When: 01/06/2011

Where: At Spiro Ark's Centre, 25-26 Enford Street, London W1H 1DW

Time: 19:30

Contact: 020 7723 9991

Price: £10 + £1 Internet booking fee

This event has now passed.

What links Alberto Moravia to Lorenzo dei Medici's dancing-master? Or Mozart's librettist to the founder of Olivetti?
Jews have lived in Italy for over 2000 years. Rome is Europe's oldest surviving Jewish community. But Italy has been a united nation only since 1861. Before then it was a collection of duchies, republics, kingdoms and Papal States, each with its own unique history and character. The history of the Jews in Italy also varied according to the area in which they lived. As boundaries and rulers changed, so did their fate.
This talk will begin with snapshots of some of the more significant Jewish communities in Italy, to illustrate their differences in origin and destiny, before focusing on Parma, in Emilia Romagna, the heart of Italy, now a dying community of barely 20 families but still home to one of the most important collections of Hebrew Manuscripts in the world.