Zionism, Emigration, and Antisemitism in Trieste: Central Europe's "Gateway to Zion," 1896–1943

In the early twentieth century, as Trieste was transforming from a Habsburg entrepôt to an Italian port, the small but influential Jewish community fostered the development of the city as a "gateway to Zion," an outlet for Jewish emigration to Palestine. Though little interested in a Jewish homeland for themselves, the Jews of Trieste supported Zionist efforts as a philanthropic responsibility and also for pragmatic reasons linked to Italian aspirations in the Mediterranean. As Central European Jewish emigration through the port increased, particularly after the rise of Nazism in Germany, the historically tolerant climate for Triestine Jews eroded, and their Italian national allegiances were questioned. Suspicion of Zionism, well established in Fascism, transformed into anti-Jewish attitudes. After Italy's promulgation of racial laws in 1938, Jews' engagement in emigration networks that had become a political liability allowed native Triestine Jews a means of escape from Fascist persecution.