Dozens of personal diaries from people living through the early years of the young Jewish state (1948) have so far been handed over to the Israel National Library, as part of the "Operation Diary" project, which Israel Hayom has been following in a series of articles in recent months.

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A particularly moving diary presented recently describes the life of the immigrants on the ship Exodus. The diary, written by Miriam Sternberg Wechsler, details the agonizing challenges they went through, in a touching way.

"September 1, 1947 – one person died on one of the ships today," she writes. "In the presence of all the ships that stood still for a short while, he was lowered for burial in the Atlantic Ocean. The fourth victim, this time not from an English bullet, but by normal death. Is this normal? At the same time, about ten babies were born on these ships. If we stay on the water for another two weeks, there will be several more births."

"We were like animals?"

Sternberg Wechsler's diary was recently presented to the Israel National Library, as stated above, as part of "Operation Diary" initiated by the library and Israel Hayom, and it contains chilling testimonies about the lives of the 4,500 illegal immigrants who survived the Holocaust and left France in July 1947, heading for the land of Israel.

The ship arrived in Israel, but the British refused to allow them to disembark and settle in the country. After a fight inside the ship, in which three passengers were killed and dozens injured, the illegal immigrants were forcibly transported to deportation ships that sent them back to the shores of France. The event received enormous media coverage all over the world, and the British were condemned, following expressions of shock at their behavior. Nevertheless, the ships continued from the French coast to the displaced persons camps in Germany, and only about one year later the illegal immigrants arrived in Israel.

Miriam was only 19 years old when she boarded the ship alone after her family was murdered in the Holocaust, and her diary gives a glimpse into the daily life and inhumane conditions experienced by those on board the ship which was designed for only 600 passengers, but in fact carried thousands of women, men and children.

In another passage from the diary, she describes the unbearably difficult conditions: "19.8.1947 – These bodies, lying in terrible disarray ... the hall at night looks like after a real pogrom. Legs lying over each other, feet dirty with mud, because almost everyone is walking barefoot all day long; women, men, old people, youngsters, and children. One on top of the other, one against the other, and it often happens that you wake up at night and find your neighbor's dirty feet on your stomach, or on your chest ... and no one even notices it. As if this is how it should be. As if this is such a normal thing."

Women are lying half-naked and are not ashamed ... sometimes they exposed their most intimate parts while sleeping, and they didn't even care ... did they really not care? Were we really like animals? Has our situation reached such a level that it has killed even our most delicate and fine feelings?"

The day before she wrote: "Today there is a hunger strike on the three ships, as a sign of protest against keeping us in Port-de-Bouc. Tomorrow will mark three weeks since we arrived at this port. It is already clear to the whole world that we will not land on the shores of France, and we are demanding that we sail away from this port." The world is probably getting used to our story, and they will possibly forget us very soon. But we – we cannot forget, because every day that passes is taken away from us forever, and there is no end in sight."

Experiences of the 1948 generation

Sternberg Wechsler was born in 1926, the ninth daughter out of ten children born to Asher Zelig and Atla Zipa Sternberg. She grew up in an ultra-Orthodox home, but Jordana, her older sister who was a member of "Hashomer Hatza'ir", enrolled her in the "Yavne" school, where lessons were taught in Hebrew.

She was the only survivor of all her family members who remained in Poland, after Jordana and another sister left in time. Her parents died in the ghetto from starvation, and all the others were sent to concentration camps.

In 1946, Aliyat Hano'ar sent her to the displaced persons camp in Indersdorf, Bavaria, to teach Hebrew to children who survived the war. In July 1947 she boarded the Exodus with a group of her students. She arrived in Israel in April 1948, and after a few months joined Kibbutz Ma'agan Michael. She passed away in 2018.

Sternberg Wechsler's diary was added to about 90 diaries from the early years of the State that were presented to the National Library, as part of the project in honor of the 75^th year of the State of Israel, for the purpose of preserving them in the library's collections for future generations.

Director of Archives and Special Collections at the National Library, Matan Barzali: "We are happy to continue receiving personal diaries written in the years before and during the War of Independence [1948], as well as diaries that contain stories and experiences from the first years of the young state. These can be diaries written in Hebrew or in any other language, diaries of people who lived in Israel or in any other country – provided that they have stories about people from that generation.

The Israel National Library highly regards the preservation and documentation of history for the benefit of the future generations."

"It often happens that you wake up at night and find your neighbor's dirty feet on your stomach, or on your chest ... and no one even notices it. As if this is how it should be like. As if this is such a normal thing."

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Dr. Shay Bar is an archeologist, who oversees the monumental Manasseh Hill Country Survey.

Q: Before we talk about your research, can you please share what archaeology drew you in the first place? 

"Archaeology was my childhood hobby. I used to travel to all kinds of ancient sites in Israel from a young age, and I was always intrigued by the life and cultures of ancient times. After many years in the IDF and managing projects in the defense industry, I decided to return to my old love and began to study archeology as a second career. The most uplifting moments in my profession are days of research in the field. At any given moment you reveal, literally, another layer of the heritage of the people and cultures that lived in this part of the country in the past."

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Bar and I met on the occasion of the publishing of a new edition of "The Footsteps of God" by the late archaeology giant Adam Zertal, which, for the first time, includes vital chapters in the research on Judea and Samaria. 

Q: Why the headline "The Footsteps of God" and how does that tie in with Jewish history?

"The book documents the discovery of a group of compound sites, buildings with a rounded outline, from the Iron Age, i.e. the 12th to 10th centuries BCE; The period of the settlement [of Canaan] and the [rule of the] judges according to the biblical chronology, whose external shape resembles the outline of a human foot. Zertal theorized that these sites are the location of the Gilgal sites mentioned in the Bible, where the assembly and worship centers of the ancient people of Israel [took place] upon their return to Canaan before the ritual center moved to Shiloh.

"According to the biblical description, at the sites of Gilgal, the generation of the desert [wanderers] was circumcised after crossing the Jordan River, where [Moses' disciple] Joshua bin Nun's camp stood during the wars of conquest of the land, and that is where the prophets and judges were – for example, that is where King Saul was anointed by the Prophet Samuel, among all the people. In other words, these sites are the beginning of Israel's worship. Zertal's fascinating interpretation of the unique shape of these complexes – also led him to name the book after it."

Q: The word foot, or regel (רגל) in Hebrew, appears in the Bible 244 times, but it has other meanings as well. 

"Correct. Ownership of the land, as mentioned, is a symbol of the existence of the people and the resemblance of the temple['s shape] to a foot. The book shows that the foot has a much greater cultural-spiritual meaning than was previously thought, and connects it – by way of hypothesis – to the physical description of the unique compound sites that were discovered in the field." 

Q: So what is the connection between Gilgal and the shape of a foot in other sites, and why is it that such sites – as far as we know – can only be found in Israel? 

"The connection is conceptual and symbolic. Zertal believed that the builders of the complexes understood well the meaning of the 'foot' in the biblical text, and wanted to perpetuate this idea when they built their places of worship and gathering. Since it is a group or groups of nomads, who are limited in terms of archaeological knowledge and abilities, the different complexes are not identical to each other, and besides common contours, there are also differences between them – for instance, some of them have a road built into the perimeter wall.

"During the research, we tried to find architectural parallels to these complexes. After a comprehensive search in the archaeological literature, we did not find similar buildings in the entire Near East, from Egypt to Iran. Based on what we know now, these sites are a phenomenon unique to the Jordan Valley and eastern Samaria. This is certainly unusual and supports the idea that this is about building the compound wall for a functional purpose only, but there is an additional meaning to the outline of the compounds."

"The longest archeological field study in the world" 

Q: These are fairly large complexes. How come they were discovered quite late in archaeological history? 

"It's important to understand that the area was hardly explored archaeologically until the [1967] Six-Day War. Even after that, only a short survey was conducted in the area. And it did not include a careful walk through the area and documentation of all the ancient sites in it, but mostly a quick pass over sites that already appear on maps, along with random locating of other sites that stood out. 

"Since then, no major archaeological research has been carried out in the Jordan Valley and eastern Samaria, with the exception of a few rescue excavations to develop or preserve sites, or limited scientific excavations. At the same time, several teams of archaeologists began to carry out more rigorous surveys in the various areas of Judea and Samaria. This is how in 1978 began the Manasseh Hill Country Survey, founded by Zertal, a project that continues to this day and is considered, apparently, the longest archeological field study in the world.

"The project includes walking in the entire area [on foot] – about an eighth of the territory of the State of Israel (!) - from Highway 6 in the west, the Jordan River in the east, the Jezreel and Beit She'an valleys in the north and an imaginary line between Nablus and the Dead Sea in the south. We document all the sites that are discovered in the area of northern and eastern Samaria and the Jordan Valley. As part of it, more than 3,200 new sites have been discovered to date, and the history of the region is being revealed. This is how the foot complexes were also discovered."

Q: Does the location of the sites in the landscape carry any significance? 

"Two important characteristics common to all the sites are related to their topographical location and their relationship to their immediate surroundings. The surprising characteristic is the disregard of the builders of the complexes for the topography of the area where they built the sites. Unlike other compounds, which were used for grazing and gathering agricultural produce, the walls of the compounds were built in a way that ignored natural advantages that are usually considered vital in choosing the locations for the construction of various buildings, including the height above the surroundings, for protection or observation purposes; or the slope of the hill, for natural drainage purposes. 

"It seems that the builders were more particular about the external outline, rather than using the topography to their advantage. However, they knew how to build the various sites near and under a natural rocky slope that allows for the occupancy of a large crowd and the viewing of various events that take place within the complex itself. This is also how they saw the foot shape, which can be better seen from high areas. 

"The other compounds that were discovered in the same area were significantly smaller than the foot compounds and served as the home of the nomads in the different periods, and mainly as a barn for keeping their animals. These compounds were almost always built with reference to the topographical location and the natural slope. From this, we can assume that the same groups of people built smaller compounds for the purpose of living, where they took care of the animals on the family level, and significantly larger compounds for the purposes of assembly and worship. Each of the foot compounds is surrounded by a group of such nomadic family compounds."

Q: And what did research in this area reveal about the way of life of the people at the time? 

"One of the most significant facts is that in the period before the Iron Age, the area of the Jordan Valley and eastern Samaria north of Jericho was completely abandoned. Only during the Iron Age was the area filled with the nomadic sites described above. This is an archaeological fact that cannot be disputed, indicating the migration of a group of people to the area in the period in question."

Q: And who were those people? 

"This is an interpretation, but the Bible tells us about the migration of a group of people, the Israelites, to this area at exactly that time. Although many researchers question ancient descriptions of the events in the Bible, here we actually see some support for the biblical description – in terms of the geographical location of the events. Another fact is that the way of life at that time in the Jordan Valley was nomadic. This is how it is described in the biblical text and this is how it is fully reflected in the findings in the field.

"An examination of the foot complexes themselves brings up several architectural and environmental markers that can teach us more about their way of life. First, their construction under a natural slope that allows viewing of a large crowd strengthens the hypothesis that they were indeed used to gather the people for various needs, perhaps even worship, as mentioned. In this way, they are very suitable for describing the happenings at the sites of Gilgal. To this, we can add the built road that fully, or partially, surrounds the site.

"The ritual circle is one of the cultural characteristics that is well reflected in the Bible and in many traditions, such as for example on the holiday of Simchat Torah. In the complex in Argaman, a circular structure resembling a stage was also excavated, which could also have been used for ceremonial or ritual purposes. Another idea is that the phrase 'pilgrimage', which became central to the biblical description with the shift of the center of worship to Jerusalem and the establishment of the Temple, has an earlier origin. Is it possible that the meaning of the expression derives from the ascent to the foot complexes in the valley, and that the expression was preserved even in a later period but its essence has undergone a change? It's possible."

Q: What else did you discover? We know that Gilgal Jericho and Gilgal of Samuel are yet to be discovered, so what is your hypothesis? 

"Today, after we have completed the archaeological survey of the Jordan Valley along its entire length in the Dead Sea, it is possible for the first time to answer the question of the lack of some of the gilgalim. It is important to understand that we survey the area more than 3,000 years after these sites were active. During this time, part of the area had intensive agricultural activity, which very likely completely destroyed many archeological sites. Moreover, the construction of settlements and villages in the area also caused the destruction of ancient sites.

"Therefore, the most realistic possibility is that the sites, assuming they existed, did not survive modern development. Another possibility is that we did not find the sites in the survey, because they were established in the territories after the Six-Day War and mined by the IDF. Our way of trying to minimize the knowledge gaps in the mined areas is to use old and new aerial photographs, as well as conducting surveys in areas that have been cleared of mines, and it is still possible that another compound is buried under these inaccessible areas."

Q: And another possibility might be that you are misinterpreting the Bible. 

"That's right. When the Bible describes the crossing of the Jordan near Jericho or the extensive activity in Gilgal Jericho itself, why do we rush to conclude that it's modern Jericho and Tell es-Sultan, which was its ancient core? Is it possible that the reference is to a wider geographical area – the Jericho steppe or an area beyond Jericho, or precisely the city itself? In the multiple excavations in the mound identified with ancient Jericho, no signs of the miraculous conquest of the gods described in the Book of Joshua were discovered, and no significant settlement from the period that preceded the conquest was even uncovered.

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"On the other hand, by way of hypothesis, if we refer to Jericho as a geographical area and not as a single point in the area, then there are several crossings on the Jordan River that allow passage from east to west, and perhaps that is precisely where the miraculous crossing described in the book of Joshua took place. For example, one of the main crossings is located near a foot complex near Argaman and is still in use today. 

"Another significant point is that today, after the completion of the archaeological survey in the Jordan Valley, no other suitable candidates have been found to be the same Gilgal sites. Although the absence of the find does not necessarily indicate the existence or non-existence of these sites, once again we are left with this group of complexes as the only suitable sites to be the gilgalim until another study proves us wrong."

Q: How much longer is the Manasseh Hills survey expected to last? 

"The project is nearing its end. We are now focusing on completing the last areas in Samaria that have not yet been explored in depth, and on completing the scientific literature of 50 years of research. In addition to this, we are conducting more limited excavations in some of the foot complexes, with the aim of answering specific questions and more precisely issues – such as time of establishment and abandonment of the various website components".

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Passover is entirely intended to teach us about our destiny as a people in this world: smashing idols, slaughtering sacred cows, rebelling against human authority. Anyone who was taught his entire life not to accept human authority and to bow his head only before his God, knows how to dare to break boundaries in other areas as well – in science, in philosophy, in society, and more.

This idea – which went along with much practical activity, not only at Passover but in consistent study and reading from a young age, for thousands of years – was so successful that many of us sit down for the Passover seder and immediately ask, "What do you mean by this service?" or in the terms of today's discourse, "Why are you going all religious on us?"

It's an oxymoron: on one hand, we are honoring the ancient tradition of sitting together as a family on Passover eve and focusing on the historic memory of our exodus from slavery and our rebirth as a free people; on the other hand, we have a certain sense of strangeness and even alienation toward the ancient texts and part of the customs. I would argue that for us, it has always been this way. Back and forth. "Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?" wondered the psalmist (Psalms 139:7). In any case, we fled the presence many times, and when we returned, we carried with us the cultural and spiritual riches of the peoples among whom we dwelt in our wanderings, and embraced it.

2

Our ancient declaration of independence lies in the Ten Commandments. The first commandment deals with belief in that same God that was revealed in our people's history: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." It is immediately followed by the second commandment: "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above … You shall not bow down to them or serve them." The belief in the God of Israel has always entailed smashing human idols. And take a close look: "You shall not…" – and not only idols, but your own personal idols. The idol simply changes form; sometimes it's an actual statue, and sometimes it's an idea, a social or spiritual convention, or in effect any spiritual prison into which our free thinking could be locked, including the institution of political correctness that seeks to rule language and even our thoughts. "You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above" could be interpreted as: don't make an idol of yourself, don't worship yourself, or your ideas; beware of spiritual and psychological rigidity.

The first commandment talks about the importance of historical tradition and the belief in God, and the second about the importance of breaking down tradition and the belief in other gods. The two commandments, therefore, include the possibility of conflict in faith. This paradox is an abyss that we've crossed, walking a thin line, for thousands of years. The power of the paradox – faith that allows for the possibility of being smashed and dismantled – has helped us as a nation throughout history and as a unique philosophy throughout the history of opinions and other faiths. Thanks to this fertile paradox, we built a great textual skyscraper the like of which no other nation has ever constructed for its descendants.

3

"Fertile paradox" isn't just a nice turn of phrase; from the beginning of our existence, we have been arguing with God, with the belief in him and the commandments that are part of that belief – essentially, arguing with our own identity. That argument has created the need to debate and interpret and prove and answer both among ourselves and with other nations and their religious sages. Many times, the debate was so fierce that it created the impression that the schism would be permanent, but it wasn't; the debate produced books and article and generations that rustled with each other, and amazingly, it made us stronger. "For you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed." Israel – our name contains the constant struggle with God and people, a struggle that is an ongoing argument that gives us life.

From here, a reply to the doomsday prophets among us, who regularly predict an "end to democracy." Anyone who talks that way is overfamiliar with foreign literature and not so well-versed in the literature of their own people. We are the "people of the book," the book is our calling card. Anyone who wants to talk about us and our future must first know the people about whom he is making predictions. There are no shortcuts here. To talk about the historic and spiritual phenomenon known as the people of Israel (or the Jewish people), one must study the Bible and the Midrash, the Mishna and the Talmud, Jewish law and the Zohar, medieval commentaries and the poetry of Spanish Jewry, hassidism, the Enlightenment, and more.

As far as that goes, the secular revolution in the last few centuries was no historical accident; secularization was the other side of our ancient faith – it fertilized it. In 12^th-century Spain, Rabbi Judah Halevi defined it this way: "The root of faith is (also) the root of heresy." Even in biblical times, we espoused the dialectical method, back and forth, clinging to the faith of our ancestors while at the same time – sometimes – the faiths of the peoples around us, as well. "How long will you go limping between two different opinions?" the prophet Elijah scolded the people in the eighth century BCE, "If the Lord is God, follow Him. But if Baal is God, follow him." (1 Kings 18:21) Therefore, secularization is not the end of the story of our historical spiritual and national development. Expect surprises.

4

Let's get back to Passover. This is our birthday as a people, our birth certificate. The ceremony we have been carrying out on Seder eve for thousands of years includes the core of dialectic I pointed out. Passover is the sacrifice of the lamb our forefathers were commanded to slaughter on the eve of the Exodus, whose blood they used to mark the doors of their homes. That was our first seder eve in history. The ceremony includes stage directions: "In this manner, you shall eat it: with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover."

In the 12^th century C.E., Maimonides wrote in his seminal philosophical work "The Guide for the Perplexed" that the Egyptians "worshipped Aries" and had cults that worshipped demons that assumed the form of goats. This worship was widespread in the time of Moses, which was why those sects refrained from eating goat flesh. To eradicate these "false principles," he writes, the people were commanded to offer sacrifices of the cattle, the herd, and the flock. ….. So to escape these beliefs, the people were commanded to sacrifice one of their herd, to show that the act they considered the worst of all was the one that would bring them closer to God. "Thus the very act which is considered by the heathen as the greatest crime, is the means of approaching God and obtaining His pardon for our sins. In this manner, evil principles, the diseases of the human soul, are cured by other principles which are diametrically opposite."

In ancient Egypt, the main god Amun – the only one mentioned by name in the Bible – was portrayed as a figure with a ram's head. Slaves mimic their masters and are influenced by the ruling culture, and therefore physical liberation began by them liberating their consciousness. The Passover sacrifice comprises the slaughter of the gods of Egypt at the hands of the slave masses and the smashing of their masters' main source of authority. Freud called it "patricide" – rebellion against parents and cutting the umbilical cord as a vital stage in the life of an adolescent on the way to establishing his own independent personality. Smearing the Passover sacrifice's blood on the outer doorway was a challenge to the oppressors and in effect a declaration of revolt. From then on, there was no going back, only out to the desert, on the way to independence in the ancestral land.

An act like that can't be repeated for thousands of years and be left at the door, not to be internalized among ourselves. The source of the secular revolution can be understood, it was also a kind of "patricide," and things run very deep. Nevertheless, despite everything, we adhere to tradition and recline around the seder table, repeating the story of that great liberation and teaching it to our children. That is the secret of our strength and the root of our existence.

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A resourceful community

Before the outbreak of World War II, thousands of Jews passed through the "aliyah gate" of Trieste on their way to the Land of Israel.

The legendary Jewish captain Umberto Steindler, a native of the city famous for making over 100 trips to the Holy Land, is buried in the Jewish cemetery in southern Trieste. His gravestone, one of the many grand gravestones in Trieste's Jewish ceremonies, is a testament to the important role Jews played in the city going back to when it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In fact, it was the resourceful Jews who started businesses in the fields of banking, industry and insurance that were behind the city's astronomical economic growth in the 19^th century.

Camillo Castiglioni, the son of Trieste's chief rabbi, was a pioneer in the vehicle and aviation industries. He was one of BMW's chief stockholders and was considered one of the richest men in all of Central Europe during World War I. The Stock family from Trieste established one of Europe's largest distilleries, which later expanded to the U.S. The Morforgo banking family's grand palace now serves as one of the city's most beautiful museums. Other Jews excelled in international trade, for which Trieste served as a crossroads.

The Jewish community of Trieste, it should be noted, was different from the other Jewish communities in Italy in that it was largely composed of Ashkenazi Jews. In fact, it was the only Ashkenazi Jewish community on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Sephardic Jews only began to arrive in Trieste in large numbers in the 19^th century. They came from Corfu and established a separate Sephardi community.

But Trieste's Jews had integrated into city prior to the 19^th century. Up until the end of the 17^th century, Trieste authorities did not force them to live in a ghetto or wear the badge of shame Jews in other Italian cities were typically made to wear. Although things changed in 1675, Trieste once again adopted an exceptionally positive attitude toward Jews I when the city was ruled by Austria. In 1782, Emperor Joseph II enacted the Edict of Tolerance, which granted Jews equal rights. Despite the move, many Jews joined and even led the Italian national movement that called for Trieste to be annexed by Italy.

One of the movement's leaders was Salvatore Barzilai, a Jew who served as one of the heads of the Italian irredentism movement to return the provinces that claimed a historical or cultural connection to Italy to "Mother Italy." In 1915, Barzilai was appointed a minister in the government and became a symbol of the moment. Revisionist Zionist leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky could not help but notice the joy with which his people, Barzilai included, were acting to revive the nationalism of other nations and called for them to focus some of this Jewish fervor on the Zionist movement instead.

But it was not only Italian nationalism and Zionism that were in competition at that turbulent time over the hearts of Trieste's Jews. Due to the multinational character of the city and its location in the center of the Italian, German and Slavic space, there existed in the city a variety of sometimes opposing ideologies, from socialism and Marxism to Italian fascism. Some of Trieste's Jews, like Jews throughout Italy at the time, did indeed flirt with Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party, something that did not keep them from falling victim to the race laws adopted by the fascist authorities at the demand of the Germans. When the Nazis themselves occupied the city, the fate of all the Jews, regardless of ideology, had been sealed.

In Trieste, the Germans built the only concentration camp on Italian soil - Risiera di San Sabba. Beginning in Oct. 1943, the Jews of Trieste and the surrounding areas in Italy, Croatia and Slovenia were rounded up and deported to the camp. It is estimated that some 3,000 of the prisoners, who were mainly comprised of Jews but also opponents of the regime and Italian and Yugoslavian partisans, were murdered in the camp. Thousands more were sent to the death camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau in particular.

Trieste's Jewish community never recovered from the Holocaust; its population went from 6,000 before the war to less than 1,000. By the end of the war, the city had become a center of Zionist activity – its location on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea once again allowing it to serve as a pathway for immigrants on their way to the Land of Israel. Only this time, those departing the party had survived the Holocaust. Thousands of survivors from across Europe passed through the port on their way out of the continent that had become one big Jewish graveyard to fight in the 1948 War of Independence in their ancestral homeland. During their short stay in Trieste, their voices filled the gigantic hall of the Great Synagogue of Trieste on Via Gaetano Donizetti with prayer.

Daniel Recanati, a Zionist activist in the city, tells me how the synagogue's foundations were laid in 1908, at a time when the existing synagogues were no longer able to serve the growing Jewish community. "The synagogue was a symbol of Jewish power in Trieste," he said. "In its gigantic dimensions and its beauty," Recanati said it continues to cast a shadow over its surroundings some 100 years after it was built.

Anti-Semitism insurance

In the synagogue's imposing prayer hall lies a pile of prayer books that embody the city's mix of Jewish history over the past 200 years. But this mixture of styles is not limited to just the prayer books. It is felt in the synagogue's architecture, as well as the conduct of the community. "Still today, during the Shabbat prayers, we use the Ashkenazi liturgy, while on the other days of the week, we use the Sephardi," Recanati says.

As for the building, it is so unique that one cannot associate it with one particular school of architecture. Designed by two local Christian architects, Recanati notes that "unlike the Oriental styles that sought to borrow from the Byzantine or Muslim construction, they created a synagogue that is based on the Roman principles of construction.

Following the legislation of the race laws, the synagogue was shuttered in 1942 and desecrated. Nazi soldiers turned it into a warehouse for valuable items and works of art stolen from Jewish families. But they were unable to locate the holy vessels made of silver that had been hidden before the Nazi invasion in a hiding place inside the building. These treasures survived, but the synagogue's prayer hall, able to seat 1,400 people, hasn't been filled to capacity in decades.

The Jewish community's deep roots, said to have been planted when a number of Jewish families from Germany and Bohemia that served as money lenders to the local government and arrived in the city in the year 2100, serve as a sort of anti-Semitism insurance policy. The Jews of Trieste are not seen as strangers, to the point that the language of the locals has been influenced by words in Hebrew. The Judeo-Italian language contributed to the Italian dictionary throughout the country, with Jewish concepts moving to the local vocabulary albeit with some changes to their pronunciation. For example, the Hebrew word for spy, "meragel," was adopted by the locals who use the term "marachella" to refers to a trick or fraud. Trieste's non-Jews have also been known to tour the of the Great Synagogue of Trieste and show up to Bible study classes out of sheer curiosity.

And yet, the winds of Israel hatred have also made their way to a city that never experienced them before. Last year, at a ceremony marking the fall of Italian fascism, some in the audience waved Palestinian flags. Trieste Rabbi Alexander Meloni refused to remain silent. In a show of protest, he left the ceremony, and all of the Jews in attendance followed suit. The local media, it should be noted, sided with Meloni on the matter.

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