The author presents an outline of the history of Jewish women in Italy, going back to their involvement with Jewish and Christian courts in the late Middle Ages. Highlights include women's struggles against forced conversion, anti-Semitism, and the creation of the Italian ghetto; women's involvement in Garibaldi's Resorgimento; the early popularization of the Bat Mitzvah celebration; the first Italian Jewish woman to have a rabbinic education; women's role in the anti-Nazi resistance and later in Holocaust awareness; and finally women's active leadership in the modern Italian Jewish community.
