Dr. Olga Melasecchi, Director of the Museo Ebreico di Roma, will speak on "The Menorah: Cult, Myth and History". Based on the cooperative exhibition between the Jewish Museum of Rome and the Vatican Museums, this talk will review the origins, history and afterlife of the menorah with a special emphasis on its connection with Rome. There it was brought in 70 CE, there it disappeared at the time of the Vandalic invasion in 455 CE and from there sprang the extensive usage by both Jews and Christians as a pre-eminent religious symbol.