How Jewish is Roman Jewish History? What’s New in 2025 with Micaela Pavoncello

Micaela Pavoncello, founder of Jewish Roma Walking Tours, has been sharing the history of her people – The Jews of Rome – for more than two decades. 

Pavoncello proudly avows that her family tradition has it that their ancestors (on her father’s side) arrived in Rome at the time of the Maccabean Revolt (161 BCE) before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE. 

A licensed tour guide in Rome, Pavoncello, an art historian of native Jewish Italian heritage, is the first in her community to expand her client base by successfully developing innovative crossover tours beginning in 2003 designed for English-speaking tourists visiting Rome. 

Micaela Pavoncello shares insightful observations of the Jewish history of Rome, and the complexities of intercultural influences upon Rome, viewed from the lens of her unique perspective as a Roman Jew. 

While Roman Jews share their history with the illustrious histories of emperors, kings, and popes, Roman Jewish history, however, is also a narrative of triumph, creativity, and resilience. 

In Italy of the 16th century, for example, it was believed the separation of Jewish and Christian communities would encourage Roman Jews to convert to Christianity. To facilitate this process, the Jewish ghetto, subsequently, was created by 1555. Also known as the Jewish Quarter, the history of the former Jewish ghetto in Italy traces its roots from an isolated and land-locked enclosure located in Venice (1514) to an enclosed area contained on the banks of the River Tiber in Rome. Rather than the Jewish-to-Christian religious conversion that was expected, however, Roman Jewish culture instead survived and flourished, explains Pavoncello.

Micaela Pavoncello with her tour group in the former old ghetto (Photograph: Courtesy of Jewish Roma Walking Tours)

To see and learn firsthand what Rome and the Vatican has to offer from a Jewish perspective, engagingly presented by an accomplished Jewish guide, Micaela Pavoncello has launched three innovative two-hour Highlights Tours. Each tour offers a unique view of Roman Jewish history.

 Roman Emperors and Jewish Leaders During the Time of the Churban

This tour highlights the not widely known history regarding the Roman attitude toward Judaism and the Jews in ancient Rome. We will begin our walk from the Ludus Magnus, also known as the Great Gladiatorial Training School, recognized as the largest gladiatorial school in Rome. Were there Jewish gladiators? We will discuss “A Jewish Gladiator in Pompeii” written by the esteemed historian Professor Samuele Rocca of both Ariel University and Haifa University in Israel. Intrigued by an insignia-like emblem pressed onto the front of a metal gladiatorial helmet he first saw about twenty years ago at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Professor Rocca embarked on researching the historical significance of both the metal gladiator helmet and the meaning of its single palm tree motif. Forged with the image of a fully-grown palm tree (with seven extending branches), the metal helmet was originally found in the volcanic remains among other Roman-era artifacts unearthed at the base of the Mount Vesuvius archaeological site where, in Roman Pompeii, gold currency minted with palm tree imagery acknowledged the Jewish presence in the Roman Empire. Of the twelve gladiator helmets salvaged from the ruins of the gladiators’ barracks also excavated in Pompeii, only one helmet was ornamented with the decorative palm tree motif. The correlation between the palm tree image on the helmet and Roman Judea history asserts the prestige of the helmet’s owner, according to Professor Rocca. Correspondingly, the decorative palm tree motif of the helmet, an enduring personalized and symbolic gesture, also signifies the identity of its owner – a Jewish gladiator.

A replica of Gladiator helmet, Thracian type depicting an image of a fully grown palm-tree with seven extending branches on display during a temporary exhibition ‘Gladiators in the Arena. Between Colosseum and Ludus Magnus‘, from July 21 to January 7, 2024 on the lower level of colosseum (Photograph by Brenda Lee Bohen)

 We will stop outside the  Colosseum, and discuss how the Temple financed the largest amphitheater in the world. We will pause at the Arch of Constantine, the triumphal arch dedicated to Constantine, also known as Constantine the Great, the early-4th century Roman emperor who instituted legislative measures regarding the Jews that forbade Jews from owning Christian slaves or to circumcise their slaves. Conversion of Christians to Judaism was also outlawed. We will walk up the Via Sacra to view the Arch of Titus that commemorates Rome’s victory over Judea in 71 CE.

Spoils panel, bas-reluef, Arch of Titus, c. 81 CE (Photograph by Brenda Lee Bohen)

We will pause to discuss . . . the “Tales of the Gnat” and “Why was Titus killed by a Gnat? Reflections on a Rabbinic Legend*,” the thought-provoking essay from the forthcoming monograph Titus’ Gnat: The Insect that Saved Judaism written by Professor Steven Fine of Yeshiva University in New York City. 

We will continue our walk down the Via Imperiali to see the forums of Nerva, Augustus, and Trajan’s Market. We will pass the ruins of Vespasian’s Temple of Peace, view the Roman Senate, the Palatine Hill, then stop at the forum of Julius Caesar, and discuss the Magna Carta of the Jews. We will show you the place where Titus displayed the Menorah, which he brought back from Jerusalem, as trophy. And where the parokhet was (supposedly) placed and kept according to the first-century Roman-Jewish historian and military leader, Flavius Josephus (born in 37 AD), who is known as Josephus. 

 Jewish Quarter (former ghetto), Spanish Temple, and the Great Synagogue of Rome

For three centuries, a walled ghetto separated the city’s Jews from the rest of the Roman population, with its gates opening at dawn and closing at dusk. During this time, Roman Jews were forced to pray in one building. Pavoncello guides visitors through the Spanish Temple and narrates a fascinating and lesser-known story about the history of the Cinque Scole. The Scola was the primary structure of the Jewish Quarter and the nucleus of the Roman Jewish community. 

The Great Synagogue, a work of religious architecture, is considered a fortress monument dating from the Segregation to the Emancipation of the Jews of Rome and dates from 1849 to 1871. Victor Emmanuel III, the former King of Italy, graciously honored the Great Synagogue with its first official royal visit in 1904. During World War II, the Great Synagogue endured the silence of Pius XII as well as having witnessed the deportation of the Jews from Rome on October 16, 1943. The October 9, 1982 terrorist attack on the Great Synagogue resulted in the religious structure’s protection by Israeli security guards. The Great Synagogue has also been blessed with historic Christian papal visits from Pope John Paul II in 1986, Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, and Pope Francis in 2016. 

Jewish Perspective of the Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel

Jewish Lapidary with a focus on Jewesses in ancient Rome. Nuanced engravings on Roman Jewish epitaphs discovered in several current museum displays, including the Jewish Lapidary in the Vatican Museums, demonstrate evidence of female leadership in synagogues entrusted with hierarchical and functional positions distinguished by high-ranking titles including priestess and elder. Also included are two epitaphs inscribed with both the Latinized and Hellenized forms of the female Biblical name, Esther. 

This suggests the Biblical figure Esther was an important role model for Jewish women (Jewesses) in ancient Rome. 

 Braccio Nuovo (New Wing
One of the most prestigious Neoclassical buildings of the 19th century, located in the Vatican Museums in Vatican City, is called the Braccio Nuovo meaning the New Wing. The Braccio Nuovo of the Chiaramonti Museum, housing thousands of antique works of sculpture, was designed by the Roman architect Raffaele Stern before his death in 1820. The walls of Braccio Nuovo are decorated with stucco friezes by the Italian sculptor Francesco Massimiliano Laboureur (1767-1831) and inspired by famous reliefs of antiquity, particularly the Spolia Panel. The Spolia Panel is an antique bas relief from the Arch of Titus dated circa 81 CE. A menorah brought to Rome from Jerusalem after the destruction of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, also known as the Beit Ha Miqdash, meaning The Holy Temple in the Hebrew language, was carried in triumph as plunder of war by Roman Imperial troops. Under Roman Imperial rule, the menorah, likened to a multi-branch candelabra, became a powerful and representative emblem of Judaism.

Spolia panel, bas-relief replica, 19th century, Vatican Museums ( Photograph by Brenda Lee Bohen)

The seven-branched golden menorah, silver trumpets, and the golden Table of Showbread, all pilfered as spoils of war at the destruction of the Second Temple, possess great significance to the Jews of Rome. The religious objects, popular motifs in religious art of antiquity, are the main focus of a sculptural panel carved in deep relief on the Arch of Titus. These sculptural depictions were originally painted with yellow ochre pigment and likely enframed within a blue pigmented background, according to Professor Steven Fine, Director of the Yeshiva University Arch of Titus Project at Yeshiva University. 

The 2012 Yeshiva University pilot project succeeded in its search for evidence of traces of colorwash on the menorah. The Yeshiva University international team found traces of yellow ochre on the arms and on the base of the menorah. This monumental discovery is consistent with Biblical, early Christian, and Talmudic writings, and corroborates the eye-witness testimony of the first-century Roman-Jewish historian and military leader, Flavius Josephus, born in 37 AD.

Professor Steven Fine talking with Micaela Pavoncello and her tour group in the Jewish Museum of Rome ( Photograph: Courtesy of Jewish Roma Walking Tours)

Sistine Temple (Sistine Chapel)
We will pause at the colorful Sistine Chapel panel boards to acknowledge how both Midrash (Jewish Biblical interpretation) and Biblical commentaries have emerged over time. We emphasize how these interpretations enrich our understanding, and the art of interpreting and expounding upon sacred scripture manifested in the Sistine Temple, known as the Sistine Chapel. 

The painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo, mononymous for Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564), spanning over 10,000 square feet of the ceiling surface, is the largest Old Testament fresco painting in the world. The fresco illustrates – event by event – the text from the first two Torah sections of the Book of Genesis. 

 These exiting new two-hour tours “How Jewish is Roman Jewish History” will be launched January 1, 2025. For more information contact Micaela Pavoncello.

Micaela Pavoncello with her tour group in the Jewish Quarter ( Photograph by Brenda Lee Bohen)