JEWISH MUSEUMS: The J-Italy.org web site includes a brief history of Jewish museums in Italy
GENERAL & WEB
Lungotevere Raffaello Sanzio 9
00153 Roma
Tel.: +39 06 4554 2301
Secretary: Diletta Cesana (Tel: +39 340 736 8280)
Email: fondazione@ucei.it
Skype: fbcei.onlus
Established in 1986 by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) to preserve, conserve, restore and promote the Jewish cultural heritage of Italy.
A new searchable resource for Jewish heritage tourism all over Italy, compiled by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage. Links to information, photos, intrasturcture, itineraries. Searchable by location and type of site. A one-stop shop.
Rich resources on the Italian pages of Chabad’s Jewish tourism and heritage web site.
Italy’s main center for documenting Holocaust history and anti-Semitism, with links to many resources, archives, bibliographies and more, including online issues of its journal, Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History (Questioni di storia ebraica contemporanea) .
via Eupili, 8
20145 Milano
Tel: +39 02 316338
Email: cdec@cdec.it
Cesare Colafemmina Center for the Study of Judaism in the Mediterranean Region
Center founded in 2012 that will house the archives and library of the late scholar Cesare Colafemmina and sponsor research on the Jewish presence in southern Italy.
International Catacomb Society
21 Cummings Park, Suite 220
Woburn, MA 01801
Tel: 781-729-1150
Fax: 781-369-1106
Email: info@catacombsociety.org
The Society promotes awareness of the need for preservation, restoration, and documentation of the catacombs in Rome (with a special focus on the Jewish catacombs) and other sites that contain paintings, epigraphy, and artifacts depicting the cultures and customs of early religions under the Roman Empire.
Founded in 1960 and now part of the Goldstein-Goren Diaspora Research Center.
Italian Association for Jewish Studies (Associazione Italiana per lo Studio del Giudaismo)
A project of the Primo Levi Center, the Italian Government Tourism Board and the Union of Italian Jewish Communities that aims to be “a dynamic guide to both historical and contemporary Jewish Italy, allowing viewers to explore, at their own pace, the cultural treasures of the most ancient Diaspora community in the West.” May resources, links and articles.
Searchable online database of the archive of the Medici Grand Dukes. Established by Grand Duke Cosimo I in 1569, its millions of documents offer the most complete record of any princely regime in Renaissance and Baroque Europe. The online system allows users to search for people, places, topics and document synopsis and extracts in the thousands of documents indexed by Project researchers, with new information added every month. Part of the project is a Jewish Research Program that includes a project to map the historic Florence ghetto.
INDIVIDUAL MUSEUMS & INSTITUTIONS, ARRANGED BY REGION, NORTH TO SOUTH
PIEDMONT
ASTI
Permanent Exhibit/Jewish Museum
via Ottolenghi, 8
14100 Asti (AT) – Italy
Tel: +39 0141 399489 / 399466 / 399508 / 590003
Fax: +39 0141 558338
Email: musei@comune.asti.it – info@israt.it
Located a smaller winter synagogue since 1984, it has housed the historical archives of the Community as well as a permanent exhibition that portrays in detail Jewish life and especially the history of the Community of Asti.
CARMAGNOLA
Synagogue
Via Bertini, 8
Carmagnola
Permanent exhibition on the architecture of synagogues in Piedmont.
CASALE MONFERRATO
Museo ebraico di Casale Monferrato (Jewish Museum of Casale Monferrato)
Vicolo Salomone Olper 44
I-15033 Casale Monferrato (AL)
Tel: +39-0142-71807
Fax: +39-0142-590137
Email: segreteria@casalebraica.org
Email: casalenoprofit@casalebraica.org
Museo dei lumi (Contemporary art collection of Hanukkah lamps)
Vicolo Salomone Olper 44
I-15033 Casale Monferrato (AL)
Tel: +39-0142-71807
Fax: +39-0142-590137
Email: casalenoprofit@casalebraica.org
Both museums are located in the complex centered on the opulent synagogue.
TORINO (TURIN)
B. & A. Terracini Jewish Archives (Archivio Ebraico B & A Terracini)
Jewish community building complex
Piazzetta Primo Levi 12<
10125 Torino
Tel: +39 011 6508332
Fax: +39 011 6691173
Email: info@archivioterracini.it
Founded in 1973 as “The Benvenuto Terracini Archive of Jewish Traditions and Customs”, the archive’s core was a rich legacy of manuscripts and rare editions from the family of the linguist Benvenuto Terracini (1876-1968) and his brother Alexander. It served as the center for the collecting, cataloging, study and promotion of the Jewish heritage of Piedmont. Over the last nearly 40 years the patrimony of the Archives has significantly expanded in size and depth. Its collections, primarily focused on the Jewish history and heritage of the Piedmont region, include institutional and family archives, Kettubot, photographs, sheet music and recordings, architectural drawings of Piedmont synagogues, and more.
LOMBARDY
MILAN
In addition to its online databases, CDEC has an extensive historic archive and 25,000-volume library with a searchable catalogue.
via Eupili, 8
20145 Milano
Tel: +39 02 316338
Emails:
General: cdec@cdec.it
Library: biblio@cdec.it
Historical Archives: arch.stor@cdec.it
Video-Library: video@cdec.it
SONCINO
Museo della Stampa (Printing Museum)
Casa degli stampatori ebrei Soncino
Via Lanfranco, 6 /8
26029 Soncino (Cr)
Tel: + 39 0374 83171
Email: info@museostampasoncino.it
History of printing especially related to the Soncino family of pioneer Jewish printers. The museum is located in the building that once housed the Soncino printing works. The Soncino’s operated one of the world’s first Hebrew printing presses. Their first Hebrew book, the Talmud tractate Berakoth, was printed in 1484.
ALTO ADIGE/SUD TIROL
MERANO (MERAN)
Museo ebraico di Merano / Jüdisches Museum Meran (Jewish Museum Meran)
Schillerstraße 14
I-39012 Meran/Merano
Tel: +39 0473 236127
Fax: +39 0473 237520
Email: meranoebraica@hotmail.com
VENETO
PADOVA
Via delle Piazze 26
35122 Padova
Opened in May 2015 in the refurbished former Sinagoga Tedesca, it displays selected items from the Jewish community’s extensive collections and also programs films about Padova Jewish history. It also arranged guided tours of the Jewish cemeteries.
Click here for further information, hours, etc
VENICE
Museo Ebraico di Venezia (Jewish Museum Venice)
Cannaregio 2902-B (Campo del Ghetto Nuovo)
I-30121 Venice
Tel: +39 041 715359
Fax: +39 041 723007
Email: museoebraico@codesscultura.it
Venice Center for International Jewish Studies (Beit Venezia)
San Marco 3536
30124 Venice
Email: info@venicejewishstudies.org
Renato Maestro Library and Archives
Cannaregio 2899
30121 Venice
Tel: +39 041 718833
Email: renatomaestro@libero.it
FRIULI VENEZIA GIULIA
GORIZIA
“Jerusalem on the Isonzo” Museum in the Synagogue
Via G. I. Ascoli 19
Tel: +39 0481 532115
Fax: 0481 522056
On the lower floor of the synagogue, no longer used for religious services, located in the one-time Jewish ghetto. The museum, run by the Friends of Israel Association, also houses a room dedicated to the Gorizia-born philosopher Carlo Michelstaedter .
TRIESTE
Carlo and Vera Wagner Jewish Museum
via del Monte 5/7
Trieste
Tel: +39 040 633819
Email: museumcarloeverawagner@triestebraica.it
via Giovanni Palatucci, 5
Tel. +39 040 826 202
Email: risierasansabba@comune.trieste.it
Civic museum at the site of a former rice-husking facility built in 1898 that was used by the Nazis as a prison, deportation center, and death camp.
See video (in English):
EMILIA-ROMAGNA
BOLOGNA
Museo Ebraico di Bologna (Jewish Museum Bologna)
Via Valdonica 1/5
I-40126 Bologna
Tel: +39 051 2911280
fax: +39 051 235430
Email: info@museoebraicobo.it
Click to take a Virtual Tour of the museum
CARPI
Fondazione Fossoli – Monument-Museum of the Deported
Via G. Rovighi, 57
41012 Carpi (MO)
Tel. +39 059.688272
Fax +39 059.688483
Email: fondazione.fossoli@carpidiem.it
Located in a building that houses the former 17th and 18th century synagogues, the museum and foundation are dedicated to the World War II deportation camp at Fossoli, just outside Carpi.
FERRARA
Via Piangipane, Ferrara
Tel. +39 0532 769137
Fax +39 0532 711772
Email: info@meisweb.it
National Jewish museum under development in a former prison building dating from 1912. It officially opened in December 2017 with a temporary exhibit on the first 1,000 years of Jewish experience in Italy. The entire museum, with permanent core exhibition displayed in modern new buildings is expected in 2020.
Via Mazzini 95
Ferrara
Jewish community museum located in a 15th century building in the heart of the former Ghetto that still houses two active synagogues. (Currently closed due to earthquake damage).
PARMA
Biblioteca Palatina (De Rossi Collection)
Strada alla Pilotta 3
43100 Parma
Tel: +39 0521 220411
Fax: +39 0521 235662
One of the most important collections of early Hebrew manuscripts and printed works. Assembled by the Abbot Giovanni Bernardo De Rossi (1742-1831) it includes 1432 codexes ffrom the 11th to 15th centuries, many of the richly illuminated, and 1464 printed volumes from the 15th to 18th centuries.
SORAGNA
Via Cavour, 43
43019 Soragna (PR)
Tel and Fax: +39 0524 599399
The web site has a “virtual tour” of this small museum located in the former synagogue.
TUSCANY
FLORENCE
Jewish Museum and Synagogue Florence
Via Luigi Carlo Farini 6,
50121 Firenze
Tel + 39 055 2346654
Fax + 39 055 244145
Email: itinerariebraici@cscsigma.it
Foundation set up within the Jewish community to handle restoration and upkeep of the synagogue and Jewish cemeteries in Florence and Siena and the Jewish cemetery in Monte San Savino.
LIVORNO
Yeshiva Marini Jewish Museum (in Oratorio Marini)
Via Micali 21
Tel: +39 0586 839772
Email: amarantaservice@virgilio.it
Includes Judaica, textiles and a permanent exhibit about the Jewish school in Livorno under Fascism. Generally open by appointment. Click for description in Italian.
Click to take a virtual tour of the Museum
PITIGLIANO
Synagogue and Museum of Jewish Culture
vicolo Marghera
58017 Pitigliano (GR)
Tel./fax: +39 0564614230
Cell. +39 3281907173
Email: lapiccolagerusalemme@libero.it
Associazione “La Piccola Gerusalemme della Maremma”
Vicolo Marghera, s.n.c.
58017 Pitigliano (GR)
Tel: +39 0564 614230
Email: lapiccolagerusalemme@libero.it
LAZIO
FONDI
Largo Elio Toaff (formerly Largo Aurilio Rufo)
Fondi, Italy 04022
Tel: +39 0771 513644
Opened in 2017 in a building believed to have been the site of the synagogue in the medieval Jewish quarter, or Giudea, the museum is administered by the Monti Ausoni Regional Nature Park and Lake Fondi, and it was financed by EU, state, regional, and other public funding through a project called the Completion of the Medieval Jewish Museum.
Download the Museum Catalogue (in English and Italian)
Listen to an audio guide to the museum (in Italian, but other languages may come)
Read our JHE post about the museum’s opening.
ROME
Museo Ebraico di Roma (Jewish Museum Rome)
Lungotevere Cenci (Tempio) 9
I-00186 Roma
Tel: +39-06-68400661
Fax: +39-06-68400684
Email: info@museoebraico.roma.it
Archivio Storico della Comunita Ebraica Romana (Rome Jewish Community Archives)
Lungotevere Cenci (Tempio)
00186 Roma
Tel/Fax: +39 06 68400663
Centro Bibliografico (Jewish Archive and Library)
Lungotevere Sanzio 5
00153 Rome
Email: centrobibliografico@ucei.it
PUGLIA (APULIA)
LECCE
Palazzo Taurino – Medieval Jewish Lecce
Via Umberto I n° 9
73100 Lecce (LE)
Tel: +39 0832 247016 / +39 338 2511859
Email: info@palazzotaurino.com
TRANI
SINAGOGA MUSEO S. ANNA
Via La Giudea, 24
(corner of Via San Martino)
70059 Trani
Tel. +39 0883 582470
E-mail info@fondazioneseca.it
The museum is housed in the heart of the Old Town in the medieval Scola Grande synagogue, which was transformed into St. Anna’s church.