BRUNETTI, ANGELO (better known as Ciciruacchio):

(Redirected from CICIRUACCHIO.)

By: Isidore Singer, Ismar Elbogen

Popular Roman leader, and advocate of the emancipation of the Jews; born in Rome 1800; died there Aug. 10, 1849. Inspired by the patriot Mazzini, Brunetti labored not only for the deliverance of his native city, but also for the unhappy inhabitants of the Roman ghetto. He utilized the great influence he had gained during the prerevolutionary epoch, in effecting a reconciliation between the Jews and their Christian fellow-citizens. On July 8, 1847, he won over the inhabitants of Regola, a suburb of Rome, and a week later an immense mass-meeting in favor of the Jews was held in the capital itself. On the evening of that meeting (July 15) 6,000 Roman citizens went to the ghetto and fraternized enthusiastically with its inhabitants. When on April 17, 1848 (the first day of Pesaḥ), theorder of Pius IX. to tear down the walls of the ghetto was made public, Ciciruacchio hastened thither with a large number of his friends, and they were the first to begin the work of demolition. In the following year Ciciruacchio, together with two of his sons, was killed in a riot in the streets of Rome. The Jewish congregation of Rome erected in its council-room a tablet to his memory, with an inscription recording his great services in the emancipation of the Jews of Rome.

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