Not so rosy history: Rome’s historic Jewish cemetery

We often tend to focus on Jewish cemeteries in eastern Europe that were destroyed by the Nazis and/or — as in L’viv or Bialystok or Prague — built over during the post-World War II communist era.

But this article in Times of Israel by Rosella Tercatin points out that this happened too in the west. In Rome, the historic Jewish cemetery was destroyed in the 1930s under fascism and is now the site of the city’s Rose Garden.

But, as the city’s chief rabbi points out in the article, the site is not a “former Jewish cemetery” — it still encompasses thousands of burials.

The chief rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, explained in an interview to the Italian Jewish paper Pagine Ebraiche that “the Rose Garden must still be considered a Jewish cemetery, with all the consequences that entails.”

This means, for instance, that kohanim — Jews descending from families of the priestly class — cannot visit the site, just as they are prohibited from entering regular cemeteries (with very few exceptions).

The area, overlooking the Circus Maximus, became a Jewish cemetery in the 17th century when Rome’s papal ruler, Pope Innocent X, granted permission to the Jewish community to purchase the land for that purpose.

In 1934, the governorship of Rome expropriated the land in order to build a new road, the Via Del Circo Massimo. The Jewish community tried to resist, but ultimately their leaders could not avoid making a deal with the governorship, who promised to build a Jewish school and ensure that all the bodies resting there would be carefully moved to a new cemetery.

At that time, Italy was already under the regime of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. The new road was supposed to be ready for a parade to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the notorious March of Rome, the insurrection by which Mussolini came to power in October 1922.

“In order to meet the deadline, the building firm insisted on performing the exhumation also on Saturdays and Jewish holidays, when the Jewish supervisors who were promised the opportunity to monitor the process could not be present,” [tour guide Salvatore] Ianni says.

“Therefore, thousands of corpses were moved, but thousands are still buried here, both under the Rose Garden and the road,” he adds.

Only a small monument recalls the history of the site.

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