09/10/2026
The “Talking Statues of Rome”—six sculptures scattered across the city—have for centuries been a place where citizens tack up dissenting political views for others to read…creating a public forum of reflection that is anonymous. The tradition, which continues today, underscores the enduring value of considering a perspective other than one’s own.
Celebrating Rosh Hashanah in Rome—a city where social and cultural narratives have long conversed—casts an entirely new light on a holiday that celebrates new beginnings, as well as the birth of the universe. Walking through the city is to witness a dialogue between eras and among cultures…such as the one on the northwest corner of the Palazzo Braschi where there is Pasquino—the first “Talking Statue of Rome”—a depiction of Menelaus, the mythical Greek King. The juxtaposition metaphorically aligns the two cultural birthplaces of Western civilization, and at the same time, evokes the notion of synergistic energy.
In that same feeling, we celebrate Rosh Hashana this year with an animation of the traditional greeting, “Good and Sweet Year,” (Shana Tova Umetukah) emerging from the Arabic New Year’s greeting “Sanat Jadidat Saeida.” By linking the two scripts, there is an erasure of otherness, inviting speakers of both languages to look for themselves within the other…and evoking the breadth of possibility the exists in the dynamic of empathy, as well as synergy.
Wishing you a healthy, happy and fruitful 5787.
With gratitude, love and light from The Eternal City—
Ghiora
