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March 16th, 2015 - Adar 25th, 5775

Happy Birthday Melamed
By Guido Vitale*

Melamed is the name of a specific section of the national and international press review of www.moked.it , the Portal of Italian Jewry. Born three years ago, it is devoted to pedagogical matters, teaching issues and Jewish education, and every week a selection of the articles on these topics is sent out to teachers, Jewish leaders and to those who have a responsibility in the field of schools and education.
Today, while sending out the issue number 156, the newsroom of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities has launched a new product: a media review that aims to analyse the most pressing issues reported by Italian and international papers.
I want to thank the whole of the staff for this achievement and for the professionalism and generosity which pervade every step of their extraordinary work, and especially Ada Treves, who is in charge of the project.

*Guido Vitale is the editor-in-chief of Pagine Ebraiche.
 
A Jew in Milan
By Daniela Gross

“Some days ago, an Italian journalist tried to understand how it feels to be Jewish in an Italian Muslim neighborhood. To do it, he wore a kippah, and walked around for a couple of hours. Meanwhile, a hidden cameraman filmed his walk. The idea was not very original, since it was already enacted in other parts of Europe (mainly in Paris, after the terror attacks). However, the reportage by Nino Materi on "Il Giornale" conveys a surprisingly discomforting sensation. “To wear a kippah is enough to turn this ethnic neighborhood into a hostile territory. There are scowls, some dirty words, a veiled woman moved her daughter away from me”, it reads.

“In Italy the situation is better than elsewhere, but the atmosphere is really tense”, said Walker Meghnagi, president of the Milan Jewish Community “In our cities we are absolutely not at risk. We feel good, in Italy, we feel protected”, retorted Riccardo Pacifici, president of the Rome Jewish Community ”. However, that report leaves you with a feeling of malaise. We know very well, and not only since yesterday, that going around with the kippah can look provocative and might put you in some danger. So, in most Communities, men leaving the Synagogue put away their kippah. It is a kind of natural gesture. One doesn’t even think about it, but it is a somewhat disheartening thing to do.
 
  davar
NEWS
A New President for Turin 
By Ada Treves

Dario Disegni, President of the Jewish Cultural Heritage Foundation, has become last week the new President of the Jewish Community of Turin. After being far ahead in the preferences expressed on the first of March by the voters, when the results pointed clearly towards a profound renewal, the new Council, composed by thirteen members gave him twelve votes. His role as future President had been clearly written in the programmes of the two main lists. "Beiachad" acquired an absolute majority in the Council with Franco Segre, Daniel Fantoni, Lidia Krieger, Alda Guastalla, Carola Ovazza, Danila Franco and Guido Anau Montel, while five are the elected in the list "Anavim": Alessandra Coen Disegni, Giuseppe Di Chio, Giacomo Emilio Ottolenghi, David Sorani and Alessandro Rimini.

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LEADERS
Fresh Air for the Italian
Jewish Youth


By Francesca Matalon

The new board of the Italian Union of Jewish Students (UGEI) elected last week in Milan is a breath of fresh air for Italian Jewish youth.
The board is composed of seven students and young professionals; four women and three men from all over Italy, from Turin to Milan and Rome. The new president is Talia Bidussa, who has already been in charge as a member of last year’s board and is now ready to guide the Union. “Working last year as a board member was a very important professional experience: not only did I learn new organizational skills, but the daily contact with the people I worked with gradually became a personal rather than a working matter,” she said.


EVENTS -
A Serenade to Simonetta

By Rossella Tercatin

Simonetta Della Seta, the Culture attaché at the Italian Embassy in Israel, has left her post after ten years. A celebration in her honor at the Ambassador’s residence last week was an occasion to measure the impact of Italian culture on a country that shows its love for Italy on many occasions. Some of the most prominent figures of Israeli cultural life attended the event, among them the writers David Grossman and Abraham Yehoshua, as well as the singer Noa.

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Out of the Boot
Raffaella, Hanukkah Miracle
in Sao Paulo

By Simone Somekh and Shirly Piperno*

The Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur was fast approaching, yet Raffaella Toscano, 26, had just arrived in Brazil for a four-month student partnership with the University of Sao Paulo. From the moment she landed in this spectacular South American country, Raffaella had been incredibly busy searching for a suitable apartment and starting her ambitious project, yet she was keen to celebrate the holiest day of the Jewish calendar with the local community. Yom Kippur is not only a day of personal spiritual connection, where she would fast and meditate on the past, the present and future, but also an opportunity to connect with other Jews as a whole.

*Simone Somekh is a student at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and works as a freelance writer. Shirly Piperno is a fashion styling and communication student at Istituto Marangoni, London.
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Español

Francesco Moises Bassano

En la historia de los judíos italianos, podrían ser parte asimismo algunas comunidades que no se encuentran más entre las confinas de la península italiana, y pero se pueden considerar cuanto menos, por la mayoría, culturalmente y históricamente “italianas”. Una de esas es la de Corfú, en Grecia.
Corfú (en griego Kórkyra o Kérkyra) es una isla del mar Jónico situada frente a la costa noroeste del país y delante de la costas de Apulia. Estrechamente relacionada con la mitología griega – probablemente se trata de la isla de los Feacios de la Odisea – estuvo a partir del siglo XIII bajo el control y la influencia de Venecia hasta el 1797, y después, en 1864, pasó con la Grecia.



pilpul
Double Life - The People
of the Mangal
By Daniela Fubini*

Since over a week, the weather reports on TV have started giving a full report on the weekend just past, and at once a detailed forecast for Tuesday 17th of March, day of the elections. At the beginning I though they did it in order to push Israelis to go out and vote, you see, no excuses: the weather will be very nice, no rain, not even clouds over all our small land. Then I learnt that a large part of the population have a free day on election day, and people want to know if it will be pleasant to be in the outdoors on Tuesday.
The fact that Election Day is a vacation may seem odd, but it makes sense if you think that ballots are often hosted by schools, therefore schools must be closed on that day. And voting is impossible on the weekend due to the Shabbat. So, with offices closed, the question raises: what shall we all do on Tuesday, after casting our ballot? And as far as I understand, there is one and only answer to that: mangal!


*Daniela Fubini (Twitter @d_fubini) lives and writes in Tel Aviv, where she arrived in 2008 from Turin via New York.
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This newsletter is published under difficult conditions. The editors of this newsletter are Italian journalists whose native language is Italian. They are willing to offer their energy and their skills to give international readers the opportunity of learning more about the Italian Jewish world, its values, its culture and its traditions.
In spite of all our efforts to avoid this, readers may find an occasional language mistake. We count on your understanding and on your help and advice to correct these mistakes and improve our publication.

Pagine Ebraiche International Edition is published by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). UCEI publications encourage an understanding of the Jewish world and the debate within it. The articles and opinions published by Pagine Ebraiche International Edition, unless expressly stated otherwise, cannot be interpreted as the official position of UCEI, but only as the self-expression of the people who sign them, offering their comments to UCEI publications. Readers who are interested in making their own contribution should email us at desk@ucei.it 
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© UCEI - All rights reserved - The articles may only be reproduced after obtaining the written permission of the editor-in-chief. Pagine Ebraiche - Reg Rome Court 199/2009 – Editor in Chief: Guido Vitale - Managing Editor: Daniela Gross.
Special thanks to: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Eliezer Di Martino, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Francesca Matalon, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins,  Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman.


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© UCEI - Tutti i diritti riservati - I testi possono essere riprodotti solo dopo aver ottenuto l'autorizzazione scritta della Direzione. Pagine Ebraiche International Edition - notiziario dell'ebraismo italiano - Reg. Tribunale di Roma 199/2009 - direttore responsabile: Guido Vitale -
Coordinamento: Daniela Gross.
Realizzato con il contributo di: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Eliezer Di Martino, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Francesca Matalon, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins,  Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman.