On September 14th, 2017, Centro Primo Levi and the Jewish Museum of Rome will open a learning space, The Rome Lab, dedicated to the history of  the Roman Jews and of  the twenty-two centuries relations between Rome and Jerusalem. The Rome Lab, located in the Selz Gallery at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street will offer weekly presentations through January 14th 2018. The public, students and scholars are welcome to join and participate in the conversation. All programs are free.

The project is designed to respond to and converse with the Yeshiva University Museum’s exhibition The Arch of Titus – from Jerusalem to Rome, and Back, which explores the Arch of Titus as symbol of continuity and rupture in the history of the Jewish people and state sovereignty. In the year 70 C.E., when Roman troops raided Jerusalem destroying the Second Temple and taking its treasures and the legendary golden menorah to Rome, a new era began. From then, the Jewish diaspora born with the Babylonian exile, was presented with a new gravitational center: Rome.