The Jewish Museum is housed in the synagogue of Genoa. It is located in the place of worship of the Jewish religion: the name itself, synagogue, refers to the Greek word "meeting". In particular, that of Genoa, open to the public since 1935, is one of the few examples of synagogues inaugurated during the darkest period for the Jewish world: the Fascist era.
Its realization derives from the growth, caused by the industrialization, of the Jewish community at the beginning of the twentieth century (although it had already been present in Genoa for centuries). The Genoese Jews, greatly increased in number, searched for a place where they could practice their faith freely and reunite. Thus, was constructed the largest Italian synagogue built in the Fascist period.
The architect Francesco Morandi took care of the structure: with the large dome, the massive building with a square base and the high loopholes on the walls. If you cross the entrance, you get the feeling of being in a big amphitheater amphitheatre. There is also the signature of the city through the hand of one of its famous artists: in fact, at the end of the 1950s, the Genoese Emanuele Luzzati conceived three stained glass windows, symbol of the twelve tribes of Israel and of the menorah (i.e. the seven-branched candelabrum that should never go out located inside the temple of Jerusalem).
In November 1943, one of the most painful moments of the Italian Holocaust took place in the synagogue of Genoa. Fifty Jews were captured and deported to Auschwitz. Today they are remembered, together with the other victims of the Holocaust of the Jewish community of Genoa, through a marble stele located outside the building.