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November 6, 2017 - Cheshvan 17, 5778
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BOOKS

"The Nazi Monster, an Enemy to Uncover"

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By Gadi Luzzatto Voghera*
 
For decades, Mein Kampf was just the title of a book briefly mentioned in high school classes. Then last year Bompiani published an anastatic reissue, coming with an issue of Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by Silvio Berlusconi, and including a preface by historian Francesco Perfetti. A decision that sparked off debate. Vincenzo Pinto, curator of a recent edition of Mein Kampf, said: “I was in Berlin when Bompiani released its anastatic reissue. Journalist and historian Sven Felix Kellerhoff, editor in chief of Die Welt, asked me what I thought about it. I replied that, for me, it was the Berlusconi’s family reaction to the new law against historical denial, which they considered ‘liberticidal’. A year later, I am confirming my initial claim, and pointing out the cultural and commercial reasons behind their decision. On the one hand, they wanted to launch a series of books on the Third Reich; on the other, they wanted to uphold the theory of ‘Germany’s new economic hegemony’ (the Fourth Reich). Now, Sallusti’s defense of Bompiani’s reissue was weak, as it is not a critical edition at all (a historian’s preface, although valuable as Perfetti’s is, is not enough). Moreover, if we share the assumption that to fight (and defeat) our enemy we need to know him, I wonder what ‘strong’ statement Il Giornale’s edition is making. Finally, Bompiani anastatic reissue of the second volume is far from the one published by the Institut fuer Zeitgeschichte in Munich (whose limits I shall mention later). For all these reasons, I think it was a questionable decision."

*Gadi Luzzatto Voghera is the director of Fondazione CDEC. Translation by Federica Alabiso, student at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

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news

Bergoglio Visits the Ardeatine Caves

img headerBy Pagine Ebraiche Staff

Pope Jorge Bergoglio visited the Ardeatine Caves last week. The Caves were the site of a massacre carried out in 1944 by Nazi troops killing 335 people, including many Jews. Greeting the Pope were the chief rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni, the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni, the president of the Jewish Community of Rome Ruth Dureghello and the secretary of the Community Emanuele Di Porto.
“It was a moment of shared mourning, shared memory and shared hope,” commented rav Di Segni.
“These are the fruits that war bears: hatred, death, vengeance… Forgive us, Lord,” Bergoglio wrote in the Memorial book.

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NEWS

Against Anti-Semitism, Public Readings
of Anne Frank’s Diary in Milan

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By Daniel Reichel
 
Hundreds of people attended the public reading of The Diary by Anne Frank last week in Milan.
The event was organized by the president of the municipality 6 of Milan, Santo Minniti, in response to recent acts of anti-Semitism by Lazio fans: two weeks ago, supporters of the soccer club defaced their Stadio Olimpico in Rome with anti-Semitic graffiti and stickers showing images of Anne Frank, wearing a jersey of their rival Roma team.
“The Nazi-fascist and anti-Semitic drifts are a problem that affects everyone. Every attack to the memory of the Holocaust is an attack on democratic institutions, which requires an institutional response: on the resistance to Nazi-fascism, sanctioned by our Constitution, we are not willing to retreat”, explained Santo Minniti during the event.

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bechol lashon - Français

Fascistes

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Dario Calimani*

Malheureusement, de nos jours et avec certains interlocuteurs, il faut toujours continuer à l’anticiper sans aucune ambiguïté : je ne suis pas communiste et je n’ai jamais aimé les régimes communistes d’aucune sorte, d'hier et d'aujourd'hui. Je n’ai jamais aimé Staline et ses acolytes, et je n’ai pas de difficultés pour reconnaître très clairement la barbarie. Même si, sans aucun doute ses plans quinquennaux ont été une – discutable – aubaine. D’ailleurs, on dit que Mussolini aussi « a fait beaucoup des bonnes choses », routes et ponts et bonifications des marais. Par conséquent, je ne suis pas communiste, et je reste toutefois un fervent antifasciste, parce que je ne veux pas oublier ce qu’a été le fascisme, mais non seulement pour nous Hébreux. D’ailleurs, c’est le fascisme ce que quotidiennement nous rappelle de quel bois sont faites son idéologie et sa pratique. C’est pour ça que je continue à m’inquiéter quand j’entends dire que « Il n’y a plus droite et gauche. Il y a seulement la barbarie».



*Dario Calimani est professeur à l'Université Ca' Foscari de Venise. Traduction de Ilaria Vozza, étudiante de l’Ecole Superiore pour Traducteurs et Interprètes de l’Université de Trieste et stagiaire au journal de l’Union des Communautés Hébraïques Italiennes.

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pilpul

"Walk in My ways
and be blameless"

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By Yaakov Mascetti*

Abraham is the first of three paradigms of the monotheistic faith, and probably the most interesting one. Despite the fact that the complexity of Yaakov's personality and life are without doubt riveting, as his life is full of challenges, mistakes and great blessings, and despite the fact that Yitzhak is, to me at least, an inimitable archetype of cognitive ascent, and of detachment from the chaotic unravelling of history, Abraham is where it all starts. The ten trials imposed upon him by God are the alembic in which the dross is purged, and through which the quintessence is distilled. Yet, it seems to me that this ascent, this process through which the archetypical Jew is tempered by the flames of trial, does not lead to univocal truth but rather to the acceptance of partiality, paradox and the uncompromising contradictions of God's creation. The state of consciousness through which the Divine is revealed into history is, at least in the case of Abraham, partial. The sign of the pact with which Abraham becomes the first Jew of history, is circumcision – the removal of the foreskin signifies the bond with God.

*Yaakov Mascetti holds a Ph.D. and teaches at the Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University.




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italics

A Story about Padua

img headerBy Alan Rosenbaum*

There is more to Dr. Anna Padoa, 48, of Tel Aviv, than meets the eye. Her last name is similar to the name of the northern Italian city where she spent much of her childhood, Padua, but in fact her family hails from a different Padua, located in Portugal or Spain, and she herself was born in Verona.
Though she attended national religious B’nei Akiva camps, her spiritual and political beliefs are more closely aligned with those of the secular Hashomer Hatzair movement. And while she is critical of efforts that seek to introduce religious elements into the public- school system, she is grateful to the late chief rabbi of Padua, who ensured that she underwent an Orthodox conversion to Judaism.

*The article was published in The Jerusalem Post on November 5, 2017. 

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