Rome’s Jewish catacombs will open to the public for the first time on Sunday as part of a campaign to highlight diverse cultural sites throughout Italy. While Rome’s many Christian underground burial grounds are a tourist highlight, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, Jewish catacombs have only up to now been open only…
Pope Francis wished the Jewish community of Rome a happy Passover on Thursday and asked the chief rabbi to pray for him. In a message addressed to Rome’s chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, Pope Francis sent his “most heartful wishes for the feast of Passover,” referring to the Jews as God’s “beloved people.” The Catholic…
In 1986, Pope John Paul II made history by paying a visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue. In 2010, Pope Benedict XVI visited that synagogue again. In 2016, Pope Francis visited for the third time. As our ancient rabbis were fond of saying — and as Rome’s current chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni pointed out during…
Pope Francis crossed the Tiber River to visit Rome’s Great Synagogue Sunday. His 1.5-mile journey to the towering Tempio Maggiore shows that what was once unthinkable is now the norm. “Our meeting,” Rome Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni said, “aims to convey a very topical, important and urgent message — that belonging to a faith,…
Pope Francis will make his first pontifical visit to Rome’s Great Synagogue next year, the Vatican and the city’s Jewish community said in statements on Tuesday. Francis, who had a good relationship with the Jewish community in his native Argentina, will go to the synagogue on the bank of the Tiber River on Jan. 17…
Italian police arrested 17 senior officials and medical personnel at Rome’s Israelite Hospital for allegedly defrauding the country’s national health service. The hospital officials were arrested Wednesday morning on charges related to “systematic falsification” of clinical files and other documents to inflate reimbursements from Italy’s national health service, according to reports in the Italian media….
An estimated 2,000 people demonstrated in solidarity with Israel in front of the Israeli Embassy in Rome. Sunday’s rally, organized by the local Jewish community with the support of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities and other groups, included representatives from both wings of the political spectrum. “In the media there is a constant misinformation…
Two Roman artifacts, each more than 2,000 years old, were left in the courtyard of an Israeli museum accompanied by an anonymous note whose author claimed to have stolen them two decades earlier. The two sling stones left at the Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Cultures in Beersheba last week will be forwarded to…
דער באַגריף, ייִדישע אױטאָנאָמיע אין גלות — הײַנט פּאָפּולער בײַ קריטיקער פֿון ציוניזם — איז היסטאָריש ניט געװען קײן דערפֿאָלג.
