Jews in Italy through centuries...

Jews in Italy have strong bicultural roots which go back even before the birth of Jesus, when the Jews already had an alliance with the Roman Empire. It was not until the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem that the Jewish/Roman alliance was broken and Jews were forced into slavery. About ten thousand Jews were transported to Rome to be used as slaves to help build the Coliseum. This image of history was frozen in time and will be remembered forever thanks to the Arch of Titus, where the Roman victory over the Jews is sculpted into the stone.

Throughout history the situation of the Jews depended greatly on who was in control of either the Roman Empire or the Church. However, the tolerance for religious freedom started to take a turn for the worse in 380 CE when the Edict of Tessa Lonica of Teodosia was put into effect. The edict recognized Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, with very little tolerance for Jews and other religious cults. By the second half of the 16th century the church instituted the Papal Bull: All Jews were to be enclosed in ghettos, each community could have only one synagogue, all commercial and civil rights were taken away, and all Jews had to wear a contrassegno (identification).

It was not until the arrival of Napoleon that the doors of the ghettos were torn down. With the exception of the Orthodox Jews, Napoleon was seen as a type of savior. He gave Jews their civil and commercial rights and for the first time in history they were regarded as first-class citizens (except those who lived in the Papal State and Tuscany). However, with Napoleon’s defeat, they were thrown back into the ghettos and once again their rights were taken away.

In 1848, the Italian states were unified as one Italy under the House of Savoy. The new government freed the Jews and gave them their civil and political equality. By 1922 Jewish assimilation was almost complete, at the time the Fascists came to power. Initially, many Jews supported them, even participating in the March on Rome. However, in 1929 Mussolini passed the Falco Laws which banned freedom of religion. In 1938 Mussolini produced his Manifesto of Italian Racism and declared the Italians to be part of the “pure race” along with the Aryans. Jews were expelled from all public services, such as the Army and also all public schools.

In 1940 Mussolini joined the war in alliance with Hitler and ordered the Fascist army to ransack the ghettos. The confinements and deportations began in 1943. More Jews fled hoping to find shelter in the Alps, convents, and monasteries. Others joined the Partisans, who opposed the Fascist regime.

After World War II, with Mussolini’s defeat and the defeat of the Fascists, Jews were reinstated as full-fledged citizens. Many survivors left for the newly formed nation of Israel while others decided to stay and reconstruct their communities. Today there are an estimated 40,000 Jews in the entire Italy.