The historic synagogues in the town of Carpi include the 18th-century synagogue - located in the attic of the Portico del Grano loggia - and the 19th-century synagogue inaugurated in February 1861, now part of the Fossoli Foundation headquarters, which lies in the rooms next to the synagogue and originally used for the Jewish school.
The construction of the 19th-century synagogue was decided by the town's Jewish community due to the structural problems and poor condition of the 18th-century synagogue. This new building, not far from the other one, responded to the Jewish world's desire to show more openly their identity and faith, an opportunity given by the Albertine Statute as it granted full rights and legal equality to the Jews in the Kingdom of Italy.
The project to build the new Synagogue began in 1851 with a fund-raising campaign promoted by Rabbi Sabbadini. Despite financial difficulties, work proceeded apace between 1859 and 1861 under the guidance of architect Achille Sammarini, who was faced with considerable architectural challenges, working in an area, the ghetto, that was densely built up. On the occasion of the construction of the new Synagogue, the Jewish cemetery in use since 1825 was also extended, the first to be built outside the town walls.
The inauguration was an important event for Carpi's Jewish Community and aroused great interest and participation among Carpi's citizens. The events involving Carpi's small Jewish community, increasingly affected by a process of assimilation, determined the fate of the Synagogue. Within a few decades, the small Jewish community found itself unable to continue its independent existence and at the beginning of the 20th century it was definitively merged with the Modenese community. At that time seven Jewish families lived in Carpi.
Consequently, the synagogue ceased to be used as a place of worship and its management became increasingly problematic, up to the point that the building had to be sold in 1921 becoming the private property of a family. Sacred objects and furnishings were transferred to other locations, namely Modena and Israel. In 1922, the use of the 19th-century cemetery also ceased.
The August 1938 census, the first stage of the Fascist persecutory policy against the Jews, identified only five families living in Carpi.
