Rodarian Jews

Rodarian Jews

Total population
~22.505 million
Regions with significant populations
Belhavia	3.456 million (2015)
Rodarion	19.048 million (2015)
Languages
Rodarian Yiddish Hebrew
Religion
Judaism

Rodarian Jews (Rodarian: Ebrei Rodariani) are Rodarian citizens or their foreign descendants who are Jews, either by religion, ancestry, or both. Rodarian Jews, by their namesake, are Jews who live in, or are descendant from persons who did live in, Rodarion.

The history of Rodarian Jews dates to the late period of the Romulan Empire and the early founding of the Papal States; currently, approximately 19.04 million Rodarian citizens identify as ethnically Jewish, amounting to roughly 1.3 percent of the population, making the Jewish population in Rodarion the second largest after Belhavia. As an ethnocultural and religious minority, the Jews in Rodarion have faced various degrees of discrimination and repression, until 1521 when Pope Marcellus VI issued his In adiutorium Gentilibus et Iudaeis, which effectively protected the Jews of Rodarion from discrimination and repression within Papal lands, this was later extended under Pope Marcellus VII in 1530 to be a theological issue dispatched to all Rodarian states. Since the early 16th century, Rodarian Jews have enjoyed equal rights and opportunities, many becoming key laypeope in the Curia, working as advisors or lawyers, Jews were also permitted to sit at the Ecclesiastical Council of the Guilds from 1525 onwards.

Due to the equality in both political and economic realms, the Jewish minority has never been formally or self-segregated from the rest of society, with vast communities of both Catholics and Jews existing in major cities, however the Jewish District of Vistrovio and the Jewish Quarter of Romula still exist mostly through tradition and convenience, but have become popular scenes for inter-faith events.

However the position of the Jewish minority has cause sectarian and ethnic conflict within Rodarion, with criticms and attacks coming from the Orthodox minority and ethnic Basilene and Roma, who claim that Jews have more power and influence compared to their numbers in comparison to their own positions. Inequality between the poor and Jewish families also causes rhetorical and physical attacks.

Notable Rodarian Jews

• Stefania Weiss (1830-1900): A Belhavian Jew who migrated to the Papal States in 1850 to teach music to orphans, Weiss quickly became the Director of the Santa Cecilia Academy in Romula, where she became a popular soprano. She sang before Pope Lucius X on Pentecost in 1873, however she gained controversy after rumors emerged that she was engaged in an affair with Pope Lucius X, however the rumors could not be proved, yet she did have a close relationship with the Pope, where she influenced him in assisting the expansion of musical academies and conservatories across the Papal States.
• Armando Savelli (1901-1960): A Rodarian Jewish historian who spent much of his academic life chronicling the history of Rodarian Jews. He is considered to be the most prominent mind on Catholic-Jewish relations within Rodarian academia and his work has received hundreds of accolades in both Rodarion and Belhavia.
• Luca D'Caprio (1903-1980): A Rodarian Jew who served as the Ambassador to Belhavia for over twenty years (1933-1955).
• Amedeo Levi-Sraffa (1938 - 2007): A Rodarian Jew who moved to the modern Jewish homeland of Belhavia with his family in the 1940s during the Years of Disunity and obtained dual citizenship. As a military researcher with the Imperial Belhavian Air Force, he gained public attention during his high-profile defection to Rodarion during the 1970-71 Rodar-Belhavian Crisis. He was later awarded high civilian honors by the Papal Republic and is believed to have helped Rodarion leap forward in its aerial spy plane technologies. Despite strong Rodar-Belhavian relations in the 1980s and 1990s, he was barred from returning to Belhavia. In 2010, he was post-humorously awarded the Hero of the Papal Republic accolade for his actions, the reward was hotly criticised by Belhavian government officials.
• Levi Amodei (1911-1999): A Rodarian Jewish chemist who advocated greater public access to healthcare in the Papal Republic, in 1956 he was appointed Chairman of the Health Commission by Consul Cesario Forlenza and held the position until 1968. Amodei was integral to the reforms in healthcare under the NCP government during the 1950s and 1960s, he was also the public face of the Countryside Doctor Campaign, in which traveling medics and doctors would visit rural villages to offer medical care to peasants. The first hospital built in the rural town of Rocca di Papa was named after him, he was awarded the Hero of the Papal Republic in 2000, six months after his death.
• Tullio Modigliani (b. 1959): A Rodarian Jewish Politician in the National Catholic Party who served as the party's chairman between 2008 and 2010, as well as Deputy Interior Minister between 2010 and 2012. Modigliani is currently serving as Chairman of the Rodarian State Jewish Affairs Commission, the state body that manages Jewish interests at the national level, because of his position, Modigliani holds a non-voting seat at the Papal Continuing Committee when it debates affairs affecting or relating to the Jewish minority. Modigliani is considered by many Rodarian commentators to be the "most popular, powerful and prominent of Rodarian Jewry".