GHETTO
A district dedicated to the Jewish community of Rome, one of the oldest in Europe.
Rome's Jewish community is one of the oldest in Europe, dating back to the late 2ndcentury BC, when Jews from Palestine arrived as traders in the Eternal City. The Jews were very numerous in ancient Rome, living in the Trastevere district. During the Middle Ages, they gradually migrated to the left bank of the Tiber. Cohabitation with the other inhabitants was more or less easy. Times changed during the Renaissance when Pope Paul IV, with his bull Cum nimis absurdum, decreed the creation of the ghetto in 1555 between via Santa Maria del Pianto, the remains of Octavia's portico and the bank of the Tiber in front of Tiberina Island, curtailing the freedom of the Jews. From sunset to dawn, all five entrances to the quarter were closed by gates that have now disappeared. What's more, outside the ghetto, the Papacy obliged Jewish men to wear a piece of yellow cloth sewn onto their hats, while women were required to wear a shawl or veil of the same color. It wasn't until 1820 that the boundaries of the ghetto were extended, and it wasn't until 1870, with Italian unification, that the gates were torn down. During the Fascist period, however, the racial laws of 1928 plunged the Jewish community back into the nightmare. The roundup of October 16, 1943 remains infamous; of the 2,000 Jews deported, only 20 survived. Today, Rome's Jewish community numbers some 20,000.
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Members' reviews on GHETTO
Parcourir ruelles et places.
Y dîner, à la mode hébraïque, excellent.