Rome’s Jewish Museum, Synagogue and Quarter

Three years ago, on our last trip to Rome, we did the Rick Steves’ audio tour of its Jewish Ghetto. For whatever reason, we elected not to visit the museum or the synagogue but this time, returning for a few days with nearly no agenda and with some threat of rain showers looming, we decided to visit.

The museum itself provides education on the Jewish faith and traditions, Jewish history in Rome, Italy and in Europe and provides a stark reminder of all that the Jewish people have endured in terms of racism and prejudice across history. From the time of Moses evacuating his people from slavery in Egypt to Jesus’ crucifixion to Rome’s 4th century forced conversion of Jews to Christianity, to oppression by the moors and the crusaders to being blamed for plagues and the abuses of the Inquisition and up to and through Nazi extermination in concentration camps, the Jews have endured more than their share of attacks from others. And it was, after all, at the doors of the Synagogue at the gates of the Jewish Ghetto that 1,022 people (mostly Jews) were rounded up by the Nazis and shipped to Auschwitz in October of 1943 only 16 of whom returned alive to Rome, which makes this place and this Jewish Ghetto all the more humbling.

In Rome, Jews were originally welcomed in the time of the caesars. Julius Caesar favored the Jews because they had a strong network across the empire and did not push their religion on to others, but they were forced to live outside the city, and across the Tiber River in Trastevere. After Rome conquered Judea, the Jews there were enslaved and those living in Rome fell under suspicion. As Christianity expanded, discrimination against the Jews began with laws prohibiting proselytizing, intermarriage and building synagogues but through most of the Middle Ages, Rome’s Jews prospered, and their community expanded. By the middle of the 16th century, however, the Pope decided to contain the Jews and moved them across the Tiber into the ghetto, which was walled and being at river level flooded often, below that of the ghetto which exists today. The Synagogue sits several feet above the remnants of the wall which once enclosed the ghetto.

The Synagogue was inaugurated in 1904 and has the only square dome in Rome. The dome is decorated with the colors of the rainbow as a reminder that God promised Noah that he would not flood the earth again and the stars on the ceiling recall God’s pledge that the descendants of Abraham “would flourish and be as many as the stars in the sky”. The Synagogue is decorated in art nouveau style. It is beautiful. It can only be visited on a guided tour, but that tour is well worth the extra euros.

The Synagogue and museum area are now protected 24 x 7 by the Roman police since a 1982 PLO terrorist bombing outside injured 37 civilians and killed a 2-year-old boy.

Along the wall which lines the exterior of the museum and synagogue, there are photos of wedding parties on the steps of the synagogue over time, welcoming you to celebrate the Jewish history and heritage of this place in Rome.