and people arrived from both north and south. However, the turning point was the arrival in 1967-70 of 4-5,000 Libyan Jews. “They were more religious and had a


more modern approach to trade. They had larger families and in a few decades they


became the most active part of the community.” RavAriel di Porto, surprisingly young


and enthusiastic for one with the title of Director of the Rabbinate, talked to us about the changing attitudes of the community. The vitality we now see on the Ghetto streets is, he told us, one element of the resurgent interest of Roman Jews in Jewish identity and religion.As well as referring to the impetus given by the Libyan immigrants and Rome’s greater economic prosperity, he puts this down to the success of the Jewish school over the last 20 years. “There are now mature adults who


have benefitted from its transmission of Jewish values. People again respect and observe Jewish tradition and religion.” He mentions that in all the 16 synagogues there are big celebrations of the festivals. These provide a social milieu for young people to meet and there is also a central organisation catering to the young which is so successful that they are planning another. Sport is particularly popular. The topic of intermarriage is raised by RabbiAriel as a problem in a small


Rav Ariel Di Porto


community where it is difficult to find Jewish partners.When Elio Toaff arrived as Chief Rabbi after theWar, to build up the community he authorised conversions of children. This is still done when the mother does not wish to convert but apparently is now a long and laborious process – problematic when one child in the family was already converted under the previous, more relaxed regime. “The Jewish school is an important part


of the process,” says RabbiAriel. “We put a lot of effort into creating a Jewish ambiance, for Shabbat for example, so that the child will be able to follow Jewish tradition.” He estimates that 20%of children at the school do not have a Jewishmother. RabbiAriel finishes by telling us


about his own synagogue in the town of Ostia, where many Romans take their holidays. Though a synagogue there is only a plan and most activities take place in a tent, he is keen to tell us about the great facilities they now have for Rosh Hashana andYom Kippur, as well as courses for children and adults. Like the others we talk to, he is quietly optimistic about the future


micaela


Pavoncello The super -guide who takes the l id off the communi ty


JANET LEVIN


Roman Jews are Orthodox in structure, conservative in tradition, Reform in behaviour and Catholic in religion. They are shopkeepers. They say, ‘you think we close on Shabbat. Give us a break.’


Micaela Pavoncello is a true Roman Jew. Her father’s family has lived in Rome for 2,000 years; hermother is one of the 4,000 Libyan Jews that arrived to augment and enliven the community in the late 1960s. Micaela is beautiful, charming, vivacious and cultured. She has, as she proudly tells us, been featured in Newsweek and the Jerusalem Post and appeared in Howard Jacobson’s Channel Four programme on the Bible. She is certainly a contradiction to the image of the Roman Jew, particularly the


Roman Jewish woman, that she herself presents – with a good deal of humour. “The Jews here are in the shmatte


business, includingmy father. I wanted to go to high school and college.Mymother said, ‘no one willmarry you.At least if you go to college you should become a doctor,’but I said I wanted to study art…ARoman Jewishmother is a double Jewishmother… The souvenir sellers at the Trevi fountain are Jewish, they also dress up as gladiators – I told you education was not a priority.” Micaela is talking toVesna Domany


Hardy andmyself plus eight other tourists who had heard or read that her tour of the Ghetto was something special.And so it is. She takes us to the Great Synagogue, to the JewishMuseumand through the old streets of the Ghetto, enlivening our experience by bringing to life its inhabitants, both past and present. She knows how to engage her listeners. Micaela describes life in the ghetto


which flooded continually, shows us, in one of the few remaining original streets, how Ghetto houses squeezed in six floors where the house next door had only four. Showing us the piazza which was once a fishmarket, she tells us of some benefits of discrimination.As the Jews were only allowed to eat small fish, they kept healthy


We meet Cultural Centre Director Claudio Procaccia as we return from our tour with Micaela


because the sardines and anchovies were the ones that had Omega 3; Jews were blamed for an outbreak of the plague and so were not allowed to leave the Ghetto – and that saved them. Other stories are not so positive. We hear how the Jews had to pay for the


JEWISH RENAISSANCE OCTOBER 2011 21


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