The Golden Age of Italian Jews

The Golden Age of Italian Jews covers nine decades, 1848-1938, during which Italian Jews rose from the ghetto to acquire full civil rights and eventually occupy commanding positions in Italian society. Never more than one tenth of one percent of the total Italian population, Jews became army generals, mayors of major cities, prime ministers, foreign secretaries, and high-ranking university professors.

Segre describes what made this meteoric rise possible, explaining how Jews negotiated their futures with a three step process: seizing opportunities to gain acceptance, excelling in their trades and professions, and reaching a point of assimilation into the fabric of society. By the early twentieth century, Jews were integral to Italian life, but all of their progress came to a sudden cataclysmic end in 1938 with the arrival of fascism.

This story, interspersed with illustrative anecdotes, includes several from the author's family. One revolves around the author's great-grandfather Marco Treves, who was born in 1814. He became an architect, a career path previously closed to Jews, and he worked in Rome and Paris before settling in Florence. There, ever a pious Jew, he reached the pinnacle of his career, designing the city's grand new synagogue and cemetery. His favorite daughter, the author's grandmother Amelia Treves Segre, was caught in a 1943 roundup by Nazi soldiers in Rome, and she died in Auschwitz.

The dramatic rise and brutal fall of Italian Jews covers the full arch of their golden age. It is a story full of great successes and horrendous tragedies.