Split
and Dubrovnik, the two oldest Jewish communities on the Adriatic coast
of Croatia (known as Dalmatia, they trace their continuous existence
back to the early fourteenth century). "Pearl of the Adriatic,"
Dubrovnik, also called Rhacusa or Ragusa, sits astride a fine natural
harbor on the southern Dalmatian coast. In the Middle Ages, the city
enclosed itself with high walls, mounted protective towers on them and
flourished as a trading port. As a small city-republic, Ragusa enjoyed
its greatest prosperity and growth between the thirteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Most of its trade was with cities on the eastern coast of
Italy and in the Aegean basin, all of them locations of thriving Jewish
communities. Jews were tolerated as itinerant traders in Dubrovnik from
1352 although the city initially denied them residence. The small kehillah
played a significant role in the commercial and maritime development
of the city despite harassment and persecution.
Bimah
in the Dubrovnik synagogue.
The synagogue, built in 1408, still stands despite the heavy damage
it suffered during the Serbia-Croatia war in 1991.
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The
sunless cleft of the narrow ghetto alley rises steeply from the Dubrovnik
Placa, the main square near the market and port area. In ghetto times,
the alley was closed at the top. At the lower end, near the sign Zudioska
ulica (Jews' street), ghetto traffic was controlled by a gate-now
gone. The synagogue was established in 1408 near the bottom of the alley,
in a narrow three-storied stone building dating from the fourteenth
century. High windows, ogee-arched at the second level, cut the undistinguished
and essentially unchanged stone façade.
A narrow
flight of stairs leads directly to the small office, where entrance
tickets sell for a token fee. The walls are colorfully decorated with
old photos and documents, including a list of the earthquake victims
of 1667, a picture of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and a letter from
Sir Moses Montefiore thanking the kehillah for its good wishes
on the occasion of his 100th birthday. More steps lead up to the sanctuary.
The present kehillah and its predecessors have lavished much
care and love on the diminutive prayer room.
A dominant bearing
partition, pierced by three wide arches, divides the room and the
oversize bimah into front and back areas. Between 1652 and
1670, the synagogue was redecorated in Baroque style. To replace the
women's seating, formerly in a row at the rear, a raised gallery was
added at the south wall by incorporating a room from the third floor
of the adjacent building. A decorative latticework separates it from
the prayer room below. Men sat on high-backed benches along the north
and south walls. The synagogue was probably adequate in size for Dubrovnik's
Jewish community,
whose numbers between the fifteenth and the twentieth centuries never
exceeded the 260 affiliated persons in 1830.
A tasteful white
satin parokhet (curtain) covers the inlaid doors of the exquisite
Baroque aron kodesh (Ark). The Ark holds several Torah scrolls,
one of which may have originated in Spain before the 1492 expulsions.
In Sephardic fashion, chains carry bronze Florentine memorial lamps
containing glass oil cups in front of the Ark. In style, they resemble
lamps of contemporary Balkan churches or mosques. Heavy maroon velvet
drapes form a dramatic baldachin above the Ark and deck the windows.
The community's most important work of art is a thirteenth century
Moorish carpet presumably brought from Spain during the expulsion.
With floral design glowing in brilliant colors against the dark silk
background, it is a superb achievement. Legend claims that it was
a gift from Queen Isabella to her Jewish doctor when he was forced
to leave Spain. Often hung before the aron kodesh as a parokhet
on the High Holidays, it is presently in safekeeping until it can
be displayed in the Jewish Museum planned for Dubrovnik.
Access
to the women's gallery behind the high wooden grilles is through the
adjacent house, home of Emilio Tolentino. After Rabbi Salamon Baruch
was taken to the Italian concentration camp on the island of Rab in
May of 1943 and later executed, Tolentino took over the leadership of
the congregation. During the night following the German entry into the
city, the Tolentino family rescued much of the ceremonial silver. They
climbed past the grilles down into the synagogue, gathered the silver
and the Torah scrolls and distributed them among Croatian friends. After
the war, the few Jews who returned regained the synagogue treasures.
Tourists
are beginning again to crowd the Placa. Dubrovnik captures the heart
of visitors with its natural beauty and ancient charisma. Yeshayah Cohen,
sixteenth-century philosopher, poet, and Latin scholar
known by his pseudonyms Yakov Flavius and Didacus Pyrrhus
crowned his beloved city "Queen of the Illyrian Sea" and glorified
her with paeans of poetry.