Italy: revitalization project under way for Jewish heritage in Padova and Rovigo

(JHE) — The first phase of a three-year project to revitalize historic Jewish heritage sites in Padova and nearby Rovigo is under way. Funded by an €82,000 grant to the Padova Jewish community from the foundation of a local bank, the Cassa di Risparmio di Padova e Rovigo (CARIPARO), the project aims to “promote and enhance the cultural, religious, historic and artistic heritage of the Jewish Ghetto [of Padova]” for both tourists and residents and also to carry out restoration work in Rovigo’s Jewish cemetery. 

The CARIPARO Foundation announced this grant last March, when the coronavirus pandemic emergency made Italy one of the worst-hit countries in Europe. As a consequence, the restoration works could only start during the summer, and are currently underway.

According to the CARIPARO Foundation and to further information from the Jewish community’s vice president, the project is to include restoration work on the 17th century Italian rite synagogue (the city’s only active synagogue, which serves its 200 members), on objects displayed at the Jewish Museum of Padova (located in the former German synagogue), on tombstones and mausolea in the  Jewish cemetery of Padova in via Wiel, dating from the 16th century; and on the external walls of the Old Jewish cemetery of Rovigo, a city 50 kilometers south of Padova.

Gina Cavalieri, Vice President of the Padova Jewish Community, told JHE that the first phase of the works is ongoing; so far, the wooden features of the Italian synagogue have already been restored, as well as the external walls of the Rovigo Jewish cemetery.

Some silver Judaica objects displayed in the Jewish Museum have also undergone restoration. Moreover, the community commissioned the restoration of an 18^th century harmonium and plans to restore the marble paving at the entrance of the Italian synagogue.

The next phase of the project foresees developing a strategic plan to expand the Jewish Museum and the possibility of opening a kosher café on the museum’s premises. “The pandemic is making the works and the planning efforts slower and more difficult than before, and the Jewish Museum is economically suffering because of it,” Cavalieri told JHE, adding, “But this is also a propitious period to plan our future”.

Rovigo, a medium-sized city located between Padova and Ferrara, lies under the jurisdiction of the Jewish community of Padova, since a Jewish community has not been active there since the Shoah. However, Rovigo has two Jewish cemeteries: The old one, founded between the XV and the XVI century , and the new one outside the city center, founded in 1782. The Old Jewish Cemetery is currently abandoned and overgrown.

The Jewish Museum of Padova, founded in 2015 inside the former German synagogue, is managed by the cultural operator CoopCulture, which also runs other Jewish sites in the country, such as in Florence, Pisa, and Venice.

In 2015, JHE directorf Ruth Ellen Gruber spent an afternoon visiting the Jewish heritage sites of Padova and described in detail each place that today is at the center of the restoration project there.