Obj. ID: 52093
Memorials Marker at the Destroyed Jewish Cemetery in the Aventine Hill Rose Garden in Rome, Italy, 1950(?)
Memorial Name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
The destroyed Jewish Cemetery
Description
Just inside the gated entrance to the Rose Garden, to the left, is a small raised paved area that supports a trellised pavilion with a pyramidal roof. At one corner is a free-standing marker; a roughly trapezoidal concrete pier with a flat top that is slightly broader than the rest of the monument. Attach midway up the face of the pier, set off-center, is a white marble (?) plaque, in the shape of the Tablets of the Law, upon which are inscribed in Hebrew the first words of the Ten Commandments. There is no other text.
Part of the garden has been laid out in a pattern that resembles the shape of a menorah. This appears to have been an intentional commemorative design.
It is presumed the remains of many – perhaps thousands – of Jews remain buried on the site and thus by Jewish law, the Rose Garden is treated as a sacred space, still a cemetery. Visitors have placed memorial stones on the top of the marker.
Inscriptions
Tablet Plaque Right Column (Hebrew)
אנכִי ייה
לא יהיה
לא תשא
זכור את יום
כבד את
Tablet Plaque Left Column (Hebrew)
לא תרצח
לא תנאף
לא תגנב
לא תענה
לא תחמ'
Translation: [the ten commandments]
Commissioned by
[to be determined]
sub-set tree: 
Stone (possibly marble)
The monument marks the site of a Jewish cemetery in Rome destroyed in 1936.
Remains of a medieval cemetery were discovered and excavated in Trastevere (Rome) in 2017. This had been destroyed in the first half of the 17th century (certainly by 1645) when Pope Urban VIII Barberini expanded the city walls and disrupted the area. At that time, a new plot on the Aventine Hill was given to the Jews and this was in use until it was destroyed for a new road, The Via Del Circo Massimo. along the edge of the Aventine above the Circus Maximus, all part of Mussolini's creation of his Third Rome.
Today the city's famous Roseto Comunale (Rose Garden) occupies the site. Not all the remains were removed when it was closed. The marker at the entrance to the Rose Garden acknowledges the Jewish history of the site.
The destruction of the cemetery set the stage for the destruction of the Jewish cemeteries elsewhere. Just a few years later in 1938, Fascist officials in Italian-controlled Rhodes destroyed the cemetery there. Then, there was even bigger destruction in German-occupied Thessaloniki, where the massive cemetery was quickly destroyed at the urging of local officials who saw its vast space as an obstruction to urban growth. Aristotle University was subsequently built on the site.
David, Ariel. “Sub Rosa: A Rome Garden With a Secret Jewish Past,” Haaretz, June 11, 2014, https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-06-11/ty-article/romes-secret-jewish-garden/0000017f-db14-db22-a17f-ffb5bc7f0000 (accessed September 20, 2023)
Kleinlehrer, D. “Many Hearts Ache As Rome Excavates an Ancient Cemetery,” Jewish Daily Bulletin, August 20, 1934, http://pdfs.jta.org/1934/1934-08-20_2928.pdf (accessed September 20, 2023)
Tercatin, Rossella, “The not-so-rosy history of Rome’s public Rose Garden,” Times of Israel, May 20, 2016