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Great Synagogue of Rome

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Great Synagogue of Rome



 
 
The Great Synagogue of Rome is the largest synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
 in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
.

Apart from Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, which has been the holiest city in Judaism
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 and the spiritual
Spirituality

Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religion and faith, transcendence , or one or more Deity....
 centre of the Jewish people since the tenth century BC, Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 is the site of the next longest continuous Jewish habitation in the world.

The Jewish community of Rome goes back to the second century BC when Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
 had an alliance with the Roman Empire under the leadership of Judah Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus

Judas Maccabeus was a Kohen and the third son of the Jewish priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire and is acclaimed as one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history alongside Joshua, Gideon and David....
.






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The Great Synagogue of Rome is the largest synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
 in Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
.

Apart from Jerusalem
Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
, which has been the holiest city in Judaism
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 and the spiritual
Spirituality

Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit, a concept closely tied to religion and faith, transcendence , or one or more Deity....
 centre of the Jewish people since the tenth century BC, Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 is the site of the next longest continuous Jewish habitation in the world.

The Jewish community of Rome goes back to the second century BC when Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
 had an alliance with the Roman Empire under the leadership of Judah Maccabeus
Judas Maccabeus

Judas Maccabeus was a Kohen and the third son of the Jewish priest Mattathias. He led the Maccabean revolt against the Seleucid Empire and is acclaimed as one of the greatest warriors in Jewish history alongside Joshua, Gideon and David....
. During that time, many Israelites left the land of Israel
Israel

Israel officially the State of Israel , is a country in the Middle East located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area....
 to go to Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
. Their numbers increased during the following centuries due to the settlement that came with Mediterranean
Mediterranean Sea

The Mediterranean Sea is a sea or Ocean off the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Europe, on the south by Africa, and on the east by Asia....
 trade. Then, there was the large influx of prisoners-of-war
Prisoner of war

A prisoner of war is a combatant who is held in continuing custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict....
 and slaves
Slavery

Slavery is a form of forced labor where a person is compelled to Labor for another . Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive Remuneration in return for their labor....
 taken during the Jewish–Roman wars in Judea
Judea

Judea or Jud?a is the name given to the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel , an area now divided between Israel and the West Bank ....
 and Palestine
Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
 (from 63 B.C. To 135 A.D.)

The building was constructed shortly after the unification of Italy
Italian unification

Italian Unification was the political and social movement that annexed different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century....
 in 1870, when the Kingdom of Italy
Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
 captured Rome
Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
 from the Napoleonic
Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic)

The Kingdom of Italy was founded in Northern Italy by Napoleon I of France, and ended with his defeat and fall.The Kingdom of Italy was born on 17 March 1805 when the Italian Republic , whose president was Napoleon, became Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy and Eug?ne de Beauharnais viceroy....
 regime, which backed the Papal States
Papal States

The Papal States, State of the Church or Pontifical States were one of the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia ....
. Victor Emmanuel II
Victor Emmanuel II of Italy

Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy , was the Monarch of Piedmont, Savoy, and Sardinia from 1849 to 1861. On February 18, 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a Italian unification, a title he held until his death in 1878....
 dismantled the Roman Ghetto
Roman Ghetto

The Roman Ghetto was located in the Sant'Angelo , in the area surrounded by today's Via del Portico d'Ottavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto close to the Tiber and the Theater of Marcellus, in Rome, Italy....
 and granted the Jew
Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
s citizenship
Citizenship

Citizenship refers to a person's membership in a political community such as a country or city. It has different legal definitions in different countries....
. The building which had previously housed the ghetto synagogue (a complicated structure housing five scolas in a single building) was demolished, and the Jewish community began making plans for a new and impressive building.

Designed by Vincenzo Costa and Osvaldo Armanni, the synagogue was built from 1901 to 1904 on the banks of the Tiber
Tiber

The Tiber is the third-longest river in Italy, rising in the Apennine mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing 406 kilometres through Umbria and Lazio to the Tyrrhenian Sea....
, overlooking the former ghetto
Ghetto

A ghetto is described as a "portion of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure."...
. The eclectic
Eclecticism in art

Eclecticism is a kind of mixed style in the fine arts: "the borrowing of a variety of Art movements from different sources and combining them" ....
 style of the building makes it stand out even in a city known for notable buildings and structures. This attention-grabbing design was a deliberate choice made by the community at the time who wanted the building to be a visible celebration of their freedom and to be seen from many vantage points in the city. The aluminium
Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white and ductile member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al; its atomic number is 13....
 dome
Dome

A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....
 is the only squared dome in the city and makes the building easily identifiable even from a distance. Commemorative plates honour the local Jewish victims of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
 and of a Palestine Liberation Organization
Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization regarded by the Arab League since October 1974 as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people."...
 attack in 1982.

Great Synagogue of Rome
On 13 April 1986, Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II John Paul II is widely acclaimed as one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century. He has been Pope_John_Paul_II#Role_in_the_fall_of_Communism in bringing down communism in Eastern Europe, as well as significantly improving the Roman Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and A...
 made an unexpected visit to the Great Synagogue. This event marked the first known visit by a pope
Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and head of state of Vatican City. The current pope is Pope Benedict XVI, who was elected April 19, 2005 in Papal conclave, 2005....
 to a synagogue
Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
 since the early history of the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
. He prayed with Rabbi
Rabbi

Rabbi , in Judaism, means a religious ?teacher?, or more literally, ?my great one?, when addressing any master. The word rabbi derives from the Hebrew root word , rav, which in biblical Hebrew means ?great?, used in many senses, including the sense of a ?master? and apprentice, whence someone who is a distinguished ?teacher?....
 Elio Toaff
Elio Toaff

Elio Toaff is the former Chief Rabbi of Rome. On 13 April, 1986, he greeted and prayed with Pope John Paul II during an unannounced visit to the Synagogue of Rome....
, the former Chief Rabbi of Rome. This was seen by many as an attempt to improve relations between Catholicism and Judaism
Relations between Catholicism and Judaism

This article on relations between Catholicism and Judaism deals with the current relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism, focusing on changes over the last fifty years, and especially during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II....
 and a part of Pope John Paul II's program to improve relations with Jews
Relations between Catholicism and Judaism

This article on relations between Catholicism and Judaism deals with the current relationship between the Catholic Church and Judaism, focusing on changes over the last fifty years, and especially during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II....
.

The synagogue celebrated its centenary in 2004. In addition to serving as a house of worship, it is also serves a cultural and organizational centre for la Comunità Ebraica di Roma (the Jewish community of Rome). It houses not only the offices of the Chief Rabbi of Rome as well as the Jewish Museum of Rome.

On 17 January 2005, thirteen cantors
Hazzan

A hazzan or chazzan is a Jewish cantor, a musician trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the synagogue in songful prayer.There are many rules relating to how a cantor should lead services, but the idea of a cantor as a paid professional does not exist in classical rabbinic sources....
, in conjunction with the Jewish Ministers Cantors Association of America (the Chazzanim Farband), performed in a cantorial concert for the first time in the synagogue's history.

External links



Gallery

Image:Il Museo Ebraico di Roma.jpg|Silverware on display Jewish Museum of Rome Image:Iner ornamental velvet covering Scroll of the Law,.jpg|Inner ornamental embroidered covering of the Scroll of the Law. Image:Ornamental velvet covering Scroll of the Law,.jpg|Ornamental velvet covering of the Scroll of the Law. Image:Rings on the Scroll of the Law.jpg|Rings on the Scroll of the Law.