Milan is one of the country’s premiere Jewish centers, with kosher restaurants to show for it, a fact that comes as no surprise given the city’s history, dating back to the Roman Empire.

Today, about 5,200 Jews live in Milan, making it the largest Jewish community in Italy after Rome.

Where to go
Sinagoga Centrale di Milano (Central Synagogue)
A brisk 10-minute walk from the famous Duomo of Milano is the city’s main synagogue, commonly known as Sinagoga Centrale di Milano (“The Central Synagogue of Milan”). It was first built in 1892 and subsequently rebuilt and renovated in 1947 and 1997.

The main religious center for the local community, the synagogue is astoundingly beautiful, seamlessly blending various design themes. What particularly stands out are the 23 multicolored windows featuring a rich collage of Judaic symbols, from Magen Davids and Hebrew letters to a shofar and a lulav.

Memoriale della Shoah (Holocaust Memorial)
This memorial, located at Milan’s main railway station, Milano Centrale, is one of Europe’s most significant historical landmarks reflecting its somber past.

In 2002, plans to turn the platform into a memorial started unfolding. The site was officially inaugurated in January 2013, on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Visitors today are met with the two freight cars used for the deathly deportations and a wall bearing the names of all those who were forcibly taken from the station.

Riparto Ebraico del Cimitero Monumentale (Jewish Section of the Monumental Cemetery)
Established in 1872, the Jewish section of the Cimitero Monumentale replaced three older Jewish cemeteries that are no longer in existence.

The difference between the Jewish and non-Jewish burial sites on premise is pretty striking — many Jewish graves are covered with stones instead of flowers, a practice rooted in Jewish tradition.

Here, you can also visit a monument dedicated to the Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and step inside a special ceremonial hall used by the local community. Once inside, notice the glass windows celebrating the 12 tribes of Israel. These glass windows, inspired by the famous work of Jewish artist Marc Chagall, were designed by Milanese artist Diego Ardemagni.

Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea (Jewish Contemporary Documentation Center)
Just steps away from the Stazione Centrale, Milan’s main train station, lies the Jewish Contemporary Documentation Center, which houses research about the lives and culture of Jews in Italy, particularly focusing on the Shoah and contemporary history.

There is evidence of Jewish life in the city of Milan from the first centuries AD, during the Roman period. Some stones incorporated into the wall of the Ambrosian Basilica in the city were probably taken from an ancient Jewish cemetery in the area. However, Jewish life in Milan, compared to other cities in Italy and Europe, was quite limited over the generations. This is also the reason that in fact there is no Jewish “ghetto” in Milan, simply because no Jews lived there.

In the fourth century AD
The Jewish synagogue was destroyed in Milan by “arson” so to speak “by the hands of heaven”, as Bishop Ambrosius wrote at the time. The synagogue was rebuilt and destroyed, again, in 507 by the mob. Only around the 13th century, when the Jewish communities in northern Italy increased, the community in Milan also recovered a little. In 1320, the Jews were again sentenced to be expelled from the city, but at the end of the 14th century, the Jews regained rights in the city of Milan, and were protected by the House of Sforza – the famous ruling family of the city. When Pope Pius II initiated the confiscation of Jewish property for the Crusades, Francesco Sforza prevented it in 1459.

Thirty years later in 1489, during the reign of Ludovico il Moro, the Jews were again expelled from the territory of the Duchy. Later they were allowed to return to Milan for business purposes only and not to live there. Only in 1714 was the Jewish settlement renewed in the city, at the same time as the area was annexed to Austria. In the middle of the 19th century, the Jewish settlement in Milan numbered only about 500 people.

In 1848, the Jews participated in the region’s uprising against the foreign rule. The Jews finally received full civil rights at the same time as the unification of Italy in 1859 (the Risorgimento). From this point the community began to grow and develop numerically and economically. The Jews, as everywhere in the world, formed a significant part of the economic, artistic and even political life in the city of Milan and in Italy in general. Some examples are: Luigi Luzzatti, who at the age of only 24 founded the People’s Bank of Milan (Banca Popolare di Milano), the Jewish journalist and translator Emilio Treves and the French Margherita, Mussolini’s famous mistress and unofficial political representative.

In 1900 the community numbered about 2000 people. In this year, a large synagogue was rebuilt in the city.
In 1931, the Jews in the city already numbered about 6500 people. After the Nazis came to power, Jewish refugees from all over Europe joined the community in Milan and before the outbreak of World War II, the Jews in Milan numbered about 12,000 people. 800 Jews from the community in Milan were sent to the concentration and extermination camps directly from platform 21 at the central train station in Milan, along with other Jews from northern Italy. In the fall of 1943, the Nazis conducted a large-scale hunt for Jews in the Lombardy region, with the cooperation of the fascist doers of the word in the nearby towns and villages. During this period, the Nazis also destroyed the largest synagogue in the city. The synagogue was restored after the war, and its restoration was only completed in 1997. Today the synagogue is active and is located on Guastalla St.

At the end of the war, nearly 5,000 Jews were registered in the city along with refugees from other communities in northern Italy.
Beginning in 1949, after the declaration of the independence of the State of Israel, Jews from Arab countries began to flee to Italy and Milan. First came the Jews of Egypt, especially after the failure to occupy the Suez Canal in 1956, followed by large groups of Jews from Lebanon, Syria, Morocco and Iraq. Later, Jews from Libya and Iran immigrated to Milan.

Starting in 1975, around 10,000 Jews lived in Milan. Many of them are engaged in trade. Today, about 5,500 Jews live in Milan. In addition to the Great Synagogue, about 10 synagogues operate in the city: another synagogue of the Italian Jews themselves, a synagogue of Jews of Iranian origin, several synagogues in the Sephardic style as well as a Chabad house. Several Jewish schools also operate in the city: a school of the Jewish community Italian, a Chabad school and about two other schools. Most of Milan’s Jews are not Torah-observant and are not concentrated in a specific part of the city.

In the area of the Jewish school and the offices of the Jewish community, there is a relatively high number of traditionally observant families. Several shops, bakeries and kosher restaurants are also concentrated in this area.