“From Bari will come forth the Torah and the word of the Lord from Otranto””

Jews in Apulia are documented at least since the Roman imperial period: this makes the Adriatic region one of the oldest Jewish settlements of the whole Western European diaspora. According to the Sèfer Yosippòn (Book of Joseph), a Hebrew chronicle possibly composed in Puglia in the 10^th century, after the destruction of the Second Temple of Jerusalem (around 70 CE), "Tito brought about five thousand deportees to Taranto, Otranto and other cities in Puglia.”