About the Book
Winner of the Catholic Media Association’s 2024 First Place Award in History
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The Jewish community of Rome is the oldest Jewish community in Europe. It is also the Jewish community with the longest continuous history, having avoided interruptions, expulsions, and annihilations since 139 BCE. For most of that time, Jewish Romans have lived in close contact with the largest continuously functioning international organization: the Roman Catholic Church. Given the church’s origins in Judaism, Jews and Catholics have spent two thousand years negotiating a necessary and paradoxical relationship. With engaging stories that illuminate the history of Jews and Jewish-Catholic relations in Rome, Intimate Strangers investigates the unusual relationship between Jews and Catholics as it has developed from the first century CE to the present in the Eternal City.
Fredric Brandfon innovatively frames these relations through an anthropological lens: how the idea and language of family have shaped the self-understanding of both Roman Jews and Catholics. The familial relations are lopsided, the powerful family member often persecuting the weaker one; the church ghettoized the Jews of Rome longer than any other community in Europe. Yet respect and support are also part of the family dynamic—for instance, church members and institutions protected Rome’s Jews during the Nazi occupation—and so the relationship continues.
Brandfon begins by examining the Arch of Titus and the Jewish catacombs as touchstones, painting a picture of a Jewish community remaining Jewish over centuries. Papal processions and the humiliating races at Carnival time exemplify Jewish interactions with the predominant Catholic powers in medieval and Renaissance Rome. The Roman Ghetto, the forcible conversion of Jews, emancipation from the ghetto in light of Italian nationalism, the horrors of fascism and the Nazi occupation in Rome, the Second Vatican Council proclamation absolving Jews of murdering Christ, and the celebration of Israel’s birth at the Arch of Titus are interwoven with Jewish stories of daily life through the centuries. Intimate Strangers takes us on a compelling sweep of two thousand years of history through the present successes and dilemmas of Roman Jews in postwar Europe.
PRAISE
“A fascinating and readable history that’s essential for those interested in Jewish or Italian history.”—Library Journal
“[During] two millennia, the Jews of Rome both thrived and endured extreme hardship, their fate alternately buffeted by persecution and acceptance… Frederic Brandfon skillfully tackles these stark contradictions…. his book … rich in detail.” —Jewish Book Council
“A fascinating story of the Jews’ unique resilience and strength living in Rome without interruption for twenty-two centuries.”—Riccardo Shemuel Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome
“An absolutely new approach. Investigating an unusual relationship—the one between Jews and Catholics that in Rome could develop uninterruptedly over almost two thousand years—Intimate Strangers frames it anthropologically while revealing notable knowledge about the life of Jews in Rome and their mutual relationships with the Catholic world. This is a well-written, well-documented, and well-argued book.”—Gabriela Yael Franzone, coordinator of the Department of Heritage and Culture of the Jewish Community of Rome
“An engaging and sometimes surprising exploration of the intriguing history of Rome.”—Mark Kurlansky, author of thirty-five books, including Cod, Salt, and The Importance of Not Being Ernest
“Most involving. There is always fascinating new material on the next page.”—Judith Roumani, author of Jews in Southern Tuscany during the Holocaust: Ambiguous Refuge
“This is a scholarly work that any enthusiast of Jewish history will enjoy. Recommended for academic libraries as well as Jewish high school, community, and synagogue libraries.” —Association of Jewish Libraries
