A new collaborative website offer access to the Jewish archives of Piedmont. This rich and well presented resource weaves together historical literature with a vast collection of digitized documents narrating various aspects of Jewish communal life in the region. The website is part of the Unified System of Italian Archives (SIUSA) and brings together through the Internet collections from different institutions.
In the past ten years the Jewish archives of Piedmont have undergone overall reorganization under the aegis of the Soprintendenza Archivistica per il Piemonte e la Valle d’Aosta, the Jewish Communities of Piedmont, the Archivio ebraico Terracini, the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo, the Regione Piemonte and the Compagnia di San Paolo.
This project gives access to a vast range of records dating back all the way to the 15th century. They document the history of communities that are still active and of others that no longer exist. Documents that have been made available online reflect various aspects of Jewish life in the region: religious life and affairs, relations among different Jewish communities and between Jewish communities and local institutions, secular and Catholic.
Moreover, in collaboration with the Archives of the Accademia of Santa Cecilia, the portal makes available files from the Leo Levi musical archive exemplifying traditional Jewish Piedmontese songs and the unique rite known as APAM (an acronym for the communities of Asti, Fossano and Moncalvo).
In addition to this the portal offers access to the collections of schools, charities, brotherhoods/sisterhoods and to several family archives.
Jewish archives of Piedmont at a glance
- 19 audio files of the Jewish rite of Piedmont
- A gallery of 500 images
- Original documents from 118 different archives
- Archives of 19 Piedmontese Jewish Communities
- History of the Jewish archives in Italy and Piedmont
- Geographical reference:
Information about each Jewish community
Community Archive
Other archives relating to each community
Historical and artistic highlights
Relevant historical figures
Crossreferences - Subjects
The materials are organized according to a system of 16 subjects and categories that help researchers identify documents in each field. - Photo gallery
Over 500 photographs include images from ghettos, synagogue furnishing, cemeteries, textiles, ketubot, ritual objects, prayer books and other archival documents.
