Jewish Ghetto of Rome 7/14/09

Dear Family and Friends,

Here are pictures of our visit to the Jewish Ghetto in Rome. The ghetto was the forced home of the Roman Jews for over 300 years. According to our guide the Roman ghetto was not as bad compared to other countries such as Poland. However, the people still lived in extremely unhygienic living conditions, with most families living in one room households. The main goal of the Pope and Catholic church was to convert Jews to Christianity. If a Jewish man considered converting, he and his whole family were taken out of the ghetto and had to make choice as whether or not they want to convert. If the husband decided to convert, the children would stay with him no matter what the wife's decision was. Thus, many Jewish women were forced to convert because they did not want to leave their children behind. It was not until the 19th century that the Roman Jewish population gained equal rights as that of Roman citizens. After gaining equal rights they decided to build a grand, large synagogue. Previously, they were allowed only to have one synagogue and they were not to be grandiose.

Elena