Europe's Oldest Mikveh

by Jacqueline Alio for Best of Sicily Magazine

The island of Ortygia is an ancient district of Siracusa (Syracuse) that was inhabited into the Middle Ages, long after most areas of equal antiquity (now the archaeological park on the edge of the "modern" city) had been abandoned. It is here, among graceful limestone palaces, castles, churches and houses, that we find many of the city's rare treasures. A few have been rediscovered following centuries passed - literally - in the dark. One is the mikveh in the Giudecca, the city's Jewish quarter until 1493.

Indeed, this is the oldest mikveh (or mikvah or miqwa) known to survive in Europe. By definition, a mikveh is a ritual bath, consisting of at least one pool but perhaps several. The mikveh is an important part of Jewish tradition, and it was the inspiration - or at least the precedent - for analogous practices in Christianity (Baptism) and then Islam (Ghusl). Whereas Baptism is a sacrament that is performed only once (originally by full immersion as it is still practiced in the Eastern Orthodox Churches), Ghusl customs are more similar to Judaic practice. Obviously, one form or another of ritual bathing is a shared legacy of all three Abrahamic religions.

In Judaism, ritual bathing, or ablution, in the form of tevilah (full-body immersion) in fresh water, may date from Mosaic times, and has certainly been practiced since the period during which the Book of Leviticus was authored, before 322 BC (BCE). Both the Mishnah and the Talmud refer to the practice, and many Jewish rituals are rooted in this era.

The Jewish congregation of Syracuse was probably the first to be established in Sicily, and one of the first few in what is now Italy. Judaism was present here long before the arrival of Christianity on Sicilian shores.

The first Jews of Sicily were present during Roman times (archaeological evidence indicates that a community of the Samaritan sect also flourished in Syracuse). It is thought that while in Syracuse circa AD (CE) 59, Paul of Tarsus preached to Jews as well as Greeks. Of particular note, a few Jews arrived as slaves following the Siege of Jerusalem a decade later in AD 70 during the First Jewish-Roman War (The Great Revolt), commemorated in Rome's Arch of Titus where one of the earliest depictions of a menorah appears as a spoil of war.

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