive from this period. At that time they mostly lived in the far South of Italy, with a branch community in Rome, and were generally Greek-speaking. It is thought that some families (for example the Adolescenti) are descendants of Jews deported from Judaea by the emperor Titus in 70 CE. In early medieval times there were major communities in southern Italian cities such as Bari and Otranto. Medieval Italian Jews also produced important halachic works such as the Shibbole ha-Leḳeṭ of Zedekiah ben Abraham Anaw. Following the expulsion of the Jews from the Kingdom of Naples in 1533, the centre of gravity shifted to Rome and the north.
Two of the most famous of Italy's Jews was Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno (1475-1550) and Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707–1746) whose written religious and ethical works are still widely studied.
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Wikipedia