Perani’s Epitaphs at ASSEI

The Association for the Study of the History of the Jews in Italy (ASSEI) held its first conference last week, at Tel Aviv University. One of the speakers was Prof Mauro Perani of Bologna, a person I have know by reputation and email for a long time but whom I had never met before.

His lecture presented the Jewish gravestones that he has found in the area of Mantua. Not an extremely interesting topic, but he had some cool stuff to show.

Jews in Northern Italy sometimes made their gravestones in the shape of cylinders. He showed the gravestone of Rabbi Moses Zacuto, which is preserved in a museum somewhere in Italy. But two others, including that of the brother of Rabbi Aviad Sar Shalom Basilea, can be found guarding the entrance to an Italian pizzeria.