Machzor [prayers for Festivals]. According to the custom of the Jews from the island Corfu. Hebrew Manuscript written in a square Greek hand.

(GREECE).

Corfu

Mid 19th-century

Instructions provided in smaller rabbinic script. Black ink on thick paper. Ten Commandments on ff. 101v-102r set within arched Tablet-form red border. Stamp at end of Rev. B. Rodrigues-Pereira.

The Jews of this Greek island in the Ionian Group preserved the ancient Byzantine rite known as Minhag Corfu. By the mid 19th-century when this manuscript was penned, this indigenous rite had all but disappeared. Minhag Corfu refers to the unique Romanoite prayer rite, which had been maintained for centuries before the arrival of Jewish refugees fleeing Spain. With increased cultural intermingling, the Spanish custom gained in prominence with Romanoite traditions slowly being forgotten. By the 19th century, a bare handful of Romanoite synagogues remained within the Ottoman Empire and surrounding area. Jewish presence has been recorded in Corfu as early as the 12th century, as noted by the great traveler, Benjamin of Tudela. The community was placed on the international Jewish stage in the mid-19th century over the controversy as to whether the Etrog citrus they grew and exported complied to Halachic standards.