D) THE JEWISH HOSPITAL IN THE TIBER ISLAND
In the end of the 1800's, thanks to the generosity of some well-to-do Jewish people, new charitable institutions were set out making easier the integration of poor people in the town, become capital of the Reign of Italy, after more than two hundred years spent enclosed in the ghetto, by now unhealthy and destined to be demolished.
In such context Angelo Tagliacozzo, one of the most representative exponents of the Jewish community, managed to obtain from the mayor of Rome Luigi Pianciani the concession of the left wing of the ex-Franciscan monastery of St.Bartholomew at the Island, a municipal property. The Association of Via of the Fiumara was quickly transferred in the new building (1882) and its name changed to “Jewish Hospital Bet Aholim” (in Jewish “Sick's house”). It included all the remaining charitable brotherhoods and get by the “Deputazione centrale israelitica di carità” the entrusting of all the sanitary activities relevant to the Jewish community.
In 1887 also the “Ricovero per israeliti poveri e invalidi” [Home for poor and disabled Jews] was accommodated in the same building; it continued the tradition of assistance to the old people already performed by the broterhood “Mosclav Zechenim ” [Home for old people]. (pict.D1 and D2)
The destruction of the ghetto, carried out in few months, caused the economic and social problem relevant to the moving to new lodgings: many Jews, with the help of the “Comitato per il decentramento degli Israeliti poveri di Roma” [Committee for the decentralization of the poor Jews in Rome] founded in 1884, settled in Trastevere, nearby the old district and the new hospital that, more and more equipped, became a reference point as sanitary institution.
In 1911 the Hospital was recognized as religious charity with the scope of: “curare gratuitamente gli ammalati poveri israeliti aventi il domicilio di soccorso in Roma, affetti da malattie acute o croniche non contagiose né diffusive” [to cure free of charge the poor sick Jews resident in Rome, suffering from acute or chronic not contagious nor diffusive diseases], and their Statute was approved with a Royal Decree. The regulations allowed to accommodate occasionally Jews not needy, even if travelling from other cities, but on payment and without detriment to the health service for the poor ones. So the tradition of the doctor-rabbis, among which let us mention Samuele Toscano, the first doctor of the hospital, and the director Benedetto Zevi, continued in the new hospital.
The Hospital had 17 beds and 8 more, separately located in a wing of the adjacent monastery of St.Bartholomew, assigned to the chronic sick people. (pict.D4)
The activity of the Hospital was economically supported by the subsidies supplied at first by the Ghemilud Chasadim (Charitable institution) and then by the “Deputazione centrale israelitica di carità”, as well as by the bequests of single benefactors among which let us mention Mosè Levi for his generosity.