Jewish Cemetery of San Daniele del Friuli

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Up until 1733-34 the Jews of San Daniele del Friuli used the Cemetery in Udine, in Calle Agricola. When there was no space left, Joel Luzzatto asked the city authorities, on behalf of the Jewish Community, if it would be possible to have a burial space. They were initially granted a space far from the city, near to the Ragogna lake on a rented basis, but they were only allowed to bury Jews from the city there. In 1751-1752 the Jewish Community was finally able to buy the burial area, and they also got permission to bury any Jew within the cemetery, wherever they came from. 

There are 76 headstones in the cemetery, organised in 11 rows in chronological order from north-west. The oldest, dating to 19 March 1742, belongs to Ester, wife of Luzzatto. The most recent tombs are those of the engineer Roberto Gentilli (2015) and Margery Kronengold, an artist from New York, who lived near Ragogna.

Other surnames found in the cemetery are: Caprileis, Gentilli, Sachs, Caravaglio, Lolli, Cignolini. There are also Jews from Gonars and Spilimbergo buried here.

In the 1980s Angelo Vivian collected and published all of the descriptions of the stones in this cemetery. 

The cemetery covers an area of 1750 square metres and is surrounded by a wall 2.5m high. 

Still used today, it is one of the few Jewish cemeteries still in existence in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

Here we find the tomb of Giuseppe Gentilli (1849-1911), who managed a grocery shop and bar in San Daniele, and also traded in grain and calves. The Gentili brothers had a monopoly over kosher meat and introduced the production of goose ham in San Daniele. Giuseppe was very active and well-liked in the city, where he worked as a councillor and a municipal assessor. 

Also buried here is Ettore Sachs (1865-1903), a doctor who worked for 12 years in Padua (where he graduated in 1890) and later at Gonars. In 1896 he was awarded the position of medical surgeon in San Daniele del Friuli, provoking anti-Jewish controversy amongst a sizeable portion of the local population and the city authorities. His proven abilities and his generosity of spirit rapidly earned him the admiration of all, including the leader of the Hospital in S. Daniele, Giuseppe Vidoni. He died of typhus while in Venice, but was buried in the Jewish Cemetery of San Daniele, alongside his coreligionists and Catholic citizens. His memory endures, along with a saying in Friulian, which was created for him: “Diu in cîl, Sachs in tiere”, namely “God in heaven, Sachs on earth”.

SOURCES:

P. C. Ioly Zorattini, M. Perani, A. Spagnuolo (eds), I cimiteri ebraici del Friuli. Cividale, Udine, San Daniele, San Vito al Tagliamento, Giuntina, Florence 2018

Valerio Marchi, Il Dottor Sachs. Un medico ebreo in Friuli e la sua famiglia tra Otto e Novecento, KappaVu, Udine 2008.

Angelo Vivian, Epigrafi ebraiche di San Daniele del Friuli. Saggio, in “Egitto e Vicino Oriente”, vol. 8, 1985, pp. 91–114.

Text by Isanna Bonoris

Translation from Italian to English by Bethany Gaunt