The Venetian Period Venice acquired Crete by purchase in 1207 as part of her share in the partition of the Byzantine Empire, following the sack of Constantinople by the participants in the Fourth Crusade of 1204. Left: The debarking of the Fourth Crusade from Venice in 1204. Miniature from the Chronicle of Geoffroie de Villehardouin c. 1350. It was in the course of the seizure of Constantinople in 1204 that Venice acquired 1/4 of the City as well as the Island of Crete.

Not long after the incorporation of the island into the Venetian maritime empire, Cretan Jews began to enjoy at least some of the positive aspects of the resulting expansion of trade. They were placed for the first time on an equal footing with Greek Orthodox Christians, because the Venetians, being Latin, looked upon the latter as schismatics, if not heretics. Certainly whatever ill-will was felt by the Orthodox towards Jews was exacerbated by this.

Venetian Herakleion - from the Liber Insularum Archipelagi of Christoforo Buondelmonti (Biblioteca Laurenziana, Florence, Cod. Plut. XXIX, 42, fol.)

The Jewish Quarter was outside of the walls of the city and located between adjacent to the small bay to the right just above the windmills.

According to Venetian custom Jews were restricted in their public appearances by the use of the badge and also forced to live in ghettos, but they still took an active part in trade. Greek-speaking and Romaniote in their traditions, they were also, it appears, quite lax, or at least idiosyncratic in some aspects of Jewish religious observance. This may have been due to adherence to the Palestinian Talmud. In 1228, the Herakleion community was visited by a Palestinian rabbi named R. Baruh ben Isaac, who was sufficiently horrified to enact a special set of regulations for the community. The Takkanoth Kandya as these are known, are one of our main sources of information about the Cretan Jews of this time.

On the right -The Takkanoth Kandya - Sassoon Library London, Ms no.407 / To the left - Testament written in Constantinople by a Cretan Jew in 1343. Archivo di Stato, Venice.

Life under the Venetians was not without difficulties and Jews found themselves caught in the middle of the intense animosity that existed initially between Cretans and Venetians. By 1250, not only was the badge required on external garments, signs were also required on the doors of their houses. These are an indication that Jews did do business outside the ghetto. Cretan Christians were also discriminated against by the Venetians who exploited the island in colonial fashion. In 1364 a massive uprising took place that almost succeeded in breaking the Venetian hold on the island. At Kastel Nuovo the entire community of Jews was killed. It was after the uprising of 1364 that Venice began to play a more committed role in Cretan life and Crete became almost a separate republic with its own signoria and rector.

According to Venetian accounts, the Jewish community in Herakleion swelled appreciably toward the year 1395 when they were reassessed for tax purposes and given certain trade privileges. The cause for this expansion of the community may well have been the influx of Jews from the Iberian peninsula following the exodus of 1391 when Jews were forced to convert to Christianity.

Book of Job with sections in Greek but written in Hebrew script. Bdl. Library, Oxford. Ms. Opp. Add. 19.

A century later, in 1481, there were 400 families in Herakleion with four synagogues. We have no information on the communities in either Rethymnon or Hania during this time. Apart from the urban Jews, there appear to have been agrarian Jews as well who produced kosher cheeses and wines for both export and local use. In order to restrict Jewish competition in rural commerce and agriculture, laws were enacted to inhibit the Jews from making further purchases of land. This forced the Jews into money lending and into trade in silk, metals, dyes, and leather.

Jews were especially active in intellectual pursuits and many travelled widely - especially in Italy. R. Chemarya of Negroponte (also called 'Ikriti') born toward the end of the 13th cent. in Candia (Herakleion). He is especially known for a commentary on the Song of Songs and on the Book of Genesis as well as compiling a Haggadah. One of his patrons was Robert of Anjou.

Elias Delmedigo. Detail from a fresco by Benozzo Gozzoli, Palazzo Riccardi, Florence.

Another Candiot Jew worth mentioning is Elias ben Moise Delmedigo a talmudist and philosopher born in Candia in 1460 (d. 1497). When still relatively young he took up post at the University of Padua where one of his students was Picco della Mirandola. His son, Joseph (Rofeh) became a famous physician, astronomer. Philosopher and mathematician. He was one of the early students of Galileo. He travelled widely in the Near East and Europe and eventually died in Frankfort in 1648.

Mahzor Romania - Festival Prayer Book according to the Judaeo-Greek rite. 16th cent. Bib. Nationale, Paris, Ms. Hebreu 616.