Livorno: The City that Never Had a Ghetto

At a time when most of the Jewish population living in the cities of central and northern Italy was enclosed in ghettos, the Jews of Livorno not only enjoyed unparalleled economic and religious freedom, but could choose where to live, and become legal owners of property, among many other advantages. The importance Tuscan leaders allocated to their Livornese Jewish subjects was considerable. Despite the political and ecclesiastic pressures they constantly had to fend off in order to maintain this situation, the privileges they granted the Jews were respected uninterruptedly, until Italy’s unification.

Several questions call for examination: what were the special circumstances that led to the privileged position of the Livorno Jews? Were they really as free as the absence of the walls of a ghetto suggests? What was the effect of this condition both on their relations with the gentile surrounding population and on the internal affairs of the community?

Answering these questions will demonstrate that despite various claims that maintain that the ghetto actually protected the Jews, no walls were necessary so long as the rulers of the land granted their protection. Most importantly, the Jews did not need an imposed enclosure to encourage them to adhere to their forefathers’ religion, and Livorno became one of the main Jewish cultural and religious centres, run by dynamic entrepreneurs who were involved in international money markets and worked with the most sophisticated financial instruments of their time.