Adolfo Ottolenghi

Adolfo Ottolenghi
Born30 July 1885 Edit this on Wikidata
Livorno Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationRabbi Edit this on Wikidata

Adolfo Ottolenghi (30 July 1885 — 2 September 1944) was an Italian rabbi and victim of the Holocaust.

Early life

Adolfo Ottolenghi and his wife Regina Tedeschi Ottolenghi in Livorno, 1911

Ottolenghi was born to a prominent Jewish-Italian family from Piedmont[1] on 30 July 1885 in Livorno, Italy. His parents were Abramo and Amalia Ventura.

Rabbinical career

Ottolenghi earned the title of rabbi from the Rabbinic College of Livorno in 1907.[2] He concurrently earned a law degree from the University of Pisa. Ottolenghi married Regina Tedeschi.[2]

After moving to Venice in 1911, he became deputy rabbi.[3] Ottolenghi also joined the Venetian Israelite Fraterna.[2]

He was Venice's chief rabbi from 1919 to 1943.[1]

Holocaust

Stolperstein for Adolfo Ottolenghi, Rio Terà de la Madalena 2346/B, Venice

On 17 August 1944, during World War II, Ottolenghi was arrested by the Nazis with a group of 20 fellow elderly Jews in the Jewish nursing home.[4] All were over 70 years of age.[5] After being sent to Risiera di San Sabba in Trieste,[3] he was deported to Germany.[1] He died in Auschwitz on 2 September 1944.[2]

Memorials

Today, there is a memorial plaque in Ottolenghi's honor in Ghetto Vecchio, Venice's Jewish neighborhood. The plaque was erected December 7, 1947.[3]

Venice's 30-acre Ottolenghi Forest is named after him[6] and features a memorial on Adolfo.[7]

Ottolenghi has a stolperstein in Venice.[8]

Selected works

Ottolenghi wrote extensively on the history of the Jews of Venice, as well as Venetian Jews' participation in the Risorgimento.[3][2] Elisabetta Ottolenghi, his granddaughter, said she became more observant in her Jewish faith after discovering works by her grandfather Adolfo.[9]

  • Leon da Modena e spunti di vita ebraica del ghetto nel sec. XVII (1929)[1]
  • Abraham Lattes nei suoi rapporti colla republica di Daniele Manin (1930)[1]
  • Per il IV centenario della Scuola Canton (1931)[10]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ottolenghi". Jewish Virtual Library. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "CDEC - Centro di Documentazione Ebraica - Digital Library". digital-library.cdec.it. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Gruber, Samuel D. "Memorial Plaque to Rabbi Adolfo Ottolenghi in Venice". cja.huji.ac.il. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  4. ↑ "Racial laws and Shoah - Jewish Community of Venice". Comunità Ebraica di Venezia. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  5. ↑ "The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945". muse.jhu.edu. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  6. ↑ "Bosco Ottolenghi". www.comune.venezia.it. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  7. ↑ "Adolfo Ottolenghi". www.comune.venezia.it. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  8. ↑ "Pietra d'inciampo a Adolfo Ottolenghi · Comune di Venezia (VE)". MEMO (in Italian). 2025-05-10. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  9. ↑ Pauletto, Elettra (2019-10-25). "We Aren't the People with Big Hats: Caviar, counterculture, and the cult of Stalin reborn". Harper's Magazine. ISSN 0017-789X. Retrieved 2026-08-12.
  10. ↑ "Per il IV centenario della Scuola Canton". National Library of Israel.
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