1849-1871 The Jews of Rome Between Segregation and Emancipation

In the period between the heroic Roman Republic of 1849 and the proclamation of Rome as capital city in 1871, the identification between the spirit of the Risorgimento and the millennial Jewish history became evident. The revolutionary phenomenon saw the participation of the Jewish communities of the peninsula, demonstrating that their religious belief could merge with the civil ideal of the ritual of the Nation. A common idea of liberation and identity pride led to the construction of a united Italy and to the liberation from the centuries-long constriction in the ghettos. In a dialogue between paintings, sculptures and documentary evidence, the exhibition narrates the involvement of the Jewish world in these events, with particular attention to the Università Israelitica of Rome. The different testimonies give back the variety of this contribution and the experiences of those who, in the arts, in politics and in culture, devoted themselves to the unification and the definition of the new Italy.