Rome and Jerusalem

UPDATE: I watched all one and a half hours of the live broadcast of the visit and speeches and music. It was all very moving! You can read Pope Benedict's address at
http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/pope-at-rome-synagogue-may-these-wounds-be-healed-forever/ .
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In a few hours Pope Benedict will make a rare visit inside a synagogue, the Great Synagogue of Rome, and then go outside to plant an olive tree together with his Jewish "brothers and sisters."
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Meanwhile, let me show you our own Italian synagogue here in Jerusalem.

I posted the Italian Festival last summer (click on the tag "Italian" below) that took place in the courtyard, but you still have not seen the Italian Jewish Art Museum or the old synagogue inside the building.
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Above the entrance is written Beit Knesset ke-minhag Bene Roma, Tempio Italiano.
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The rite of the Conegliano Synagogue is technically called "Minhag Bnei Roma" (Children of Rome Prayer Custom), "Loez"(Foreign), or "Italiani."
In modern Hebrew it is called " Minhag Italki" (Italian Prayer Custom).
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Wikipedia says that "Italian Jews can be traced back as far as the second century BCE: tombstones and dedicatory inscriptions survive from this period. At that time they mostly lived in the far South of Italy, with a branch community in Rome, and were generally Greek-speaking. It is thought that some families (for example the Adolescenti) are descendants of Jews deported from Judaea by the emperor Titus in 70 CE."
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Welcome inside the 300-year-old interior of the synagogue.
After World War II it was dismantled in a huge rescue operation in the village of Conegliano in Italy. The furnishings arrived in Jerusalem in 1951 and the restoration began.
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This is the bimah, the platform on which the Torah scroll is read.
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The bimah faces the holy ark or aron kodesh, inside which the Torah scrolls are kept.
Elements of the ornate ark may be from even before 1700.
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The women's gallery is on top.
All in grand Baroque style.
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The men sit on the benches on the main floor.
Services are on Saturday (Shabbat) morning.
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Here is a photo borrowed from photographer Jonathan Sierra.

See more of his good photos of the worshipers at an Israelity Blog recent post.

Wiki on the history of Jews in Italy is here.

About Il Rito Bene Romi prayerbook and liturgy (in Italian).

MP3 of the Shema prayer chanted in Roman rite.

The portal for news of Italy's Jews (in Italian), which will soon have hopefully good news about the visit of il Papa --

or in English and other languages, the Pope's YouTube channel.

UPDATE:  The story of the synagogue, from the Museum of Italian Jewish Art:  http://ijamuseum.org/museum/the-synagogue/the-story/

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