The Jews of Padua
Regolamento per L'Instituto Convitto Rabbinico
(Regulations of the Rabbinical Institute), Padua, 1858. The rabbinical
seminary established in Padua in 1829 by I. S. Reggio was the first modern
institution for training rabbis. That this took place in Italy, one of the
smaller European Jewish communities, attests to the high degree of
integration into modernity of the Italian Jewish community. What gives the
Library's copy particular value is its inclusion of a large folio insertion
(nine pages in size) of the "Internal Regulations" for students
and faculty, among them:
Books or papers not related to the lesson may not be
brought into the classroom.
Students are to give serious attention to the
instruction of the professor, and will behave towards him, inside the
school and out, with the respect and filial affection due him.
Students must attend services at the major Ashkenazi
synagogue.
All students are required to eat together in the
refectory at the designated times. They may not gather the fruit growing in
the college orchard.
Students may not bring any visitors into the College, especially to
their rooms, without written permission.
This pullout broadside is tipped in the Regulations of
the Rabbinical Institute at Padua, the first modem rabbinical seminary,
established by I.S. Reggio in 1829. It deals with the internal regulations
for the faculty and students and spells out, in detail, the obligations and
restrictions placed on both, Regolamento per L'Istituto Convitto
Rabbinico, Padua, 1858. Hebraic Section, Library of Congress Photo).
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The duties of the professors, Lelio Della Torre and
Samuel David Luzzato, are minutely spelled out. Six hours of teaching each
day of the week, and if a lesson is missed, it must be made up. The prefect
may enter a student's room at any time and must "keep vigil" over
the behavior of the students in the dormitory, in the classroom, and at
services. He is to keep a record of student conduct noting punishments and
censures but, in a nod to the traditional concept of t'shuva (repentance), if conduct improves, the notations of censure will be erased
from the record.
Sources: Abraham J. Karp, From
the Ends of the Earth: Judaic Treasures of the Library of Congress,
(DC: Library of Congress,
1991).
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