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FLORIDA CIRCLE TOUR
(Daytona, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, *
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Fr. $1,101
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Florence, Italy's
Jewish Cemetery

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BARBARA KINGSTONE SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

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duration, airline and tine of travel, and are subject to change. Please add airport
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28585 Telegraph Rd.
353-1300

ISRAEL

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810-FLY EL-AL

arly morning in October in North America. She explains this
Florence, Italy. It's cold and was part of the Egyptian culture
wet from the morning dew. and that the majority of the peo-
The taxi is late for my ple buried here were Shephardic
meeting with Silvia Baldi, a non- Jews. One of these large edifices
Jew who happens to be an au- has the name Levi still promi-
thority on Jewish life in Florence. nently displayed with the date
We are meeting at the Jewish 1875 still discernable.
Cemetery on Viale Arios-
I ask about a recurrent
ta #16. Behind the 10-feet- A "chap el" on theme on many of the
tall gate is a sight and the grou nds of headstones: two hands
the Flor ence
memory I won't forget.
and water being poured
cemet ery.
When the gate is
over them. Silvia ex-
pushed open, I see what
plains that this was the
looks like an abandoned lot with fashion for Shephardic Jews at
tilted, damaged headstones. I ex- the end of the 18th century and
pected to find manicured lawns symbolic of the cleanliness of
and well-tended graves consid- spirit.
ering this was the only Jewish
Even the Cohen family's Coat
cemetery for 300 years.
of Arms is unusual with it's
Silvia and I walk through Moorish styling and symbols and
grass and weeds that haven't eight-pointed star.
been tended to in years. Even
"There were two kinds of Jews
though a small, somewhat down- in Florence," Silvia tells me.
at-the-mouth house is on the "There were the Italian Jews;
grounds with residents who are and in 1492, the Shephardic Jews
supposed to be looking after this arrived from Spain and Portu-
historical Jewish location, a gal, even North Africa and
guess would be that it hasn't Turkey."
seen a mower or flower planter
But the first Jews, she notes,
for several years. It is, howev- came before Christ.
er, a serene site, hidden away
One of the last burials was in
from the bustle of Florence.
1897 when this cemetery was
The cemetery land was bought abandoned and new land was
by the Jewish population in 1777 bought on the outskirts of Flo-
and is the oldest sign of Jewish rence. The Jewish population
life in Florence. 'The Jewish pop- is now less than 1,000 people
ulation, then was about 800," Sil- while before the war it numbered
via offers.
over 3,000, still very small in
Fascists took over the adjoin- comparison to the very large
ing land which was part of the city's population of 500,000.
cemetery at the end of the 18th
I come upon a headstone
century, unconcerned that this which seems oddly out of place.
was consecrated land.
It's modern, relatively clean and
We walk among the head very legible. It's that of an 18-
stones; there is no path. The old- year- old girl, Vera Bolaffio, who
est tomb still available dates was killed during the bombing
back to 1825. It has the name in 1944. This was the very last
Lampronti and Silvia tells me he burial that took place here.
was a physician.
I go on to get a closer look at
What strike me as odd are the the three opulent chapels. The
opulent obelisks and large Servadio family's is from 1875 in
chapel-like structures atypical neo-Egyptian style. There are
in most Jewish cemeteries in columns and a Coat of Arms in-

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