COLLEGIO RABBINICO ITALIANO

COLLEGIO RABBINICO ITALIANO , Italian rabbinical college, the first modern institution of its kind, inaugurated in 1829 at Padua under the name Istituto Convitto Rabbinico through the efforts of I.S. Reggio and under the direction of L. Della Torre and S.D. Luzzatto. Among its alumni were L. Cantoni, S. Gentilomo, A. Lattes, E. Lolli, F. Luzzatto, A. Mainster, and M. Mortara. After Luzzatto and Della Torre's deaths, the institute underwent a series of crises and closed in 1871. It was reopened in Rome under its above name in 1887 and was directed by M.M. Ehrenreich. In 1899, after a period of suspended activity, it was moved to Florence under the direction of S.H. Margulies, with H.P. Chajes and I. Elbogen among its teachers; under them the college flourished. Among its alumni were E.S. Artom, U. Cassuto, D. Disegni, A. Pacifici, and D. Prato, who all exerted a marked influence on Italian Judaism. After the death of Margulies in 1922 the college, whether in Florence or in Rome, was never the same again. Back in Rome in 1934 and directed by the rabbi of the Rome community, R.A. Sacerdote, the collegio had U. Cassuto, I. Kahn, and D. Lattes among its teachers. After being closed during the later stages of the Fascist regime, the college was reopened in 1955. It published the Rivista Israelitica from 1904 until 1915, and the Annuario di Studi Ebraici, at intervals 1935–1969.

bibliography:

A. Toaff, in: Scritti in onore di D. Lattes (1938), 184–95; G. Castelbolognesi, in: rmi, 5 (1930/31), 314–22; S. Alatri, Per la inaugurazione del Collegio Rabbinico Italiano (1887); R. Prato, Brevi cenni sul collegio Rabbinico Italiano (1900); N. Pavoncello, Il Collegio Rabbinico Italiano (1961).

[Alfredo Mordechai Rabello]