Roman Jews past and present

Last weekend I was in Rome. duh. And while there, I couldn't help but explore the history and presence of Judaism in the city both in ancient and present times. Here is what I discovered (with help from Rick Steves, my friend Marlisa, and Wikipedia).

We started out with an early evening walk through the Jewish Ghetto. Here was where the Jews were forced to live by Pope Paul IV according to Papal Bull Cum nimis absurdum. The area was inhabited by about 2,000 Jews, a large population for a relatively small area.

At the beginning of our walk stood this fountain, designed by Bernini. He respected the Jews and Jewish community, and put turtles on the fountain. Turtles were said to represent wisdom in age.


Life in the Jewish Ghetto was pretty rough for Jews. There was an extreme sense of poverty, and Jews were all forced to go to Catholic services every week. Once the Roman Republic was formed, however, the laws confining Jews to the ghetto were abolished and the beautiful new synagogue was built.


The imagery all over the former ghetto was beautiful. I was constantly seeing things like this:

and this:


And it was nice. I did feel at home, in a way. Seeing Hebrew on the menus in the restaurants alongside traditional Jewish food was nice. I definitely added to my "Jewish" experience here in Europe.

On my to do list for this week:
Interview Janet's friend Karen, a Jewish girl from America living in Berlin
Finish choreographing and then film my dance installation in Bayerischer Platz
Conduct a self-interview to be included in my film
Meeting with Ulf re: questions on Modern Jewry
Finish editing film once I have all of my footage (!!!)
Continue on paper for John

Enjoy my LAST WEEK here. phew. I can't even.... I don't want to think about it. I like this place now. Really.