Great Synagogue of Rome

The Great Synagogue of Rome ( Tempio Maggiore di Roma Italian ) is the largest synagogue in Rome. The synagogue was built from 1901 to 1904.

History and Planning

After the unification of Italy and the conquest of Rome in 1870, the old Roman ghetto was abolished and largely demolished, including the building in which the five old Scole ( synagogues ) were located. In their place, the new synagogue was built clearly visible in considerable dimensions and the cityscape. She was a " symbol of the freed from the ghetto, emancipated and self-conscious Roman Jewish community ". It was designed by the architect Vincenzo Costa and Osvaldo Armanny.

Description

Dar sand-colored building has the shape of a Greek cross. The quadrangular dome is made of aluminum. The interior is painted with geometric and floral ornaments based on designs by Annibale Brugnoli and Domenico Bruschi. The glass windows are by Cesare Picchiarini. On the sides, except on the east wall, there are women galleries. In the aisles two Toraschreine of colored marble are set up from the old synagogues.

In the basement there is a museum on the history of the Jews in Rome, and a little more Synagogue, the Tempio spagnolo. He continues the tradition of the Spanish Scola Catalana and the Scola Castigliana, the synagogues in the ghetto, who followed the Sephardic rite. Also, the Tempio spagnolo contains as appurtenances of the old ghetto synagogues.

Events

On October 9, 1982, an attack was mounted with hand grenades, while visitors on the Sabbath morning left the synagogue by Palestinian terrorists. Here, a two year old boy was killed and 37 people were injured.

The synagogue is a symbolic place in the approach of the Popes to Judaism after 1945. Pope John XXIII. held without notice on the morning of March 17, 1962 before the Roman synagogue, let the hood of his car open, and blessed beyond flowing Jews. The present Rabbi Elio Toaff later recalled later that " after a moment understandable confusion the Jews surrounded him and applauded him enthusiastically. In fact, it was the first time in history that a pope blessed the Jews, and this was perhaps the first real gesture of reconciliation. "On this symbolic gesture explicitly tied to Pope John Paul II, as he did the first pope entered a synagogue he attended the Roman synagogue on April 13, 1986, gave a speech and prayed together with Rabbi Elio Toaff. Special symbolic power had the final embrace between the Pope and Toaff in the eyes of Cardinal Kurt Koch. The event has been " regarded throughout the world as an extraordinary sign of reconciliation ," according to historian Georg Schwaiger. For the hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the synagogue in 2004, John Paul II wrote in a message, in his visit in 1986 was " a hug between brothers " have been, " who, after a long period in which there was no lack of misunderstanding, rejection and suffering, again found. " as the second Pope Benedict XVI visited. the synagogue on January 17, 2010, and also visited the museum.