When Ariel Toaff, the descendant of a prestigious rabbinic dynasty, was studying to become a rabbi, almost no one at his yeshiva wore a yarmulke. Even those few pupils who did cover their heads during classes, took hats and yarmulkes off once they left the school.

Drinking kosher wine at meals was out of the question: “It was something meant only for the kiddush—and for Ashkenazi tourists, for course,” he said. Being an Orthodox Jew and a rabbinical student was “a completely different thing” in 1960s Italy, said Toaff, who now teaches medieval history at Israel's Bar Ilan University.