Tour of Jewish Catacombs in Rome with a Jew from Rome. Micaela Pavoncello

Tour of Jewish Catacombs in Rome with Micaela Pavoncello

Pavoncello is a member of the Jewish Community of Rome and she shares specific insights, with majestic detail, about her ancestors – the Roman Jews.

Pavoncello and her team of educators from the community, all Roman Jews, are on an educational mission to ensure that tourists from all backgrounds be exposed to Rome’s Jewish history by teaching and sharing their authentic Roman Jewish religion, culture, and traditions.

The Catacombs of Rome

The importance of the ancient Jewish community of Imperial Rome is attested by numerous symbols, such as the menorah, the shofaroil lampsamphorae, and the Four Species, most of which come from the Jewish catacombs.

Jewish Catacombs in Rome

The Catacombs are deep, subterranean tunnels (underground cemeteries) with long corridors, burial niches, and cubicles. The Jewish catacombs were never venues of liturgical celebration– according to Jewish belief, contact with the dead renders one impure.

Jewish law and tradition command that Jews be buried in the ground. Burial niches were also dug in the catacombs. The name catacomb originates from the late Latin catacumba (etymology is uncertain), indicated, at first. a particular cave, hence, for instance, there were the Catacumbas, on the Appian Way outside the city center of Rome. In Rome, there is evidence of six catacombs, but only two, the Villa Torlonia on Via Nomentana and Vigna Randanini near the Via Antica, are accessible today.

The Stone Epitaphs

Pavoncello provides full-day excursions involving accurate explanations of how the Jews of Rome bury their dead, from antiquity to present times. Her explanations include an overview of the valuable documentation of stone epitaphs. These include cast copies and some originals found today in the Jewish Museum of Rome, the Vatican Museums, the Capitoline Museums, the Roman National Museum, and the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.

The funerary stone epigraphical inscriptions identify those buried. They enable us to know the different names of the Roman Jews from the time of the Roman Empire, as well as the names of the various congregations to which they belonged. The inscriptions likewise include the administrative positions and the organizational structure of the Roman Jewish community.

Some of the oldest epigraphical documentation which Pavoncello explains date back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Common Era and are inscribed in ancient Greek. There is one particular inscription within the Jewish Museum’s collection which is in Aramaic and Greek,  It belongs to a Jewess named Isadora and entails important information about the Jewish women in ancient Rome. In fact, there are several epitaphs dedicated to women in ancient Rome, proving how women held leadership roles and were cherished and respected by their husbands, sons, and the community.

Pavoncello’s tours provide a direct relationship to the Roman Jewish past and still thriving community, and more interestingly, the symbolism used by ancient Roman Jews are symbols Jews will recognize and consider important even today.

The Jewish catacombs are a source of pride for our Jewish community, which is often referred to as one of the most ancient of the Diaspora since they attest to our presence in Rome since far-off times,” says the Chief Rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni.

The catacombs belong to a very specific period in the history of Judaism, when the verse ‘For dust you are, and to dust, you shall return (Bereshit 3, 19) was fulfilled not by burying the dead in the ground, but in the loculi excavated in the stone,” Di Segni added, explaining what it is possible to learn about the Jewish life of that times.

About the Writer, Brenda Lee Bohen

Brenda is a Latina and a proud Veteran of the United States Army Reserves. She holds dual citizenship in both the United States and Italy. She is a trained historic preservationist who tirelessly advocates the scholarship and history of the Jews of Rome. She has her certification in Jewish leadership and continues advanced studies at the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. Brenda is also a licensed and accredited tour guide at the Jewish Museum of Rome and the Vatican Museums.

Read more blogs from Brenda: Jewish Rome, 3 Literary Treasures of The Jewish Museum of Rome

Sources:

Treasures of The Jewish Museum of Rome: Guide to The Museum and Its Collections by Daniela Di Castro. Arnaldo De Luca Editore, Rome 2010; reprinted 2016. Ancient Symbols for A New History, 38-40

Jewish Museum of Rome

https://museoebraico.roma.it/en/

Jewish Roma

http://www.jewishroma.com 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-rome-spectacular-ancient-jewish-catacombs-opening-haunted-by-delays/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/inside-the-catacombs-buried-history-ties-jews-to-ancient-rome/

 

🌍 Celebrating One Year of the Jewish Silk Road Portal

World Jewish Travel was thrilled at #IMTM 2024 to present a copy of the WJT Jewish Silk Road Pressbook to the CEO of the Azerbaijan National Tourism Board Florian Sengstschmid and Jamilya Talibzade its Israeli representative Azerbaijan Tourism Board (ATB).

The Pressbook celebrates the one year anniversary of the Jewish Silk Road Portal launch, an amazing example of using Jewish travel as a means of cultural diplomacy, whilst highlighting the significant Jewish contribution to the ancient trade route. Kudos to our participating partners from the Kiriaty Foundation (Turkey), National Board of Tourism of #Georgia, National Board of Tourism of #Uzbekistan, and Israeli Embassy of #India. 

See the overwhelming reaction from the press, by downloading our free pressbook. Special thanks to Moshe Gilad of the @haaretzcom for highlighting this forgotten but important story in the Galeria section of the newspaper and available to download on WJT.

👉Link to WJT Jewsih Silk Rad Pressbook and more is in our bio

🌍 Celebrating One Year of the Jewish Silk Road Portal

World Jewish Travel was thrilled at #IMTM 2024 to present a copy of the WJT Jewish Silk Road Pressbook to the CEO of the Azerbaijan National Tourism Board Florian Sengstschmid and Jamilya Talibzade its Israeli representative Azerbaijan Tourism Board (ATB).

The Pressbook celebrates the one year anniversary of the Jewish Silk Road Portal launch, an amazing example of using Jewish travel as a means of cultural diplomacy, whilst highlighting the significant Jewish contribution to the ancient trade route. Kudos to our participating partners from the Kiriaty Foundation (Turkey), National Board of Tourism of #Georgia, National Board of Tourism of #Uzbekistan, and Israeli Embassy of #India.

See the overwhelming reaction from the press, by downloading our free pressbook. Special thanks to Moshe Gilad of the @haaretzcom for highlighting this forgotten but important story in the Galeria section of the newspaper and available to download on WJT.

👉Link to WJT Jewsih Silk Rad Pressbook and more is in our bio
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