Rome’s Jewish Ghetto: History, Community, and Resistance
Andrew Kranis (B.A., Duke; M.Arch, Columbia) is Fellow of the American Academy in Rome and a winner of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Rome Prize Fellowship. He teaches design and urbanism courses on the Art and Architecture faculties of Temple University, University of Arkansas, Penn State and other Rome Study Centers. An award-winning architectural and environmental designer, as well as a LEED-accredited specialist in sustainable architecture, Kranis designs and teaches with a passion for resource conservation and for smarter cities. He runs an architectural practice from New York City and Rome, and is an experienced tour guide who developed innovative online tours to bring virtual travelers to the Eternal city during the pandemic.
Overview
Jewish and Italian History are merged as the infamous Ghetto of Rome is ‘liberated’ upon the ascension to the throne of King Victor Emmanuel II, in 1870. Rome leaves behind its thousand-year rule by the Roman Catholic Church and the Jewish Community of Rome is freed from more than 300 years of house arrest. This 7-acre patch of dense urban fabric in the heart of Rome has come to symbolize Jewish solidarity as well as the successful assimilation of a pre-diaspora migration of Jews from the Holy Land to join the patchwork of ancient Roman society.