Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily there. The settlements of these Jews were in Greece and Turkey were large enough great to build their own congregations and to print books. The Jews have never returned en masse to Sicily. However, in 2005, for the first time since the Expulsion, a Passover seder was conducted in Sicily (in Palermo), held by the Milanese progressive Rabbi. http://www.dieli.net/SicilyPage/JewishSicily/JudaicaMessina1.html Expulsion of the Jews from Sicily The expulsion of the Jews from Sicily began in 1493 when the Spanish Inquisition reached the island of Sicily and its population of more than 30,000 Jews. At the time of expulsion from Sicily, the
Sicily of Benevento, which then occupied most of southern Italy. Rumors that the capital of the empire was to be moved to Syracuse probably cost Constans his life, as he was assassinated in 668. His son Constantine IV succeeded him, a brief usurpation in Sicily by Mezezius being quickly suppressed by the new emperor. Contemporary accounts report that the Greek language was widely spoken on the island during this period. In 740 Emperor Leo III the Isaurian transferred Sicily from the jurisdiction of the church of Rome to that of Constantinople, placing the island within the eastern church. In 826 Euphemius,