{"id":7008,"date":"2026-09-30T14:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/museejuifmontreal.ca\/?page_id=7008"},"modified":"2026-09-30T17:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T21:08:17","slug":"synagogue-stories-italy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/museejuifmontreal.ca\/en\/exhibitions\/synagogue-stories-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Synagogue Stories: Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Synagogue Stories: Italy<\/p><\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Welcome to Synagogue Stories: Italy<\/h2><\/div>\n

This collaborative project functions as a resource supplementing the Montreal Jewish Museum\u2019s Official Collateral Event at La Biennale di Venezia: Nabatele, an open-air installation by Anna Kamyshan.<\/p>

In these stories, which highlight synagogues past and present in Montreal, Italy, and the former Pale, readers will recognize aspects of Nabatele through architectural references and the life it could sustain within. Spanning geography, tradition, and time, these synagogues reveal themselves to be more than houses of worship; they are also sites of collective memory, resilience, and belonging. For the synagogues that no longer stand, the legacy of their congregants becomes their ultimate Ner Tamid: the enduring light.<\/p>

Here, we bring our attention to Italy, featuring synagogues such as The Synagogue of Cuneo (Sinagoga di Cuneo), The Great Synagogue of Rome (Tempio Maggiore), The Great Synagogue of Trieste (Tempio Israelitico di Trieste), and The Great German Synagogue (Scuola Grande Tedesca).<\/p><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n

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The Synagogue of Cuneo (Sinagoga\u00a0di Cuneo)<\/h2>\n
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The Synagogue of Cuneo in Italy\u2019s alpine Piedmont region, near the borders of Switzerland and France, is still housed\u00a0in the same building\u00a0from when the area was the Jewish Ghetto. While both the synagogue and ghetto were constructed in 1611, its present appearance dates from 1884 when following unification in 1870, the building was finally considered for renovation. Emancipation of the Jewish peoples had taken place\u00a0nearly twenty\u00a0years prior, in 1848.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Simple yet elegant, the facade features two dark wooden arched doorways framed in stone and surmounted by two windows. It is flanked by two Corinthian columns supporting a cornice bearing a Hebrew inscription from the Book of Exodus: \u201cThey shall make Me a sanctuary, and I will dwell among them.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The prayer hall is located on the second floor and is richly decorated with elegant frescoes and a trompe-l’\u0153il ceiling that creates the illusion of a dome. The interior layout, redesigned at the end of the nineteenth century, includes rows of benches facing the Tevah, the raised platform from which the service is conducted, and the Aron ha-Kodesh, the Holy Ark that houses the Torah scrolls. The Baroque Aron ha-Kodesh, completed in 1783, is decorated with a large menorah and symbols of the Temple in Jerusalem. Inaugurated in 2015, on the lower floors of the synagogue are the \u201cDavide Cavaglion\u201d Library and Center for the Study of the Jews in Piedmont.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the synagogue’s most distinctive features is an unexploded cannonball embedded beneath the\u00a0Tevah, which struck the building during the Austro-Russian siege of 1799 but\u00a0failed to\u00a0explode. To commemorate this miraculous escape, the Jewish community\u00a0established\u00a0a local celebration known as\u00a0the \u201cPurim of the Bomb.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside, the courtyard still preserves the historic oven once used to bake the unleavened bread or matzah for Pesach (Passover).\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n\n

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