Barbara Aiello

When Barbara Aiello made her first visit to her parents’ home regions of southern Italy, she was amazed to discover that her Sicilian relatives customarily avoided eating dairy and meat together, and discarded any eggs with a hint of blood. “Things I considered family tradition or superstition were actually Jewish traditions,” she said.

But in an overwhelmingly Catholic region where Jewish families had undergone forced conversions during inquisitions, Jewish practices had become assimilated into Italian habit.