Word: nicandros
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...date according to the Jewish calendar, began with the traditional words "beloved brethren" and ended with "shalom" written in clear Hebrew letters-told how Manduzio had made converts, first a few individuals, then whole families: a total of 80 people. Most of Donato,s fellow cobblers in San Nicandro had joined him in the Jewish faith...
...Rabbi was reluctant to take this unusual group into the community until he had heard more about them. So for many years-San Nicandro's converts remained in a category which Hebrews call "semi-Jews." They had no proper synagogue, but met, as they still do, in Manduzio's own house...
...converts' persistence was rewarded in the fall of 1943, when the town was liberated by Palestinian units of the Eighth Army. The "Manduzians" received them with wild enthusiasm. Manduzio wrote in a letter: "Allied troops have arrived at San Nicandro. . . . When we noticed that vehicles had Hebrew signs we said to ourselves: these people are Jews, and we hoisted a flag with the same sign in front of my door. A truck stopped in front of my house and so did a whole convoy. They entered our home saluting with 'shalom...
...Wife for Nazaro. Now the Jews of San Nicandro are anxious to go to Palestine. Isolated as they are, they are threatened with extinction. There have been no conversions for several years, and Donato Manduzio is a greyheaded man. Marriage presents an almost insurmountable difficulty for them. Last year one of the group's elders wrote to the president of a Jewish refugee organization: "A young man, Nazaro di Salva, born in 1925, wants to take a wife, but in our community there is none. I therefore apply to you as president of orphans and refugees, that you might...
This knotty problem still remains unsolved, but life for San Nicandro's Jews is not without its consolations. They had their great day a year ago when they were officially received into the Jewish community. Wrote Manduzio to the Union of Jewish Communities in Rome: "We have completed our arduous undertaking as far as circumcision is concerned. We hope that after what has happened you will pay us a visit...