314 Rome Stories and Traditions

It feels like forever since I blogged last. Last week being mid-terms, means I’m half way down with this trip. This is sad yet exciting news, on one hand, I love what Italy has to offer and can’t get enough of this foreign culture. While on the other hand, I cannot wait to get back to America and share all my experiences with friends and family. I am hoping that the second half of this semester will be as electrifying and exhilarating as the first half. Being lost in emotion and thoughts, I better start answering this week’s question, which talks about the Jewish ghettos in Rome. It goes into the impact of the ghetto on the people living inside, and outside of the ghetto.

It is easy to see how the Jewish ghettos impacted ancient Rome through culture. They both persuaded each other by sharing ideas when they would buy and sell goods. Word would travel through these markets, and finally make it to the Roman people. The Jewish ghetto was a great place for ideas to spread. It was the center for the Jewish community; and made the community strong. Unlike current day, the Jewish ghetto was not a very nice place to live. It was dirty, unsanitary, and full of people. This obvious because they were forced to live inside a small part of town, so it was hard to keep things clean and organized.

It seems like even today the Jewish ghetto is the center of the Jewish Community; people crowd the streets when school and work lets out. They come out for all different reasons; kids sit on the street corner, talking about what happened in school, while adults order drinks and talk about local news. This is where the whole community comes together and builds a bond, just like the Italian’s. Which makes sense; since Jewish and Italian communities have been sharing ideas for years. There is also a polar opposite in the ghetto today. Today the ghetto is a place where the wealthy live; they buy large apartments where old buildings use to be. They buy these expensive apartments because the area has such great history and a lot of culture.

The Jewish Ghetto has a large impact on Roman history, and Italian history. They persuade a large number of people, and continue to do so. Jewish ghettos can be looked at as a negative and a positive for the Jewish community, and it continues to be the center for Jewish culture.