PALERMO, Sicily — Sicily’s Jews were banished from this island in 1492, the victims of a Spanish edict that forced thousands to leave and others to convert to Roman Catholicism.

More than 500 years later, a nascent Jewish community is planting fresh roots in the Sicilian capital, reclaiming a lost, often painful, history, this time with the aid of the local diocese.

Palermo’s archbishop, Corrado Lorefice, has granted the emerging community the use of an unused oratory, to be transformed into Palermo’s first stable synagogue in five centuries.

And for many, it’s about time.

“The Jewish community is a part of Palermo, part of its history; Jews were here for 15 centuries,” said Evelyne Aouate, an Algerian-born, Parisian-raised transplant whose deepening exploration of her own roots drove the efforts to find the community a home.