In the year 1000, a Ghetto for the Jews was founded in Monopoli in the place called Porta Nova by an Abbot of St. Peter in medio urbis of the noble Arpona family.
A cultural coterie, also belonging to the Jews, was the Jewish Academy of Philosophy, established in the second half of the 16th century, in the 'pittagio degli ebrei' (Jewish pittagio), of which 'messer Teofilo Panarelli, a learned man, brilliant inventor as well as doctor and philosopher' was the founder and animator.

The ghetto was used by the large Jewish colony, who lived in a precarious and isolated situation in the ghetto, as the citizens continued to marginalise them. Many Jews, according to the Chapters of Monopoli at the time of Venetian rule, practised usury, which caused the ruin of many families, and this only served to create ever-deepening hatred between the two communities, so much so that one Jew went to Venice in 1508 to illustrate the sad situation of his co-religionists in Monopoli, without receiving 'satisfaction' from the Senate.
It must be said, however, that when the Venetians settled in the city of Monopoli in 1495, they were very tolerant, perhaps because they wanted to win the sympathy of all the components of the community, 'natives', 'Giudecca' and foreigners, especially the Milanese.

It was in this favourable climate that Prince Isaac Abarbanel or Abrabanel (1437 - 1508 ), a member of one of the most powerful families of the Iberian peninsula and father of the philosopher Judas, known as the Lion Jew, took refuge in Monopoli. He was a high-ranking official in the administration of the Portuguese Kingdom, later a tax contractor and advisor to Ferdinand II the Catholic. When the Jews were expelled from Spain, he emigrated to Naples, where he served Ferdinand I and Alfonso II.
Settling in Monopoli, Leo considered the city his 'escape and refuge' and stayed there for three years, during which time he worked on his most important philosophical works, for which he is still remembered today.
When the Venetian governor Tomas Lyon began to use a stricter policy towards the Jewish community, Isaac Abarbanel moved to Barletta, where he enjoyed the protection of Frederick of Aragon.

CREDITS: Comune di Monopoli.