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Archaeology

Ancient Synagogue Excavated in Albania

Capharnaum:  First Century (ACE) Synagogue

The Jews of Aquileia: A Judaic Community, Lost to History

Many significant Judaic communities have disappeared without a trace and will be forever lost in
a historical limbo. There are others about which some meager physical traces have survived, or about whom ancient literature offers a passing, peripheral mention. There are also cases in which the type or quality of an activity that took place in a town or a region reflects the existence of a Judaic community. Taken together, such traces allow us to attempt to restore that community to its historical context.

A prime example of historical omission, yet not an untypical one, is that of a sizeable and dynamic Judaic community that existed and flourished in Aquileia. Not even the Encyclopedia Judaica offers a hint of the existence of this bustling Judaic community, a community  numbered in the thousands and was vital to the development of Roman traffic to the East and to the Roman exploitation of Central Europe.

Paper by Samuel Kurinsky