Ruminations on Rome (5)
Whenever we can, on our short breaks together my sister Silvia and I try to visit a location associated with Jewish life and (sadly) death. So, on the last day of our weekend in Rome, we headed out to the former Jewish Quarter to visit the synagogue and museum.
Jews have been a significant presence in Rome since the 2nd century AD and thrived throughout the Middle Ages until 1556. Then, in a wonderful act of Christian charity, Pope Paul VI – who also founded the Inquisition – confined the Jews to a ghetto where they remained until the unification of Italy in 1870.
On the way to the old quarter, we spotted examples of a new commemorative phenomenon: bronze squares inserted into the pavement outside apartment buildings with the names of Jews who lived there during the war and died in Auschwitz after their deportation. We found five very close to our hotel and another seven later on.
Once we found the synagogue located on the river embankment, there was a lot of security in place, but it had nothing specifically to do with the recent terrorist assaults in Paris. In 1980, there was a terrorist attack on this particular synagogue and a two year old boy died and many were injured.
Once all the men had donned a kippa, a young, heavily-accented woman showed a group of us round the Main Synagogue which was built in 1901-1904 to replace the five synagogues located in the same building in the old Jewish Quarter but necessary because of the different religious traditions. Then we were taken to a basement area which, as well as housing the museum, has a Sephardic (or Spanish) Synagogue.
The excellent museum has seven rooms, six of them devoted to Jewish religious and cultural activities and traditions. Silvia and I – as non-Jews – were most interested in the seventh room which records the horrific events for Roman Jews in the Second World War. After years of utter denial of their civil rights by Mussolini’s Fascist administration, the ultimate reckoning occurred shortly after the Germans took over control of Rome when, on 16 October 1944, all the Jews in the city were given just 20 minutes to pack before being taken away. Their final destination was the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz: 1,022 were arrested that day and just 16 survived the war. Another 700-800 followed.
For the only time on our trip, we took a taxi back to Piazza del Popolo so that we had time to have a decent lunch at the restaurant which we enjoyed on our first evening in the city (“Canova”). I had ravioli and Silvia had aubergines and I finished off with a huge banana split. The reason for the slight rush was that, before we caught our flight home, we wanted to see a couple of my friends. Earlier in the year, Vee and I met Christopher and Gilberto on our holiday in Ethiopia. They have a flat in Rome and flew in this morning for a week’s visit, so we teamed up at the hotel for a drink and a chat. On almost every holiday we have had, Silvia and I have managed to spend a little time with friends who live locally and it always adds something to the break.
Finito.