1849-1871. Jews of Rome between segregation and emancipation

On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of Rome as the capital of the kingdom of Italy, the exhibition, curated by the Jewish Community of Rome and the Foundation for the Jewish Museum of Rome, traces the years from the Roman Republic of 1849 to the proclamation of Rome capital in 1871. The exhibition highlights the identification between the spirit of the Risorgimento and the millennial Jewish history, in a common idea of ​​redemption and identity pride that led to a united Italy and freedom from the centuries-old constriction in the ghettos.

The exhibition itinerary, which presents about 70 works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, engravings, manuscripts, photographs, loaned from the most important Italian museums of the Risorgimento and private collections and aims to make known and tell the commitment of the Jews in the period of the Risorgimento. Before this historical period, in fact, Jews were considered to be completely foreign to national values ​​and therefore excluded from society and from military service. Only with the annexation of Rome to the Kingdom of Italy, the Roman community gained its rights.

The Jews of the peninsula participated actively in the revolutionary phenomenon with the aim of claiming their Italian character and at the same time demonstrating that their religious belief could merge with the civil ideal of the cult of the Nation advocated by Giuseppe Mazzini. The great patriotic figures of the Risorgimento often intertwined their personal and political events with the Jewish world: from Massimo d'Azeglio to Giuseppe Mazzini, from Isacco Artom to Giacomo Segre, from Sara Nathan to Samuele Alatri, narrated through paintings, sculptures and numerous exchanges letters.

A section of the exhibition is also dedicated to Jewish soldier-painters. Jewish artists joined the cultural avant-garde represented by the Macchiaioli, the great Tuscan artistic movement connected to the ideals of the Risorgimento. This group, characterized by en plein air painting made with large brushstrokes and tonal contrasts, included Vito D’Ancona and Serafino De Tivoli.The Piedmontese Raffaele Pontremoli and the Ligurian Alberto Issel instead painted the battles of this period. All these painters however fought as volunteers alongside Giuseppe Garibaldi. Through the exhibition of some paintings and thanks to the story of their life, it is possible to reconstruct the concrete participation of Italian Jews in the Risorgimento.

Photo credits: courtesy of The Jewish Museum of Rome facebook page