Israel aan de Tiber

Roma non basta una vita: a single human life is not enough to get to know the city of Rome well. Leonard Rutgers knows the city like few others. In this book he takes his readers underground, to a unique place that even modern residents and long-time visitors hardly know: the Jewish catacombs.

Using previously unpublished illustrations and research, Rutgers tells the fascinating story that hides behind the artifacts and other archaeological finds from these catacombs. Examining how a migrant community dealt with everything that came their way, from childhood through adulthood to old age and death, Rutgers shows how the Jews of ancient Rome managed to integrate successfully, and how they did so without compromising their own Jewish identity. In this way, Israel on the Tiber offers a unique and moving glimpse into a world that had vanished, even while it lives on in the darkness of the catacombs and in the pages of this book.