Stunning Menorah Depictions Are On Display — At The Vatican
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — An unprecedented exhibit centered on the image, history and symbolism of the seven-branched menorah has opened in Rome.
Titled “Menorah: Cult, History and Myth,” the exhibition is a joint project of the Vatican Museum and the Rome Jewish Museum — the first time the two museums have cooperated in this way. It will run through July 23.
Part of the display is installed in the Vatican Museum’s Carlo Magno exhibition space in St. Peter’s Square, and part of it in the Rome Jewish Museum, located about a mile away in the complex of the Great Synagogue that towers over the Tiber River.
The exhibition, which took 3 1/2 years to organize, includes some 130 paintings, illustrations and other depictions of menorahs from around the world. The oldest object on display is the so-called Magdala Stone, a vividly carved block dating from the first century C.E. that experts believe may be a representation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
The exhibition explores the fate of the solid gold menorah from the Temple that was brought to Rome as a spoil of war when the Romans sacked the Temple in 70 C.E. – a scene immortalized in a carving on the ancient Arch of Titus.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
