The Ravenna family is one of the oldest and most prestigious families of the Jewish Community of Ferrara; its presence in the city has been attested since 1469, as documented by the certificate issued to Renzo Ravenna in January 1939 by the president of the Community Silvio Finzi Magrini.

Since the age of emancipation, the biographies of some of its members have been intertwined with the history of the city. Isaia Ravenna (Ferrara, 1815-1885), son of Samuel Ravenna and Allegra Coen, as representative of the entire Ferrara community, celebrated the proclamation of Vittorio Emanuele II as King of Italy and the death of Cavour in March and June 1861. Isaia Ravenna is also the first Jew from Ferrara to hold a position in the public administration: in 1861 he became the professor of French at the Regio Liceo Ariosto. In 1863 Isaia Ravenna also dictated the text of the tombstone, then posted inside the Via Mazzini complex, which recalls the first Jewish Congress in united Italy. This is the text: "Here / where the laments / of long service/ for the supreme virtue / of / Vittorio Emanuele II / wonderfully ceased / the Deputies of the Jewish universities/ of the Kingdom of Italy / to promote moral and civil ordinances / the first solemn congress /held/ XII Maggio MDCCCLXIII"(Magrini 2015, pages 301-302).

In 1926 Renzo Ravenna, born to Tullio, one of the five sons of Isaia Ravenna, became the first and only podestà of Jewish origin of fascism. This unfortunately will not change the fortunes of him, his five brothers and sisters and their families from 1938 onwards. In that year Renzo Ravenna was forced to resign from the office of mayor, but the situation degenerated from the autumn of 1943 with the Nazi-fascist occupation of Ferrara: arrests and deportations began. Of the families of the six Ravenna brothers (Margherita, Gino, Renzo, Alba, Bianca, Lina) only Renzo, Lina and Margherita's son, Gianni, are not arrested and deported to Auschwitz. The only one to return to Ferrara from the Polish death camp is Eugenio (Gegio) Ravenna, son of Gino and Letizia Rossi: he is the one who inspired the character of Geo Josz from the Bassani story "A memorial plaque in Via Mazzini".

After the Second World War, Paolo Ravenna, Renzo's second son, closely linked his biography to the city of Ferrara. Tullio Ravenna, the older brother, moved to Correggio, while Donata and Romano, the youngest, emigrated to Israel.

Paolo Ravenna, from the sixties until his death in November 2012, pursued his profession as a lawyer with a constant commitment to the recovery, protection and enhancement of the historical, artistic and environmental heritage of Ferrara and its territory.