Paper short abstract:

This paper will analyze the Sephardi community, which arrived in Naples in the early part of the eighteenth century, focusing attention on the inevitable conflict with the local community but also with the Jews themselves and their religious practices.

Paper long abstract:

This research aims to investigate the internal conflict within the Jewish community in the Kingdom of Naples. The analysis and study of the written sources, found in the State Archive of Naples, allow to interrogate the historical document in order to try to understand and interpret the difficulties of a social minority, such as the Jewish one. The Sephardi arrived in Naples in 1740, not only from the Italian Jewish communities but also from the Dutch and French European ones, perhaps represented an absolute minority, since overall, only a hundred Jews accepted the invitation of Charles of Bourbon and his reintegration policy which sees them as protagonists. In a clear minority compared to the local community of Naples, the Jews tried to reconstruct their local history through the main strength "commerce", as well as the reason that prompted Charles to issue the edict to restore the economy of the Kingdom. In addition to the conflicts in commercial matters with the representatives of the Neapolitan trade, the Jews had to face up to ethnic and religious discomforts, difficulties that leads to a not indifferent divergence between communities. The conflict, a complex and multidimensional phenomenon, has repercussions not only outside the Jewish community but also within it. Example of this conflict is the religious practice of the Jewish community which, in addition to having to coexist with the Christian practice, present in the territory, was established internally by principles useful for the balance of the community itself. And it is precisely on this theme that the study of the sources wants to give a scientific contribution and a perspective of analysis that intends to place the themes of conflicts and practices in their social and religious dimension at the center of reflection.