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Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm
Chaim Seidler-Feller recently celebrated his 40th year of working with students and faculty as the executive director of the Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA. Currently director emeritus, he also serves as director of the Hartman Fellowship for Campus Professionals. An ordained rabbi, he also completed a master’s degree in rabbinic literature. Chaim has been a lecturer in the Departments of Sociology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA and in the Department of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is also a faculty member of the Shalom Hartman Institute, North America, and of the Wexner Heritage Foundation and was rabbinic consultant to Barbra Streisand during the making of the film Yentl. The International Hillel Center has granted Chaim the Hillel Professional Recognition Award “for blending the love of Jewish tradition with the modern intellectual approach of the university.”
Culturally, historically, and spiritually, Italian Jewry is unique—considered neither Sephardi nor Ashkenazi. The Jews of Italy, who have lived there since the destruction of the Second Temple, have always had their own distinct culture, religious rites, and cuisine, and its northern kingdoms and duchies were home to small but vibrant Jewish communities.
Located at the crossroads of commerce between the Mediterranean Sea and northern Europe, the Jews of the Piedmont and northern Italy enjoyed splendor and success for hundreds of years, though the Jewish presence in most of these areas has mostly disappeared. Nevertheless, many of its small, jewel-like synagogues are still intact. There are towns without Jews but with spectacular synagogues that remain a living testament to once-thriving Jewish communities.
Beginning in Milan, and making our way through the Piedmont, we will enjoy Italy’s beautiful and exotic atmosphere as we travel from Milan to Bologna. During our journey, we will view some of the lovely synagogues that survived the Holocaust and were kept intact, as testimony to what were once small but thriving Jewish communities. Along the way, we will meet with members of the Jewish communities of Turin and Milan and learn about Italian Jewish history and culture from our accompanying scholar, Chaim Seidler-Feller.
We invite you to join us as we visit some of these hidden treasures: beautiful original synagogues that recall the kabbalists, physicians, bankers, peddlers, and poets who left their mark in the distinctive annals of Jewish Italy.
Arrive in Milan and check in to the 5-star Grand Hotel et de Milan, superbly located in the city center. Rest and relax.
Afternoon: (optional) Walking tour of the area, including the Milan Cathedral, La Scala Square, and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II—Italy’s oldest shopping gallery, under a four-story, glass-domed ceiling.
Evening: Presentation by Chaim Seidler-Feller, “Jewish Life and Culture in Italy: The Tension Between Cultural Integration and Religious Separation,” followed by an opportunity to get to know one another and opening dinner at our hotel (included).
Depart for the Milan train station to see the new Holocaust memorial, “Platform 21.” The platform, today part of the Holocaust Memorial, was secretly hidden under the central railway station and used to deport Italian Jews to Auschwitz. Situated below the railway tracks, it is now a place for reflection, study, and research that is open to all.
After lunch on our own, a private guided tour of the Pinacoteca di Brera Gallery, containing one of the foremost collections of 19th- and 20th-century Italian paintings.
Evening: Free; dinner on our own.
Depart for Santa Maria delle Grazie, where will can view Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting The Last Supper. We will continue to the Museo del Novecento, known for its impressive collection of more than 400 works of 20th-century Italian art.
Lunch on our own at the Museo del Novecento, before continuing to the Ambrosiana Gallery for a private guided tour. This gallery comprises several exquisite artworks from the 15th through 17th centuries, including The Musician, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci; Raphael’s cartoon for the School of Athens fresco; and Caravaggio’s famous still-life painting The Basket of Fruit.
Evening: Presentation, “Distinctive Features of Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Italian Synagogue Architecture and Prayer,” followed by dinner on our own.
Morning visit to the Sinagoga Centrale, Milan’s main synagogue, founded in 1892 and designed by the Italian architect Luca. Completely refurbished following World War II, it is quite beautiful inside, though only its original façade remains; services are conducted in the Sephardic as well as the Italian traditions.
Afternoon: Free for last-minute shopping or exploring sites of interest on our own.
Evening: Free; dinner on our own.
Depart for Turin. En route, we will visit the astonishing synagogue and museum in Casale Monferrato. A spectacular architectural gem, the synagogue, built in 1595, is renowned for its exquisite Baroque interior, with walls and ceiling embellished with elaborate painting, carving, and gilding.
Following lunch (included), we will continue to Turin and check in to the 5-star deluxe Principi di Piemonte hotel, noted for its superb setting and wonderful location.
Rest and relax before our Shabbat dinner (included).
Morning: Free to relax, explore Turin on our own, or (optional) attend services at the Sinagoga di Torino, the Great Synagogue of Turin, also known as the Israelite Temple.
Afternoon: Walking tour from our hotel to the world-famous Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) for a private guided tour. This museum specializes in Egyptian archaeology and anthropology, housing one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities in Europe, with more than 30,000 artifacts.
Evening: Free; dinner on our own.
Day trip to southern Piedmont, where we will visit two charming, small-town synagogues — hidden treasures off the beaten track that few see or visit and that would be forgotten and abandoned if not for the Jewish community of Turin still preserving them.
Lunch (included) along the way.
Evening: Free; dinner on our own.
Depart for Bologna, location of the oldest university in the world. Bologna is also renowned for its talmudic and Torah study academies, as well as the printing of Jewish religious books.
En route to Bologna, we will stop at Asti, which has its own unique Jewish history. Though it is believed that Asti’s Jewish community existed as early as the eighth century, it became prominent in the 14th century, with the arrival of many Jews expelled from France. As a result, the Jews of Asti, Fossano, and Moncalvo—known collectively by the Hebrew acronym AFAM—also had unique Jewish prayer traditions and spoke a local dialect of Piedmontese Hebrew. The synagogue that we will visit was founded in 1786.
From Asti, we will continue to Parma, acclaimed for its art and architecture. An elegant city, Parma features a Romanesque cathedral and a stunning 12th-century baptistry.
Upon arrival in Parma, lunch (included) and a visit to the Biblioteca Palatina, best known for preserving its rare-book collection and its impressive collection of old Hebrew manuscripts.
In the late afternoon, we will continue to Bologna and check in to the 5-star Grand Hotel Majestic Già Baglioni, a luxurious hotel superbly located in the city center. Rest and relax before dinner at our hotel (included).
We will tour Bologna, beginning with a visit to the fascinating Anatomical Teatro, part of one of the world’s oldest continuously operating universities, which is within walking distance of our hotel. The Anatomical Theater, now a museum and part of the University of Bologna, was originally used for anatomy lectures. With an imposing marble table that was used for demonstrations for aspiring medical students, the theater contains superb wooden carvings made from spruce.
We will then walk to the Archivio di Stato di Bologna, where we will see fragments of an 11th-century Talmud and images of an ancient Sefer Torah, before breaking for lunch on our own.
Evening presentation by Chaim Seidler-Feller and Rabbis Obadia Sforno and Shmuel David Luzatto (Shadal): “Modernizing Sages in Bologna and Padua,” followed by dinner on our own.
Day trip to Ferrara, setting of the best-selling book The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Ferrara, known throughout Europe as a leading site for Jewish publications in the 15th and 16th centuries, was home to some of Italian Jewry’s most outstanding personalities, as well as a place where Hebrew printing flourished. We will enjoy a guided walking tour of this enchanting city, including the original Jewish ghetto; the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah; and the Jewish cemetery—an evocative, silent place dominated by nature. In the cemetery is the tomb of Giorgio Bassani, author of The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, who died in 2000.
Break for lunch on our own in Ferrara, with time for meandering about the town before returning to Bologna in late afternoon.
Evening: Free; dinner on our own.
Morning visit to Bologna’s Holocaust memorial, whose architects won the International Design Competition. The winning design, called the Shoah Memorial, is a moving testament to the Jews of Italy who perished in the Holocaust. We will then visit the Bologna synagogue, before breaking for lunch on our own.
Afternoon: Free for last-minute shopping or exploring sites of interest on our own.
Evening: Closing farewell dinner at our hotel (included).
Depart for home.
