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[1] Jews in Rome. Siege and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, painted c. 1504. According to the article on Rome in The Jewish Encyclopedia, [5] Jews have lived in Rome for over 2,000 years, longer than in any other European city. They originally went there from Alexandria, drawn by the lively commercial intercourse between those two cities.
History of the Jews in Rome. The Jewish community in Rome is one of the oldest in Europe, with its origins tracing back to at least 161 BCE. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] Antiquity. A pair of putti bearing a menorah, on a cast of a 2nd- or 3rd-century relief (original in the National Museum of Rome)
The Roman Empire. Jews In Roman Times | PBS. In the first century AD, Jews lived across the Roman Empire in relative harmony. Protected by Rome and allowed to continue their religion,...
Judaism - Roman Period, 63 BCE-135 CE: Under Roman rule a number of new groups, largely political, emerged in Palestine. Their common aim was to seek an independent Jewish state. They were also zealous for, and strict in their observance of, the Torah.
- Their Oldest Synagogue Is From the Second Temple Era. Jews were already living in Rome before the exile of 70 C.E. In 1961, ruins of a synagogue were uncovered on the outskirts of Ostia Antica, the port city of Imperial Rome, near contemporary Ostia.
- Great Scholars Lived Among Them. During its long and storied history, the Jewish community of Rome produced many great scholars. Here are two of the most well-known
- The Original Roman Jews are Neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi. For millennia, Rome’s Jews lived under the shadow of the Arch of Titus, which celebrated the conquest of Judea and the destruction of Jewish life in the Holy Land.
- They Were Joined by Spanish Exiles. Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century (Sephardim) made their way to various parts of Italy, including Rome.
The Great Synagogue of Rome. The history of the Jews in Italy spans more than two thousand years to the present. The Jewish presence in Italy dates to the pre-Christian Roman period and has continued, despite periods of extreme persecution and expulsions, until the present.
Throughout the centuries, however, no single historical period has been more defining to Rome’s Jewish community than the 315 years–from 1555 to 1870–that it spent inside the Ghetto. The Ghetto Years. Approximately 2,000-3,000 Jews lived in Rome in 1555, when Pope Paul IV established the walled Ghetto.
