Why You Should Visit the Jewish Ghetto of Rome

The Ghetto of Rome has an interesting history behind it.

Jews were confined to the Ghetto for over 300 years, starting in 1555. Thousands of Jews were crammed into a few blocks, causing highly unsanitary conditions, and they were only allowed to deal in trading of second hand goods or to work as tailors. The Ghetto is right by the river, so floods were a regular occurrence until the wall was built. Another Nuremberg law connotation: Sometime in the 1200s, the Jews were forced to wear a yellow scarf.

The Ghetto is part of medieval Rome- incredibly narrow streets, small piazze with beautiful fountains, little botteghe with fine wine and pastries, and, of course, the whole area is paved with cobblestones.

The entrance to the Ghetto is marked by the Portico D'ottavia, which is an arch that was erected by Emperor Augustus for his sister Octavia.

Towering over the area is the big cupola of the Great Synagogue. Only 102 years old, the large synagogue holds a wonderful museum with ancient Judaica, including tombstones from ancient catacombs, and the interior of the temple itself is breathtaking.

In early October of 1982, Arab terrorists opened fire in the Synagogue, during a religious festivity. It was the holiday of Simchat Torah, which means 'rejoicing with the Torah", and it is simply a day of prayer and joy. Italian Jews have many traditions of their own, one of which is to honor all children with a special blessing on this specific day. Were the terrorists aware of this when planning the attack?
One child was killed in front of his father and brother, and ten people were injured.
Abu Nidal was responsible for that attack (see: Achille Lauro).

Today, the Ghetto is flourishing with life, both Jewish and non. The large Hebrew elementary and middle schools are in the area, as well as a few restaurants and kosher food stores.

Some of the restaurants offer a variety of Roman-Jewish foods, like Carciofi alla Giudecca (Artichokes A La Jewish).

Funnily enough, the ghetto is where many Jewish youngsters converge at night before going on to other places. The call it the 'Piazza'. Piazza means square, or plaza, but they refer to the whole ghetto area as piazza. "I'll see you tonight at the Piazza'.

Roman Jews have an ancient language of their own. It's called Giudaico Romanesco, and It's a very strange mixture of heavy Romanaccio (Roman accented Italian) and Hebrew. There are entire books written in this language, and I find it the funniest thing to have ever come out of Diaspora Jews.