On Israel’s independence day proclamation — May 14, 1948, (5 Iyar 5708) — the remaining Jewish-Roman community that survived the deportations to Auschwitz gathered near the Arch of Titus at the Forum Romanum, the ruins of the ancient city of Rome. For 2,000 years, Rome’s Jews refrained from passing under the arch that had been erected to commemorate the Roman victory over the Judean rebellion. But on May 14, 1948, they passed under the arch, coming from the opposite direction of the Roman victory march.
Symbolizing the victory over Judea’s rebels, the engraving in the Arch of Titus depicts the march of pillage and prisoners. In its center is a relief of the pillagers carrying on their shoulders the menorah (candelabra) from the Second Temple. The triumph of the Roman Empire over the rebellious people from Judea in 70 A.D. is symbolized by the menorah taken from the Temple.