Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni speaks with Pope Francis during an inter-religious prayer for peace at the Colosseum in Rome, Italy, Oct. 25, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Remo Casilli

Part One of this article appeared here.

The Reformation: Return to the Dark Ages of Persecution

Under the Reformation, any gains for the Jewish community from the Renaissance disappeared. In response to the Protestant Reformation, the Pope would act harshly toward any non-Catholic, and the Roman Jewish community bore the brunt of this approach.

The most glaring aspect of this harshness was likely the institution of a ghetto. The ghetto was located in an undesirable area of Rome that was often flooded by the Tiber. It was one square kilometer and was inhabited by upwards of 10,000 people. To create more room, the Jews built higher houses, blocking the sunlight. Although the community invested much in keeping the ghetto clean, this was not that easily done, and diseases would spread quickly.

Additionally, the Jews needed to make a formal annual request for permission to continue to live in the ghetto. A humiliating ceremony would take place at the Arch of Titus in which the rabbi would pay homage to the Caparione (the City Councilor), who would respond by beating the rabbi, which was the indication that the Jews could continue to live in the ghetto. To further demoralize the Jewish community, a tall cross was erected directly opposite the ghetto gate with Hebrew words engraved, “I have spread out my hands all day unto a rebellious people” (Isaiah 65:2). The ghetto was also surrounded by churches.

During the Reformation, Jews were extremely limited in their job options. Talmudic literature was banned in Rome, and raids in the ghetto were common to ensure this rule was followed. The Jews were forced to listen to speeches from priests as part of the Pope’s attempt to convert them.

• Pope Paul IV (1555-1559) was one of the worst Popes for the Jews. He created the ghetto, decreeing that all Jews must be in the ghetto each evening and were forbidden to leave their home during the night. Jews were banned from most occupations and had to wear a yellow hat. Jews could not own any property outside the Ghetto. As an aside, the date his harsh decree was signed corresponded to the Hebrew date of 14 Tammuz. The date it was made public corresponded to the 9th of Av, Tishah B’Av.

• Pius IV (1559-66) treated the Jews benevolently. He diverted the waters of the Tiber so that the ghetto would be less likely to flood. He allowed Jews to have places of business outside of the ghetto. He also allowed the Talmud to be printed again.

• Pope Pius V (1566-1572) expelled the Jews from the Papal States, except for those of Rome and Ancona.

• On September 1, 1577, Pope Gregory XIII (1572-1585) issued a decree that on every Sabbath, the Jews should attend sermons preaching conversion. A second bull, September 1, 1584, ordered that these sermons should be attended by at least 100 men and 50 women.

• A bull issued June 1, 1581, granted the Inquisition the right to proceed against Jews in blasphemy, demon worship, and heresy cases. As a result, a convert to Judaism named Joseph Sanalbo was burned at the stake on 27 Shevaṭ in 1583.

• Sixtus V (1585-90) protected the Jewish community and even ordered the whipping of Christians who insulted the Jews during the carnival. In 1587, walls were built around the Jewish cemetery to protect it. The Ghetto was enlarged in 1588 due to the increasing number of Jews, especially since the financial situation of the Jews improved at this time. The silk industry had been introduced into the Papal States on the advice of a Jew named Magino di Gabriele, and in gratitude, the Pope granted him several privileges.

• Pope Clement IX (1667-1669) ended the Jews’ Race at the carnival, which at this point included a degrading procession of one hundred Jews on donkeys, with the rabbi leading them, facing tailward. However, this race would be reinstated again in the coming years.

• Innocent XIII (1720-24) and Benedict XIII (1724-30) renewed the anti-Jewish bulls issued by Paul IV and Pius V.

Long Road to Freedom

With liberal viewpoints becoming popular, the Jewish community in Rome benefited from decreasing persecution and increasing privileges. However, the process of opening the ghetto walls can be described as “one step forward and two steps backward.”

• Clement XIV (1769-1774) freed the Jewish community from external jurisdiction and the control of the Inquisition. He and his successor, Pius VI (1775-1800), endeavored to promote Jewish trade and industry, but a strong backlash against this liberal approach ensued. In response, they returned to the earlier edicts. Jews were again forbidden to leave their Ghetto and were even prohibited from putting monuments on their graves.

• The condition of the Roman Jews changed suddenly when French General Berthier entered Rome with French troops on February 15, 1798. The pope left Rome five days later, and the Jews were declared free citizens. The Jewish community celebrated with great joy.

• They soon discovered their freedom was only partial. A National Guard was established, and Jews were forbidden to join it and then permitted to. Then, the Jews were required to pay a huge sum of money to the government. On July 16, 1798, a Jew named Ezekiel Morpurgo was appointed a senator. When the Neapolitans invaded Rome, they ended the French government and imposed new taxes on the Jews.

• Pope Pius VII (1800-23) tried to improve the Jews’ reduced financial condition. He was exiled for some time under Napoleon, and the ghetto was allowed to remain open. When Napoleon fell, the gates of the ghetto were closed again, and the Inquisition was resumed.

• Popes Leo XII (1823-29) and Pius VIII (1829-31) renewed the medieval antisemitic edicts with vigor. When Leo XII died, the Jews – who had already experienced emancipation – defiantly broke down the ghetto walls. However, this did not change the reality, and the anti-Semitic decrees, including the forced listening to conversion sermons, continued.

• Gregory XVI (1831-46) was indebted to the Rothschild family due to the large loan they had provided him, yet under his reign the ghetto walls that had been destroyed were rebuilt. He also demanded that the Jewish community give him a Torah scroll as a sign of allegiance.

• Pius IX (1846-1878), probably due to the waves of liberalism sweeping through Europe, took certain positive steps for the Jewish community. He abolished the Jews’ Race at the carnival, gave money to the Jewish poor, and sent relief to the community when the streets were flooded. He allowed some Jews permission to live outside the ghetto. Most notably, on April 17, 1848, the Pope ordered the removal of the ghetto walls. Yet, he showed signs of regret afterward, writing in a letter to King Leopold II: “Your Highness is not unaware of the fact that the spirit of the Church … has always been to keep Catholics as much as possible from having any contact with the infidels … Otherwise, it will open the way to requests for other civil rights for the Jews and other non-Catholics.”

• Pope Pius IX is also infamous for his role in the Edgar Mortara case, in which a Jewish six-year-old boy was forcibly taken from his parents and kidnapped by the church. A servant-girl who worked for the family claimed she had secretly baptized him; therefore, he was a Christian. Despite the desperate pleas of his family and international outcry on his behalf by both Jews (including Sir Moses Montefiore, who personally traveled to Rome to appeal to the Pope but was not even granted an audience) and non-Jews (including letters to the Pope from Francis Joseph of Austria and Napoleon III of France), the Pope would not relinquish him and personally raised him as a Christian. Tragically, Edgard remained within the Catholic Church and took the name Pius in deference to the Pope, who had taken him in. Edgar Mortara’s parents died without ever having their child returned to them.

Jewish Rome in the 20th Century

In 1870, Italy was united as a nation under King Victor Emanuel. The ghetto was finally and permanently abolished, and Jews were granted full citizenship. However, Jews would continue to live around the ghetto that had been their home for so many years.

The Jews quickly and fully integrated into the Italian society that had spurned them for centuries, yet now welcomed their involvement. Jews became influential in education, the military, and the government. A Jew, Ernesto Nathan, was the mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913. Another Jewish politician, Luigi Luzzatti, served briefly as the prime minister of Italy from 1910 to 1911.

Several Jews were among the close advisors to Prime Minister Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), and there were Jews active in every branch of the fascist government.

In an unexpected turn of history, Rome was a relatively positive place for the Jews during World War II. Although Mussolini was Hitler’s ally, neither he nor his government sought to implement the Nazi antisemitic policies, despite pressure from Germany.

In 1943, when Nazi Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler was sent to Italy to take over the “Jewish problem,” the 12,000 Jews of Rome were in mortal danger. This is a clear example of what a difference a country’s population made in the Jewish situation in the Holocaust. In places like Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary, the populace was generally apathetic or supported and assisted the Nazis in their murder of the Jews. In Italy, many non-Jewish neighbors and government officials shielded the Jews from the Nazis. It was said that for every Jew caught by the Nazis, ten could escape with the help of the supportive population that surrounded them. For this reason, approximately 10,000 Roman Jews went into hiding and survived the war.

The Nazis demanded a ransom of 110 pounds of gold in exchange for the safety of the Jews, which the Jews delivered in September 1943. Nevertheless, in October 1943, the Nazis rounded up 1,259 Jews and forced them onto trains to Auschwitz. Of those deported, only 16 survived the war. In 2000, a stone plaque was unveiled at the Tiburtina train station, the site of the deportations, to honor the memory of these Jews from Rome killed by the Nazis.

The Pope harbored some Jews within the Vatican, which was considered a neutral sovereign state during WWII. In fact, the only time Pope Pius XII protested the Nazi’s actions was when they came to Rome, and there was a risk they would take “his Jews.” The concept of the “Pope’s Jews” was based on Christian dogma that requires Jews to continue to exist as “Witness People” to the “Second Coming” as an explanation as to why Jews continue to exist.

American forces liberated the city on June 4, 1944. Jews who had been in hiding came out and could participate in the liberation ceremony held at Rome’s main synagogue.

Rome Today

Today, approximately 15,000 Jews live in Rome, with over a dozen Italian, Sephardic, and Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues. The most beautiful synagogue is the Tempio Maggiore di Roma — Rome’s Great Synagogue. The ancient Nusach Italki, the distinct liturgy of Italian Jews since early Roman times, is still prayed. The Italian chief rabbi officiates at the Great Synagogue of Rome and heads the country’s rabbinical council.

The community experienced a devastating terrorist attack in 1982 on the holiday of Shemini Atzeret. PLO terrorists opened fire on the community members following the service, killing a two-year-old child and wounding at least 37 others. Since that time, security at Jewish institutions in Italy has been tight.

Yet, on the whole, Jews in Rome experience equality with their fellow Italian citizens.

Coming Full Circle

The Arch of Titus stands in the center of Rome, not far from the Colosseum. Emperor Domitian had it built to honor his older brother, Emperor Titus, after Titus died in 81 CE. The monument marks the Romans’ victory over the Jews of Israel. On the arch, you can see scenes showing Jews taken as slaves and Roman soldiers carrying the menorah and other treasures from the Temple back to Rome.

The renowned Torah leader, Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, known as the Ponevezher Rav, traveled to Rome with his loyal companion, Dr. Moshe Rothschild, and taught Torah at Yeshiva Shearis HaPleitah.

One day, Rabbi Kahaneman asked to be taken to the famous Arch of Titus.

As they arrived at the Arch, he walked over, eyed it contemptuously, and spat on it. He raised his voice and called out, “Titus, Titus! You thought you would destroy the Temple and defeat the Jewish People! Yet what remains of you, Titus? Nothing! Yet what remains of us? We can be found everywhere, sitting and learning Torah worldwide. We are victorious. The Jewish People live on! Titus, Titus — we won!”

Rabbi Menachem Levine is the CEO of JDBY-YTT, the largest Jewish school in the Midwest. He served as Rabbi of Congregation Am Echad in San Jose, CA, from 2007 to 2020. He is a popular speaker and writes for numerous publications on Torah, Jewish History, and Contemporary Jewish Topics. Rabbi Levine’s personal website is https://thinktorah.org  A version of this article was originally published by Aish.