Stunning Menorah Depictions Are On Display — At The Vatican
(JTA) — An unprecedented exhibit centered on the image, history and symbolism of the seven-branched menorah has opened in Rome.
Titled “Menorah: Cult, History and Myth,” the exhibition is a joint project of the Vatican Museum and the Rome Jewish Museum — the first time the two museums have cooperated in this way. It will run through July 23.
Part of the display is installed in the Vatican Museum’s Carlo Magno exhibition space in St. Peter’s Square, and part of it in the Rome Jewish Museum, located about a mile away in the complex of the Great Synagogue that towers over the Tiber River.
The exhibition, which took 3 1/2 years to organize, includes some 130 paintings, illustrations and other depictions of menorahs from around the world. The oldest object on display is the so-called Magdala Stone, a vividly carved block dating from the first century C.E. that experts believe may be a representation of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.
The exhibition explores the fate of the solid gold menorah from the Temple that was brought to Rome as a spoil of war when the Romans sacked the Temple in 70 C.E. – a scene immortalized in a carving on the ancient Arch of Titus.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
