Jewish Community Tours in Italy

Visiting Ancient Jewish Settlements in Italy

The Jewish Community of Rome is the oldest Jewish community in the Diaspora.

Jews first came to Rome from Jerusalem in 161 BCE during Chanukah, asking for protection from the Romans against the Syrian king Antiochus. Since then, they have never left the city. They are neither Ashkenazim nor Sephardim, they are Roman. On this tour you will have the chance to discover the customs of the Roman Jews who are, as someone described them, "Orthodox in structure, Conservative in philosophy, Reform in behavior and Catholic in religion."

Jewish Synagogue in Italy

A visit to the Jewish Museum, Main Synagogue and the Ghetto area will enhance your understanding of Rome as a complex, integrated place and complete your Roman holiday. During your journey through the narrow and lively streets of the Ghetto you will discover twenty two centuries of struggle and joy, culture and misery, anecdotes and legends. You will meet local people, and get insightful, first-person perspectives on the history of the Ghetto and Roman Jewish life.

 The tour starts at the Jewish Museum, opened in 2005, where you will view an extensive collection of Torah covers, sacred texts, and other liturgical objects collected from the Sixteenth to the Twentieth centuries. From there you will visit the Spanish Synagogue, a hidden gem, filled with original furniture of the Sixteenth century.

Jewish Museum tour Italy

You will then tour the grand Main Synagogue, a striking architectural edifice on Lungotevere Cenci. The Main Synagogue was built in 1904, sixteen years after the demolition of the Ghetto walls, in the Assyrian-Babylonian style. While in the Ghetto you will learn about what Roman Jews have been doing in Rome for twenty two centuries and how this vital community has survived, with their faith and tradition intact, the Barbarians, the Inquisition, 330 years of segregation in a Ghetto, forced baptisms, and the Shoah.

Spanish Synagogue on the tour

Micaela the guide, is a native of Rome, from a notable Jewish Roman family (ask her about being a salumiera) and is a formally trained Art Historian. Micaela will delight you with a lively, enjoyable, and educational tour; and make you feel at home in the Ghetto.

Jewish Ghettos in Italy

This tour is a must see by Jewish and non Jewish. Micaela makes history come to to life. I personally really enjoyed and I am not even Jewish. -Paolo

Go to Micaela website to find out more: Ghetto Tours in Rome

^{A Jewish restaurant in Rome's ghetto}