Abstract
A Mitzvah in Historic Preservation: The Need for Conservation of Stone Epitaphs Dedicated to Jewish Women in Ancient Rome

Before time and earthquakes threaten more Italian museums, such as the Roman National Museum of the Baths of Diocletian and the National Naples Archaeological Museum storage facilities, we need to save the Roman Jewish stone epitaphs, those dedicated to women, still remaining to be re-investigated.

It is incumbent upon us to accurately revise the outdated and biased Corpus of Jewish Inscriptions, spanning the sixteenth through the early twenty-first centuries. These records continue to be used as original primary sources for archaeological works.

The conservation of those Roman Jewish stone epitaphs which memorialize women, and are now in museum storage, is a subject of great magnitude. This paper is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to their conservation. Rather, this paper intends to demonstrate how select distinct nuances, gathered through my continuous research, yield a different way of reading, understanding, and interpreting sacred tombstones inscribed in honor of women. For, this is a particularly praiseworthy undertaking, not to be overlooked. The historic preservationist has the duty of drawing international attention to the awareness of scholars, in particular to female Torah scholars, who can provide insights into women’s Jewish history which others will less easily be able to provide. Otherwise, in the event of another earthquake, these precious stone epitaphs, dedicated to Jewish women in ancient Rome, risk total destruction.

My Name is Brenda Lee Bohen and as a tour guide form more than sixteen years I have been sharing my passion for Rome’s history and its surrounding cities with hundreds of families of all faiths and backgrounds.
I divide my time between Chicago and Rome and am originally from the US. I hold a BA in the History of Art and Architecture specializing in Ancient Greek and Rome and the Italian Renaissance from De Paul University and an MA in Historic Preservation from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University’s Cardinal Bea Institute for Jewish Studies in Rome. I am currently researching Jewish History and Civilization toward an MA at The Spertus Institute of Jewish Learning & Leadership in Chicago.

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Female leaders in the ancient synagogues with functional titles, such as Priestess, Mother of the Synagogue, and Elder, are found among the Stone Epitaphs in memory of Jewish women in Ancient Rome. In order to bring forth a new perspective, it is now imperative for women rabbis to further re-investigate these precious inscriptions.