FERRARA, ITALY – Italy gets a Hanukkah present – the opening of a national Jewish museum.
The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, MEIS, opened Wednesday with an inaugural temporary exhibit called “Jews, an Italian Story: The First Thousand Years” that illustrates the history of Jewish presence in Italy from ancient Roman times until the Middle Ages.
The exhibit, which will run until September 16, 2018, is the first step in a multi-year program of exhibits and events that will culminate in the final form of the museum and its permanent core exhibit, expected in late 2020.
MEIS is located in a complex of buildings that once housed a prison in Ferrara, a historic town in northeast Italy between Venice and Bologna that has a Jewish history dating back to early medieval times.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella and other dignitaries attended the formal inauguration ceremony on Wednesday, including Culture Minister Dario Franceschini, who is from Ferrara and has been a longtime supporter of the project.
— JTA
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