Jews of San Nicandro
The Jews of San Nicandro are a small group from San Nicandro Garganico in Italy. They are gerim—non-Jewish people who became Jewish—who formed a community starting in the late 1920s. They are descended from Catholic families in the area who had lived there since the 15th century.
The group began with Donato Manduzio (1885–1948), a poor World War I veteran who was disabled. He learned to read in a hospital in Pisa and later studied the Bible and Italian writings. He became a folk healer and met Protestant groups nearby.
Around 1930, Donato said he had a vision, left Christianity, and urged his neighbors to follow the Law of Moses and live as Jews. He converted several dozen locals and formed a small Sabbatarian Jewish group.
He then worked with the Chief Rabbi of Rome to formally convert his followers to Orthodox Judaism.
By 1949, most of the San Nicandro Jews moved to Israel, mainly in Birya and Safed. The few who remained continue to worship at the Scolanova Synagogue in Trani, Apulia.
The story is told in the documentary The Mystery of San Nicandro. Filming began in Italy in 2011 and the film was produced by Matter of Fact Media, a Toronto company.
John A. Davis, a professor of Italian history, has described this as the only known case in modern Europe of a whole community converting to Judaism.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 09:36 (CET).