The Stardust Margarita [Recipe]

By Elana Horwich
Published on May 9, 2013

Pope Francis, Rome chief rabbi exchange holiday greetings

Published on April 1, 2013

Pope Francis and Rome’s Chief Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni exchanged greetings to mark Passover and Easter.

Pope at installation gives shout-out to Jews

Published on March 19, 2013

Pope Francis gave a shout-out to Jews during the open-air Mass that formally installed him as pontiff.

Papabili rabbis and holy envy

By Mark Paredes
Published on March 11, 2013

Moshe Kantor awarded Italy’s highest honor for non-citizens

Published on February 21, 2013

Italy awarded Moshe Kantor, the president of the European Jewish Congress, its highest decoration given to a non-Italian.

Benedict’s papacy: a period of close Jewish relations with occasional bumps

Published on February 11, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI’s eight-year reign as head of the world’s 1 billion Catholics sometimes was a bumpy one for the Vatican’s relations with Israel and the wider Jewish community. But it was also a period in which relations where consolidated and fervent pledges made to continue interfaith dialogue and bilateral cooperation.

Alleged anti-Semitism of Rome team’s soccer fans to be investigated

Published on January 8, 2013

European soccer authorities have opened disciplinary proceedings against the Rome soccer team Lazio for the alleged anti-Semitism of its fans.

Criminalize anti-Semitic websites, Rome provincial council says in motion

Published on October 30, 2012

Rome’s provincial council is calling for websites that promote racism and anti-Semitism to be blocked and such online hatred criminalized.

Italian Prime Minister says he will stand by country’s Jews

Published on October 17, 2012

Italy’s prime minister promised Italian Jews he would stand beside them in the fight against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

Roman Jewry mourns Italian Muslim leader

Published on June 26, 2012

The Rome Jewish community mourned the death of an Italian Muslim leader who was a key figure in promoting interfaith Jewish-Muslim relations.

Jewish celebration in Rome canceled to honor earthquake victims

Published on June 4, 2012

Roman Jews canceled an outdoor celebration at Rome’s main synagogue to honor the national day of mourning for the victims of last month’s earthquakes in northern Italy.

Miss Sixty founder dies

Published on December 16, 2011

Wicky Hassan, a Libyan-born Italian Jew who founded the popular Miss Sixty fashion brand, has died in Rome.

Five arrested in Rome for plotting against Jewish community

Published on December 14, 2011

Police in Rome have arrested five neo-fascists on charges of plotting violence against the Rome Jewish community.

Discovering Algeria: Exploring Timgad

By Lisa Niver Rajna
Published on December 6, 2011

As Berlusconi exits, new report shows rising anti-Semitism in Italy

Published on November 15, 2011

Crowds on the streets of Rome jeered and cheered when their long-serving, scandal-plagued prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, stepped down over the weekend. A choir even sang Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” in front of the presidential palace as he handed in his resignation.

Libyan Jewish exile to leave country

Published on October 10, 2011

A Libyan Jewish exile attempting to restore Tripoli's main synagogue will leave the country following angry protests.

Back to Back Jersey Shore Tests My Love Affair With Snooki

By Ilana Angel
Published on September 30, 2011

Rome’s Jewish community to protest right-wing extremist

Published on August 23, 2011

Rome's Jewish community has threatened to stage a counter rally against a right-wing extremist who announced a recruitment rally next month for a paramilitary-style nationalist vigilante group.

Talmud to be translated into Italian

Published on January 21, 2011

The Talmud will be translated for the first time into Italian thanks to an official collaboration between the Italian government and the Italian Jewish community. A protocol launching "Project Talmud" was signed Friday in Rome by cabinet ministers, the president of Italy's National Research Council, the president of the umbrella Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) and Rome's chief rabbi. The project foresees the translation of the original Aramaic version of the Babylonian Talmud, with commentaries, as well as an introductory volume about the structure, contents and language of the Talmud.

Ghetto Tour of Rome

Published on April 2, 2010

"My name is Micaela Pavoncello, thank you for contacting Jewish Roma Walking tours.” That was the first line of the response we got about joining Micaela on one of her Jewish-themed tours in Rome. While not inexpensive, her tour of the Jewish Ghetto was definitely the highlight of our stay in Rome.

Pope Admits He Mishandled Bishop Matter

Published on March 13, 2009

Skirball photo exhibit shows Pope John Paul II’s lifetime of outreach to Jews

By Tom Tugend
Published on September 17, 2008

In 2000, the pope undertook a pilgrimage to and formally recognized the State of Israel, inserting a note between the stones of the Western Wall.

VIDEO: A Good Joke

Published on May 12, 2008

Roman Holiday

By Rob Eshman
Published on July 19, 2007

Put aside the wonderful food and wine -- for a moment -- and a European vacation becomes a trip backward in time through century after century of religious fervor.

When in Rome, eat kosher like the Romans

By Paul Bompard
Published on July 5, 2007

Shops selling kosher products say the increased demand is coming mainly from Jews. But restaurateurs say at least half their customers are non-Jews who want to sample classic Roman Jewish cooking, which many consider to be the most sophisticated of traditional Roman cuisines.

Terrorism of ‘70s Forced Israeli Move

By Hirsh Goodman
Published on December 15, 2005

The dates and times are all one blur. What remains crystal clear, however, is what it was like to be an Israeli in the early 1970s, when the phenomenon of international terror began: Japanese terrorists landing at Lod Airport and gunning down dozens of pilgrims just arrived from Peru; German terrorists trying to shoot down an El Al airliner taking off from Kenya; the hijacking of Israeli and foreign aircraft en route to Israel; attacks by the Red Brigades on Israelis and on embassies in London and Seoul, and in Athens, Paris and Rome. And, of course, the horrible massacre at the Munich Olympics.

Hier, Pope Talk at Vatican

By Tom Tugend
Published on November 17, 2005

During a private audience at the Vatican, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center urged Pope Benedict XVI this week to lead a "coalition of the good" against international terrorism and threats from Iran.

Rome’s Jewish Culinary Heritage

By David D. Downie
Published on January 15, 2004

Rome is a layer cake of culinary civilizations. For centuries Jewish specialties have formed the core of the Roman culinary repertoire including Carciofi alla Romana (artichokes braised in white wine and olive oil), Gnocchi di Semolino alla Romana (semolina gnocchi with butter and cheese), Aliciotti con l'Indivia (baked anchovy and endives) and Lattughe Farcite (stuffed lettuce with olives and anchovies).

Jews first came to Rome in large numbers as prisoners following the annexation of their lands by general Pompey the Great in the first century B.C.E. The Roman Jewish community flourished under prince Herod Agrippa II, who moved from Judea to Rome with his entourage after Emperor Titus' destruction of Jerusalem (70 C.E.).

Desperate Days of ‘House’ Director

By Naomi Pfefferman
Published on December 18, 2003

The day before he discovered the novel "House of Sand and Fog" in 2001, Vadim Perelman asked his chauffeur to drive him to a slum in suburban Rome. Perelman, a successful commercial director, was in Italy on an AT&T shoot. But he wanted to return to the tenement that had been his home when he arrived from Kiev with his mother in 1977.

A Short Escape to Prewar Italy

By Rob Eshman
Published on June 5, 2003

What better place to visit as civilization teetered at the brink than the repository of much of civilization's bounty?

Roman Holiday

By Ivor Davis
Published on November 16, 2000

On Yom Kippur, my wife Sally and I went to shul just around the corner from the Vatican. It was a visit we will not soon forget. The imposing Comunita Ebraica di Roma Synagogue (the Great Synagogue of Rome) sits just off the Piazza del Firori close to the Tiber River and spitting distance from Vatican City across the river in one direction, and Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum in the other.

Life’s Ironies are Beautiful

By Ruth Stroud
Published on April 8, 1999

For Italian expatriates Lotte Katz Singer of Beverly Hills and Ann Signett of the San Fernando Valley, life is surprising as well as beautiful.

L.A. 5758

By Julie G Fax
Published on April 2, 1998

As Rabbi Allen Freehling of University Synagogue in West Los Angeles and a bus load of bishops and rabbis left the Rome airport for their hotel near the Vatican, one of the bishops read aloud a document that would soon spark a firestorm of controversy around the world: the Vatican's March 16 statement on the Holocaust, released just hours before. The group had just flown in from Israel, where they had spent a week worshiping together, learning about each other's histories, and beginning to understand, as only true friends can, what the other believes.