On the Pope's coming visit
to Rome's Jewish quarter
On January 17, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI will visit the Synagogue of Rome, to meet with the Jewish Community for the 21st Day for Reflection and Progress of Dialogue Between Catholics and Jews, and the feast of “Lead Mo'ed.” Both observances coincide on the same day in 2010.
Known among Italian Jews as the Feast of the 'Mo'ed di Piombo', it commemorates a miraculous event of 1793 when the Jews of Rome escaped an attack by Roman anti-Semites thanks to a sudden storm which doused the fires that had been ignited against the gates of the Jewish ghetto.
"Ghetto", a word which has come to mean either an ethnic enclave or zone where poor people are confined, is of Italian origin.
"Burghetto" - "little town" - was the word used to describe the neighborhoods where Jews were confined by law in medieval Italy. In Venice the island once known as Spina Lunga has become known as La Giudecca [the Jewry], which was also given to the Cannaregio area where where Venetian Jews were warlier confined by law and custom. Today, Giudecca is the term generally used for Jewish neighborhoods throughout Italy.
Photos of the Jewish Ghetto in Rome.
In the Italian magazine Panorama this week, a brief item:
Pope will also remember
Jews deported from Rome
by Ignacio Ingrao
The German Pope will pay homage to Roman Jews who were deported during World War II.
Before going to the Great Synagogue of Rome on January 17, the Pope will make a stop at Largo XVI Ottobre 1943, from where a thousand Jews were sent to Auschwitz.
Unlike John Paul II, whose 1986 visit to the Rome Synaoguge was the first ever by a Pope, Benedict XVI will first walk through the Jewish Ghetto, passing through the Piazza delle Cinque Scole and the Portico d'Ottavia, before proceeding to the Synagogue.
Left, Portico d'Ottavia; right, Piazza delle Cinque Scole.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 06/11/2009 13:09]