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On the lower level of the Great Synagogue is a six room museum (7 euro) where visitors can walk through exhibits of fine tapestries, torah covers, silver yads, torah crowns, and other religious artifacts. Because the Jews of the Roman ghetto were prohibited from purchasing new textiles and fabrics (1555-1870), all of the tapestries were made from old, discarded clothing. The tales behind each piece are rich with details from each time period; for example, before the women of the ghetto transformed a piece of blue fabric into an embroidered torah cover it had been a dress worn by a Swedish princess. Many of the pieces in the museum can be traced back to the Jewish families that donated the items to the community, and periodically the museum organizes special exhibitions to connect the descendants of these families to their ancestors. The museum weaves legend and fact together to create a tapestry of Roman Jewish history. Definitely take a guided tour which covers the highlights of close to 2000 years of Jews in Rome and includes information from the 1500s through to Mussolini’s racial laws and WW II and up to the last notable Jewish wave of immigration in the 1960s from Libya. Special thanks to Ursula Dattilo, the Registrar of the Jewish Museum, for graciously providing facts and details and the stories behind them to Jlifeguide.com.