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June 25, 2004/Tamuz 6 5764, Vol. 56, No. 40
Former Valley rabbi honored in Rome
RUTH ELLEN GRUBER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
ROME - Rabbi Vittorio Della Rocca was only 11 years old at the time, but he will never forget a historic Shabbat at Rome's Great Synagogue 60 years ago this month.
It was June 9, 1944 - just five days after Allied troops had liberated the city from the Nazis.
And on that first Friday night of freedom, an American Jewish chaplain led 4,000 Jews in the Shehecheyanu prayer.
The American chaplain was Lt. Morris Kertzer, a young rabbi from Iowa City, Iowa. Attached to the U.S. Fifth Army, he had landed with thousands of other U.S. troops at Anzio and witnessed the Allied liberation of Rome on June 4.
Kertzer died two decades ago.
But this month, almost 60 years to the day after that historic Shabbat service, the Rome Jewish community presented a hand-lettered scroll of appreciation to Kertzer's son, David.
A professor at Brown University, David Kertzer has gained attention in recent years for his books on Italian Jewish history.
"For my father and for all Jewish American soldiers, to participate in the liberation of Europe was an extraordinary experience," David Kertzer said.
"My father's experiences here had a big impact on me, and it's not really a coincidence that I chose the field of study that I did," he said.
The Rome community's award, presented by the city's chief rabbi, Riccardo Di Segni, and the president of the Jewish community, Leone Paserman, came during an international conference June 16-17 that was held to honor the synagogue's 100th anniversary.
"During their 10 months of occupation, the Nazis had sealed the synagogue but didn't desecrate it," Paserman said. "On that first Friday night after the liberation, Jews from all over the city emerged from hiding and made their way to the temple.
"It's important to remember that the war was still going on elsewhere, and there would still be 11 months before peace was declared," he said.
Rabbi Kertzer himself wrote vividly about his experiences in Rome in a book of memoirs published in 1947.
"The following Friday, on the ninth day of June, the first large synagogue in liberated Europe opened its doors," he wrote.
In his brief, English-language sermon, Kertzer told the Jews of Rome that the Allied soldiers shared their burdens and stressed the sense of unity that bound Jews worldwide.
Rabbi Kertzer's impact eventually extended from the synagogue in Rome to the Valley.
In 1973, he became the first rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom in Chandler. He also served as an interim rabbi at Temple Chai in Phoenix in 1982, before Rabbi William Berk arrived. The Arizona State University Jewish Studies Program offers a scholarship in his name, the Rabbi Morris Kertzer Memorial Scho-larship, which provides funds for students to conduct research about Jews or Judaism.
In January 2002, as an Albert and Liese Eckstein Scholar in Residence at ASU, David Kertzer attracted many community members to "The Popes Against the Jews: Responding to My Critics," a lecture that he gave at Temple Chai based on one of his books. On that same trip to the Valley, Kertzer also presented his lecture "Snowballs in Rome: Anti-Semitism in Restoration Italy (1814-1859)" at ASU.
Staff Writer Michael Miklofsky contributed to this story.
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