After their expulsion from Spain in 1492 and from Portugal in 1498 a considerable number of Sephardim (Sefarad means Spain in Hebrew) settled down in Dalmatia. They di not arrive until the middle of the 16th century, via Venice (the Ponentinn and vi Turkey, in other words, Bosnia (the Levandm). The Split Romaniotes took the fugitives into their little community which the better educated and more numerous Sephardic Jews became dominant„ the Romonlote customs and traditions thus completely dying out. From the middle of the 18th century, the Ashkenazy arrived jnSplit from central and eastern Europe (Ashkenaz is the Hebrew for Germany). After the social emancipation in the 19th century, they were involved in all the segments of life of the Mediterranean city, bringing with them advanced influences from Europe, new occupations and new fashions.
From the mid-16th century, the indigenous Jewish people lived with the newcomers in the northwest part of Diocletian’s Palace, in their own neighborhood that Split people N today call Get (Ghetto). Traces of mezuzahs (boxes with short prayers written on parchment scrolls) on the stone door jambs in several places in the Ghetto tell of the houses having belonged to Jewish families. During the time of the threat from the Ottomans„ the Jewish community, taking part in the defense of the town was charged with defending the north-west tower of Diocletian’s Palace, mentioned in the documents as the Jewish position.
On the eastern wl1 of its signs of menorahs were carved in, the only such marks there are save for those in the substructures of the Palace. Unhke 1n most European cities, in which the Jews were forced to live in an isolated quarter, n Split the Ghetto was open, except for a short period at the end of the 18th century. And the Jew in Split also lived outside the ghetto, even before its final opening up at the time of French rule at the beginning of the 19th century.
