The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah - MEIS was established by the law of April 17, 2003, no. 91, later amended by law no. 296 of December 27, 2006, as a testimony to the events that have characterized the two-thousand-year-old Jewish presence in Italy. This decision recognizes and values the exceptional continuity of a rich, uninterrupted, but largely unknown path, in which Jews have brought their own traditions and a fundamental cultural contribution to the history and fabric of the country, amidst periods of persecution, starting from the confinement in ghettos and culminating in the tragedy of the Shoah, and other periods of coexistence and fruitful interactions. In recounting the life experience of a consolidated minority, MEIS is above all a place of meeting and exchange. A laboratory of ideas and reflections open to all, which stimulates debate on Judaism and the value of dialogue between cultures.