News Religion

Italy to complete National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah

By: Wanted in Rome

Date:

09 Nov, 2019

Italian culture minister sanctions €25 million to complete museum.

Italy's culture minister Dario Franceschini has sanctioned state funds of €25 million - cancelled by the previous government - to complete the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah - MEIS in the north Italian city of Ferrara.

Announcing the news on 9 November, Franceschini said: "We owe it to Liliana Segre, to her personally and to what she represents", in reference to the 89-year-old Life Senator and Holocaust survivor who has been put under police protection after receiving death threats.

Franceschini described MEIS as a "museum for knowledge and dialogue because the encounter between cultures is the best antidote to the risks of these times, to the fear of diversity, hatred and intolerance."

In development since 2003, MEIS is located in a complex of buildings that once housed a prison in Ferrara, a city with a Jewish history dating back to early mediaeval times.

The museum explores the long and complex relationship between Rome and Jerusalem, Christianity and Judaism. MEIS traces the turbulent history of Italy's Jews, from the Inquisition and forced segregation in ghettoes during the Middle Ages to the anti-Semitic racial laws and the Holocaust in the 20th century.