of a population of 40,000, and resulted in the destruction of half of the town. The railway and industrial districts were hit the hardest, but the old city centre also suffered heavily; the Cathedral was almost completely destroyed, and its reconstruction was only completed in the 1960s. After being briefly occupied by the Germans in the wake of the Armistice of Cassibile, Benevento was liberated by the Allies on 2 October 1943. Four years after the war, on 2 October 1949, Benevento was hit hard by a flood of the Calore Irpino. During the 1950s Benevento was mainly ruled by Monarchist or MSI mayors, and then for three decades (until the 1990s) by the Christian Democracy. Public sector grew considerably during this period, becoming a prime source of employment for many inhabitants of the province; the town also saw increasing demographic expansion, resulting in a somewhat incontrolled building boom. In recent years, several urban renewal projects have been carried out in the old city centre, and Benevento has become the seat of the University of Sannio and several research institutes. Jewish history Epigraphical evidence show that a Jewish community had existed in Benevento since the fifth century at least. At the 10th century, Jewish traveller Ahimaaz ben Paltiel describes in his chronicle the Jewish community of Benevento, among other southern Italy towns. One of his relatives established a Yeshiva in town and a large part of his family ended residing in Benevento. In 1065, prince Landulf IV of Benevento forced a number of Jews to convert to Christianity. He was reproved for doing that by Pope Alexander II. When Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela visited Benevento in 1159 or 1165, he described 200 Jewish families living in it. Being under Papal rule (unlike the rest of southern Italy), the Jewish community of Benevento was not expelled, as most other southern Italy Jewish communities in 1541. Nevertheless, they were expelled from town later on 1569, under Pope Paul IV. In 1617 the Jewish community was given permission to settle back in town, though 13 years later they were expelled once again after being accused of Well poisoning. Since then, there was no organized Jewish community in Benevento. Nevertheless, Jews had lived in Benevento in an unorganized manner during the past centuries, in addition to a few Israeli Jews living in town in recent years, occasionally suffering of Anti-Semitic incidents. Main sights