History

In the early years of the twentieth century, the Jewish community of Ferrara comprised more than 1000 people, who were interwoven into the social and cultural fabric of the city.

With the advent of Fascism, like many fellow citizens, the majority of the Jews of Ferrara (with some important exceptions) accepted the new doctrine. A case in point was Renzo Ravenna, who held the position of podestà (mayor) of Ferrara from 1926 to 1938. The racial laws promulgated in September 1938 struck everyone indiscriminately, stripping Italian citizens of the Jewish faith of numerous rights and barring them from public life.

In Ferrara, the overwhelming resentment towards the Jews culminated in the looting and destruction of the four Synagogues, first the German, then the Fanese and later the Italian and Spanish synagogues.

In 1944, a year after the onset of arrests and the first killings, the building on via Mazzini 95, the seat of the community, was occupied by the authorities of the Italian Social Republic. The ceremonial objects, representing the Community’s heritage, that had earlier avoided confiscation, were then seized. Only two of the original lists of these objects, precisely drafted then by the Guardia di Finanza and the Prefecture, remain today: in the winter of 1944, the requisitioned objects were, in turn, stolen from the fascists.

Following the difficult return to life after the Second World War, the Jewish community of Ferrara inherited the ceremonial objects of the Jewish community of Cento; part of this collection is still in use today and several items are here on display.