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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE

An Online Resource Centre

MALTA


Jews in Malta
Jewish Cultural Heritage Sites in Malta
Malta Synagogue and Community Centre St. Agatha's Catacombs, Rabat
The Jewish Cemetery, Kalkara Jewish Cemetery, near Valletta
Marsa Cemetery Fgura Jewish Community Grove
Contacts
Sources

Jews in Malta
The early presence of Jews in Malta is demonstrated by the carved seven-branched candlesticks or menorot to be seen on the island's Roman tombs. During the Middle Ages the Maltese islands were part of the Kingdom of Sicily, which had a large Jewish population, information on which is preserved in the Sicilian archives. However the only physical remnants of Malta's medieval Jewish community (other than Hebrew manuscripts) are half-a-dozen Jewish gravestones, none in their original location. Some fifteenth-century Jewish legal manuscripts, written in colloquial Maltese but using the Hebrew alphabet, are preserved in the cathedral library of Mdina.

The end of this community came with the expulsion of the Jews from Sicily in 1492. From 1530 to 1798, the Knights of St John ruled the islands, capturing and bringing back large numbers of Jewish prisoners in the course of their forays against the Muslims. The Jews of Venice and elsewhere raised funds to ransom these Jewish prisoners, many of whom were kept in slavery, through the Societies for Redeeming Captives (Hevrot Pidyon Shevuyim). They kept a permanent Christian agent on the island, under whom Jewish slaves were able to maintain a synagogue and a cemetery.

A more traditionally organised community, its origins mainly in North Africa, developed during the last days of the rule of the Knights and, from 1800, under British rule. In 1804, a blood libel raised against this community was firmly suppressed by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), then colonial secretary on the island.

The community has remained small, numbering 16 families in 1968, and about 25 families today. According to Stanley L. Davis, secretary of the community, the unusual mixture of members of Sephardi, Ashkenazi, Orthodox, Reform and Liberal traditions that the community comprises 'manages to co-exist quite happily'.

Jewish Cultural Heritage Sites in Malta
Malta Synagogue and Community Centre
Thanks to a successful international fund raising campaign in 1998, the Maltese Jewish community was able to open a new synagogue and community centre in Florida Mansions, an apartment building on Enrico Mazzi Street in Ta'xbiex after the building housing Valletta's previous synagogue was demolished, due to structural problems, in 1995. The new synagogue, consecrated in January 2000, is the first property to be owned by a Jewish community in Malta for over 500 years.

The simple rectangular sanctuary has a central bimah; a low curtain separates the women's section at the rear. The Ten Commandments are inscribed in gold on a marble plaque above the Ark. The gold-embroidered blue velvet Ark cover was donated to the community in 1946 in memory of two brothers, Alfonso and Menashe Reginiano, one of whom was killed by a bomb during the Second World War.

Photos of the synagogue can be found at:
www.geocities.com/jewsofmalta/pages/page4.html

Address



Ta'xbiex
Florida Mansions
Enrico Mazzi Street
Malta

To arrange visits to the synagogue and cemeteries, call:

Work
Home
+356 21 237309
+356 21 312666

St. Agatha's Catacombs, Rabat
These ancient Jewish tombs near Rabat testify to the existence of a Hellenised Jewish Community on the island of Malta in Roman times.

The site contains about forty tombs, of which at least six appear to be Jewish. They line both sides of a series of underground tunnels. These tunnels branch off in all directions from an entrance stairwell, but eventually arrive at a large chamber on the southern end of the site, containing the three biggest hypogea.

All the tombs have the same plan and tomb-types, and it is often difficult to tell which are Jewish and which Christian. Some carry religious symbols and other engraved decorations, such as crosses, palm fronds, or doves with olive branches - or, in some cases, the Jewish seven-branched candlestick (menorah).

The Jewish Cemetery, Kalkara
Kalkara lies on the third of four promontories opposite Valletta on the southeast side of the Grand Harbour area. The cemetery is at the bottom of Rinella Street, through an entrance with a narrow wooden door and steep, narrow steps. It covers an area of about 9 metres by 12 metres, is surrounded by houses, and is fronted by a retaining wall. Established in 1784, it is the earliest surviving Jewish burial ground in Malta, with the exception of the Rabat catacombs.

Address


4 Rinella Street
Kalkara
Malta

Jewish Cemetery, near Valleta
In 1834, the Jewish community established a new cemetery, Ta Braxia, which was used until 1880. It is just outside Valletta, adjacent to the main Ta Braxia International Cemetery, on the road from Floriana to Pieta. At least one-quarter of the graves are of infants and children. The cemetery is neglected and overgrown with weeds.

Marsa Cemetery
In 1879, the Jewish community established a cemetery in Marsa, at the southern tip of the Grand Harbour. Decorations resembling Torah finials top the gabled, arched stone gate. It is the only Jewish cemetery in Malta still in use.

Fgura Jewish Community Grove
Just east of Marsa is the town of Fgura. Here in the 1990s a grove of palm and date trees was planted in the town square by the local council and the Malta-Israel Cultural and Friendship Society. A marble plaque in Maltese announces that this is the Jewish Community Grove.

Contacts
The Jewish Community of Malta:

Address





Telephone
Fax
Email
182/2 St. Ursula Street
Valletta
PO Box 42
Birkirkara
Malta

+356 676926
+356 676926
jewsofmalta@digigate.net


Sources

(Updated 1 June 2007)

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