This week, I had the distinct privilege of acquiring a rare Haggadah – an artifact that embodies both the timelessness and the fragility of Jewish heritage. Entitled Arvit VeHaggadah (The Ma’ariv Prayer and the Pesach Haggadah), its origins trace back to the storied Jewish community of Corfu, an island that, though now largely forgotten, once served as a beacon of Jewish life and tradition in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Printed in 1877 on the island of Corfu, at the press of Yosef Nachmoli, this Haggadah is more than just a religious text – it is a testament to a vanished world. Corfu, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, was home to a small but vibrant Jewish community, and this Haggadah was one of only 14 Hebrew books ever printed on the island. Eleven of these works, all produced between 1877 and 1889, were the work of Nachmoli’s press, marking a unique chapter in the history of Jewish printing.
Hebrew printing on Corfu was a late development, only taking root in the late 19th century. Before this, the community was forced to send their manuscripts to well-established centers like Venice for publication. Though a few prayer books bearing the distinct liturgical flavor of Corfu’s Jews were printed, the tradition of manuscript prayer books was far more prevalent, a hallmark of the island’s Jewish culture. It was Giuseppe Nacamulli, a visionary in the mid-1800s, who laid the groundwork for Jewish printing on Corfu. He founded a printing press in the 1860s, importing Hebrew type from Livorno (Leghorn, Italy), and focused on both religious and secular works. His press first published Cronaca Israelitica, a periodical in Greek and Italian, but this Haggadah – produced in the early years of his enterprise – was his press’s first Hebrew book.
What makes this Haggadah particularly significant is the setting in which it was created. Corfu’s Jewish community, long steeped in the Romaniote traditions of Byzantine Jewry (Minhag Korfu), experienced a seismic shift during the 19th century. The Sephardic rite gradually supplanted the ancient Romaniote tradition, as waves of Jews from Apulia, Spain, Portugal, and Ashkenaz settled on the island, bringing with them the customs and liturgy of the Sephardic Jews. By the time this Haggadah was printed, the Sephardic rite had come to dominate, leaving the once-distinctive Romaniote practices in the shadows of history.
The history of the Jews of Corfu dates back to at least the 12th century, when Benjamin of Tudela, in 1160, reported that only a single Jew resided on the island. However, this meager presence was the seed from which a thriving Jewish community would later blossom, driven by waves of immigration in the 13th and 14th centuries. Over the centuries, Corfu became home to both the Romaniote and Sephardic congregations.
One of the most notable figures in Corfu’s Jewish history was Don Isaac Abravanel, the famous Spanish-Jewish philosopher and statesman, who briefly lived on the island in 1594. During his time there, he completed his commentary on Deuteronomy before leaving in despair over the spiritual decline of the Spanish exiles who had settled in Corfu.
By the late 19th century, the Jewish community had flourished, numbering some 5,000 souls, and they lived in their own distinct quarter on the island. Yet, despite their prominence, the community was not immune to the turbulent currents of Greek and European history. The rise of anti-Semitism in Greece would shake the foundations of Jewish life on the island. A blood libel scandal in 1891 ignited violent riots, and 22 Jews were tragically killed. The riots prompted many members of the community to seek refuge in cities like Trieste, Italy and Alexandria, Egypt, leaving Corfu’s once-thriving Jewish presence to diminish.
By the time World War II loomed on the horizon, only around 2,000 Jews remained on the island. The Italian occupation (1941-43) offered some relative peace, but the situation took a tragic turn when Nazi forces occupied the island in September 1943. Just a few months later, on June 14, 1944, the remaining 1,800 Jews were deported to Auschwitz, where most perished.
