Unraveling a Mystery: Who Was Daniel David?

Daniel David was the kind of person you wouldn’t want to mess with. Tough, connected, and probably a little scary if you met him in a dark alley. He knew all the shady characters in the markets. He lived in the Italian city of Trieste around 800 years ago and had the fortune or maybe misfortune of being mentioned in the earliest known historical document about a Jew in Trieste.

Trieste is a port city in northeastern Italy, just above Venice, right near the border with Slovenia. In ancient times, a tribe called the Carnians lived there. Later, the Romans took over, and during the Middle Ages, when this story takes place, it was mostly under the rule of the Austrian-based Habsburg Empire.

Because it was a border town, Trieste suffered from frequent raids by Slovenian villagers from across the line. These villagers came from the nearby Karst region, which is named after the ancient Carnians. The Karst is a rocky, cave-filled area full of underground tunnels, sinkholes, and grottos. Nature lovers today travel from all over to see its famous caves, but back then, it gave raiders an ideal hiding place. Slovenians, often poor and desperate, knew this tricky terrain well. They used it to slip in and out of Trieste quickly, stealing goods and vanishing before anyone could stop them. Local guards had no chance of catching them.

Enter Daniel David.

A newly uncovered document records an agreement between Bishop Vescovo Giavoni and Daniel David. Daniel committed to stopping all future raids coming from the Karst. How exactly he planned to do this is a mystery because there are no details in the document. The bishop probably relied on Daniel’s strength, influence, and street smarts. And it must have been important: Daniel received a generous payment of 500 Italian marks. That was a serious amount of money, showing how desperate the city was to put an end to the chaos.

Daniel was part of the older Italian Jewish community that had lived in the area for generations and was recognized by the Christian authorities. But Trieste was a trade hub, and over time, more Jewish merchants especially Ashkenazi Jews from German lands began to settle there. These newer arrivals weren’t allowed to open synagogues or organize public Jewish life. Wanting to maintain their religious traditions, they held services in rotating private homes.

Later, when Jews were expelled from Vienna, many Jewish businessmen flooded into Trieste. The Christian leadership accepted the reality, but not without conditions. They created a ghetto, requiring all Jews both the older Italian community and the newer arrivals to live within it. The veteran Italian Jews were upset by this change, but the Austrian authorities weren’t interested in their objections. After many debates and failed appeals, in 1697, the entire Jewish community of Trieste was moved into the ghetto.

Life inside the ghetto was physically harder, but in many ways, it helped preserve Jewish identity, tradition, and community. With less outside influence, Jewish life could flourish in a more protected space. This situation continued for about a hundred years. In 1785, the law requiring Jews to live in the ghetto was canceled. But by then, many Jewish families had grown comfortable there and chose to stay, and the area became known as the “Jewish quarter.”

Interestingly, Empress Maria Theresa, who ruled over the Austrian Empire, saw the Jews of Trieste as a benefit to the economy. Even though she personally disliked Jews and had expelled them from Vienna, she recognized their value. She issued multiple charters and letters that managed Jewish immigration and trade in Trieste. The empire profited greatly because Trieste became a free port, the only Austrian port that opened to the Mediterranean Sea.

As time went on, Trieste’s Jewish population shifted. Unlike most Jewish communities in Italy, which followed Italian minhagim (customs), Trieste became a mostly Ashkenazi community. It grew into a center of Jewish life, with Torah scholars, writers, bankers, and successful businesspeople.

That may be why, during World War II, the Nazis chose Trieste for a horrific purpose: they set up a concentration camp nearby called the Risiera di San Sabba. It was the only such camp in Italy. Thankfully, the Germans didn’t manage to carry out their full evil plans there. About 700 Jews were murdered in the camp, but 1,500 others were saved when the Yugoslav army liberated northern Italy.

Trieste became so important and so disputed that after the war, the Allies didn’t want to return it to Italy, which had sided with the Nazis, nor to Yugoslavia, which had turned communist. So they made it an international zone under the control of the United Nations. That included the Jewish quarter, which suddenly became part of an international city.

Daniel David’s name may appear only once in a dry, formal document. But it reminds us of the resilience, mystery, and strength of the Jewish presence in Trieste and how our people’s history is full of unexpected figures who shaped the future in bold and surprising ways.