Launched from the Rome Global Gateway, Initiatives are long-term collaborations on a single theme designed to bring together Notre Dame students and faculty with partners in the city. Three Initiatives are currently underway: Mapping Rome, Pathways to Rome and Encountering Jewish Rome. All above said projects link teaching, research, and our mission as a Catholic university.
The initiative Encountering Jewish Rome focuses on promoting the preservation of the Jewish historical heritage in the city, as well as teaching, undergraduate and graduate research, internships, public lectures, and partnerships in the field of Roman Jewish Studies.
On November 20th, the Rome Gateway hosted the event "A Special Day: Family Scenes in Jewish Rome before the Shoah. When history passed by Via Celimontana." The event was organized in collaboration with the Jewish Community of Rome and focused on the presentation of the first documentary including familial motion pictures from just a few years before racial laws, and then deportation, hit the Jewish community of Rome in 1938. The documentary Director Claudio Della Seta, Silvia Haia Antonucci, and Claudio Procaccia from the Jewish Community in Rome as well as Mrs. Mirella Fiorentini, one of the protagonists of the documentary, were present and offered comments.
Over 100 people attended the event in Rome, together with students and faculty from campus, thanks to the streaming that was organized in collaboration with the Center for Italian Studies, which co-sponsored the event.
In connection with the presentation, the Rome Gateway organized a tour of the Notre Dame Villa, for which it was honored to host three former students at the time the Villa was a Jewish School under racial laws, including Mrs. Fiorentini.
The event led to the publication of a lengthy article by one of the Italian leading newspapers La Stampa.
Originally published by at rome.nd.edu on December 12, 2019.