Brunetti, Angelo°

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BRUNETTI, ANGELO°

BRUNETTI, ANGELO ° (known as "Ciceruacchio "; 1800–1849), leader of liberal reform in Rome. Without formal education, Brunetti exerted great influence over the populace. On July 8, 1847, he achieved a reconciliation between the Jews of Rome and the inhabitants of the Regola quarter, near the ghetto, who had always been anti-Jewish. Eight days later, thousands of citizens streamed into the ghetto and publicly fraternized with the Jews. On April 17, 1848, hearing that Pope Pius ix had ordered the abolition of the ghetto, he rallied help to demolish the walls, while the Jews, unaware of his action, were celebrating Passover. He was executed by the Austrians in Northern Italy after the collapse of the Roman Republic in 1849.

bibliography:

Roth, Italy, 459; Milano, Italia, 360; Vogelstein-Rieger, 2 (1896), 370–4. add. bibliography: B. Di Porto, "Gli ebrei di Roma dai Papi all'Italia," in: La breccia del Ghetto (1971), 41–42; S. Waagenaar, The Pope's Jews (1974), 261–62 and passim.

[Umberto (Moses David) Cassuto]

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