Bologna – The Museum of Jewish community Of Ferrara will be reborn with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region. The structure, located in the Palace of the Three Ancient Synagogues in via Mazzini 95, had been closed since 2012 due to the damage caused by the earthquake.
The details of the restoration project and the reopening, scheduled for 2025, were illustrated today in a press conference at the headquarters of the Jewish Community by the regional councilor for Culture and Landscape, Mauro Felicori, by the president of the Jewish Community of Ferrara, Lucky Arbib and the architect Maurizio Anastasipresent the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Ferrara, Marco Gulinelli.
The Museum has represented, since its opening in 1997, a point of reference for Jewish culture and the history of one of the oldest and most prestigious European Jewish communities. The special project presented by the Jewish Community of Ferrara will be entirely financed by the Emilia-Romagna Region, with a overall contribution of 335 miles euro.
“The Region has convincedly decided to support the project proposed by the Jewish Community of Ferrara – stated the councilor Congratulate-. The Museum, located in the heart of the ancient Ghetto, due to its location and the richness of the materials it conserves, has all the potential to become the driving force of an ideal path of valorisation of the Jewish presence in Ferrara, which from the Meis, Museum national of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, crossing the Ghetto, arrives at the Jewish cemetery in via delle Vigne”.
The project will include, in addition to seismic safety measures, also the creation of new historical, cultural and conceptual routes and exhibition arrangements for the valorization of precious ancient objects and important preserved historical documents. For the implementation of the intervention, the Region will stipulate an agreement with the Jewish Community of Ferrara in which the criteria, methods and timing of implementation will be established, as required by the regional law of the sector, Regional Law 7 of 2020.
The forecast for the completion of the works is estimated atApril 2025.
The funding granted by the Emilia-Romagna Region will allow the exhibition enhancement of the entire building, its rooms and its three Synagogues, with the complete reorganization of the internal routes, the elimination of architectural barriers and the creation of a new lighting system.
The new museum itinerary, with extensive multimedia technological equipment, will present various “in-depth areas”, enriched thanks to the cataloging and systematisation activity of all the documents, objects and places of the Jewish presence in Ferrara, currently dispersed in various private funds and public archives.
An international research group dedicated to the study of the diaspora and the Jewish presence in Ferrara over the six centuries of its history will also be activated. In addition to the vast exhibition of artistic objects of worship and life and historical documents, the intention is to implement the collection with new and additional elements that above all enrich the system of territorial relations and cultural influences, through the in-depth study of the contribution given by the Jews to the arts of the twentieth century.
The Museum of the Jewish Community of Ferrara
It was born in 1997 inside the main building of the city community, the Synagogue Complex in Via Mazzini 95, where religious and administrative functions have taken place continuously since the first half of the 1400s. Located in the heart of the ancient ghetto created in 1627, after the devolution of the city to the Papal State, the Complex has the singularity of enclosing three synagogues active in the exercise of worship (the Italian Temple, the German Rite Synagogue and the Fano Oratory).
The Museum, located on the second floor of the building, was created with the aim of representing and passing on the identity, history and tradition of the centuries-old Jewish presence in Ferrara, in safeguarding its religious, cultural and civil meanings, through commented presentation of ritual objects in use in the Synagogue and in families and with rich documentation of the Jewish presence in Ferrara. There were four exhibition rooms, in which, through objects and documents, a general summary of Jewish, religious and family life and the main stages of the city’s Jewish history were represented. The Community’s museum collection includes a very precious and large compendium of finely crafted silver, sacred furnishings, very fine ancient fabrics and important historical documents.
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Attached are photos of the press conference