The Jewish Risorgimento (1815-1870)

The Cynical Historian as Giuseppe Mazzini:

Jack Rackam as Pope Pius IV

Maps by Omniatlas:

Sources:

David I. Kertzer
The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara

Ed. Dr. L. Loewe
Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore

Mario Rossi
"Emancipation of the Jews in Italy"
Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2

0:00 Presented by Omniatlas
0:59 Intro
1:49 A Jewish Map of Italy
5:59 The Carbonari and Young Italy
10:12 The Revolutions of 1848
14:02 The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara
20:31 The Second Italian War of Independence
22:44 The Veneto Campaign
24:01 The Capture of Rome

[SamAronow]

An assortment of family connections in this video:

– Samuel David Luzzatto was the great-great-nephew of Mosé Luzzatto, the Ramhal, and the great-grandfather of New York City mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. Prime Minister Luigi Luzzatti is from a different branch of the same family.

– Giacomo Segre was the great-grandson of Rabbi Salvatore Segre, the deputy leader of Napoleon's Sanhedrin, and the father of World War I general Roberto Salvatore Segre. Italian Senator Liliana Segre is from a different branch of the same family.

– Sarina Levi Nathan returned to Italy after the Capture of Rome and was very active in assisting women and the poor. Her son Ernesto Nathan was mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913.

[Nathan-ksgv]

I cannot overstate how good this channel is. I’m not Jewish but have learned SO much throughout the series. You deserve a million subs!

[Stoneworks]

Seriously how do you not have more subs? This channel is a flippin gold mine

[albertosegre]

Well done! Although the general thinking was that Giacomo Segre (my great-grandfather, actually) was not selected to open the breech at Porta Pia because of his religion, but simply because he was a fine artillery officer, who also happened to be Jewish.

[smorcrux]

I had no idea jews were so influential in the risorgimento, so much so that the entire expedition of the thousand was funded by a Jewish woman! This channel is absolutely amazing, and I really want to thank you for making this series because most other channels would have given up a millennium ago.

By the way, my grandmother is originally from Tunisia, and I remember from her that in the Tunisian Jewish quarter there was a whole section for the jews from Livorno, and it's really cool that now I understand how and why they settled there.

[charlesstuart]

An interesting postscript is that in the nationalist Italian army that conquered Rome, was Edgardo Montaro's brother who went into the Vatican, rifle in hand, hoping to liberate his brother. Unfortunately, when he found his brother, Edgardo was unwilling to leave the Vatican or his adopted religion.

[bookingitwithwill]

I'm a faithful catholic, and I'm truly glad the Vatican is limited to mostly spiritual affairs and a small slice of land now they've never been good with secular rule. You do good work Sam Aronow!

[HenryAbramsonPhD]

This is really helpful explanation of a very complex period! Well done.

[sophiethesnail]

This may be my favorite video of yours yet! I was literally on the edge of my seat. I’ve studied the Risorgimento a bit in school but somehow never heard of Edgardo Mortara.

[gibusgamer]

I just want to say I love your videos. I'm Jewish, but I never understood my relationship to that history very well. The farthest I can directly trace my ancestors is Russia, how did they get there from the Levant? Family history is fuzzy about whether they fell in with the Reform, Orthodox, or Hasidic movements, and I really didn't even know much of the difference between the latter two. I've been binging your videos, and while there's obviously still some gaps - there's still 152 years of history left, and even once we get there, it's about Jews as a whole, not my specific family - I can't tell you how much greater a connection I feel to my family's history and to the legacy and experiences of my ancestors from watching and learning from your videos.

!תודה חבר

[FlagAnthem]

Interesting, very interesting.
Yet, as a Risorgimento buff, I have to add some points:
- Piedmont-Sardinia held the county of Nice as well, in some maps it doesn't appear
- The II Indipendence War CB was not the abdication of tuscan Grand duke (which happened one year later) but a series of border military excercises AH considered a provocation and intimated an halt.
- A remind that King Vittorio Emanuele II was the only monarch to not withdraw his 1848 statute while pressured
- The money flew from many sources, including Liverpool workers who self-taxated to contribute
- The 1000 expedition aim was Tuscany then Rome, but went south once knew Sicily rebelled (again)
- Missed to mention the conditions of the Jewish community in Southern Italy and how even more viciously and loudly antisemitic was the bourbon dinasty
- The Pope also armed and supported the exiled king of Naples in his attempt to hire mercenaries and local criminal bands to try to get back the throne. Also, the exiled neapolitan court is responsible of still living antisemitic conspiracy theories on his fall and defeat; these spread right by the Civiltà Cattolica newspaper
- Italy didn't achieved unity until WW1. Garibaldi himself on his death bed lamented he couldn't free Trento and Trieste

[hussain]

“and that’s how in 13 years we went from the pope capturing a Jew to a Jew capturing the pope” 🔥🔥🔥

[BeneRomi]

What a great episode. I’d just like to shout out a few other popular figures who had impacts on both Risorgimento and Jewish emancipation, such as Carlo Cattaneo, one of the leaders of the “five days of Milan” of 1848, who had made his university thesis on how restrictions on Jews were responsible for most of the prejudices aimed at them and their lack of integration, and Elia Benamozegh, Chief Rabbi of Livorno, Kabbalist, who corresponded with Mazzini. And peripheral to this, in Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco which as an allegory for Italy’s resurgence used Jewish exile in Babylon and Va Pensiero has been strongly considered as a national anthem.

[Artur_M.]

This episode was so good, I think it's one of my favorites!

[QWE]

one of your best videos yet, the presentation was fantastic

[Michael-doxf]

I have been following you since the beginning. Your work is absolutely phenomenal, I'd especially like to laud your editing skills and sense of timing. The transition at 10:00 to the 1848 revolutions was flawless, the music crescendo and rhetoric gave me goosebumps.

Thank you!

[danielnoriega]

23:58 and like many other itialian prime ministers they were gone after a year

[andresalvarez]

I gotta say Jack really knocked it out of the park for his lines glad to see two great YouTubers working together

[haorlo]

This is one of your best, Sam. Todá rabá!

[roberts]

I’m a history teacher and I’ve been using these videos to improve my lessons!