Experience Rome and its roller coaster story.
Discover the turbulent 2,200 year history of Rome’s Jewish community from the first settlers who crossed the seas from the Holy Land to today’s vibrant Jewish population.
Learn why visiting Maccabees sought Rome’s help against their Greek oppressors back home in the Holy Land …and then fell in love with the Eternal City. See Rome’s magnificent Great Synagogue which was surprisingly spared destruction during the Nazi occupation and how so many Jews managed to avoid transportation to the death camps.
Hear about the horrifying conditions in Rome’s Jewish Ghetto where for over 300 years the community struggled to survive. And despite one Pope’s edict of having only one synagogue in the Ghetto, discover how the Jewish community craftily managed to set up five. Step inside one of today’s top class restaurants which a thousand years ago was a synagogue and where you can still see in its basement wine cellar the tell-tale signs of a mikvah.
Be introduced to remarkable characters from the past including the non-Jewish nurse remembered today for her heroism in saving Jews from the clutches of the Nazis; Rome’s favourite artistic son Bernini and his secret tribute to the suffering Ghetto Jews; the wartime rabbi who conducted services in his tiny shul while SS stormtroopers patrolled outside; and the Medici Popes who sought advice from leading Jews.
Meet today’s vibrant Jewish community and the irony of how the remaining one-time hovels of the Jewish Ghetto are now some of the most expensive homes in Rome; and savour on screen some tasty specialities of age-old Roman Jewish cuisine that are loved today by all Romans including a Pope or two.