NEWS

Mantua, a Project to Preserve
the Ancient Jewish Cemetery

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The preservation and valorization of the ancient Jewish cemetery will be at the core of the project “Mantova Hub”, whose goal is to transform and develop the outskirts east of Mantua by renovating many of its buildings and spaces.
The future of the area where the cemetery used to stand was presented by Israeli architect David Palterer, together with his colleague Luca Cardani, Mantua’s city council member, Andrea Murari and full professor at the Politecnico di Milano, Federico Bucci. The event was organized with the cooperation of the local Jewish Community and the Fondazione Franchetti.
“Remembrance is not just about the past. It has to be lived constantly, every day. Our work to build the future starts from remembering our roots, a shared heritage,” Palterer commented.

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FOCUS ON ANTI-SEMITISM

Prejudice, a Risk for Democracy

By Ada Treves*

Historian Juliane Wetzel’s office is on the ninth floor of the Technische Universität, Berlin’s Institute of Technology, in a glass skyscraper overlooking Ernst-Reuter Platz. The room is bright and full of books. Right in front of one of the dangerously leaning stacks of books, Ms. Wetzel tells us about the research she has conducted with the “Zentrum für Antisemitismusforschung”, the Research Centre on Anti-Semitism.
The Centre is the crown jewel of the university and Ms. Wetzel is one of its most respected researchers. For about a decade, she has been part of the independent experts group on anti-Semitism of the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament, and since 2015 she has been a board member of the “Kreuzberg Initiative gegen Antisemitismus” (KIgA), the Kreuzberg Initiative against Anti-Semitism. Founded in 2003, it was one of the first initiatives of German civil society that developed methods to tackle anti-Semitism through education in Germany’s increasingly multicultural society. According to Wetzel, upbringing and education are the only tools that can effectively protect society from anti-Semitism and racism of any kind.

*Translated 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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FEATUREs

A Former Prison for Jews Unlocks
Their Ancient Italian History

By Vicky Hallett*

Ready for a quick history lesson? About 1,952 years ago, Rome sacked Jerusalem. Its soldiers carried off the treasures of the temple and thousands of Jews. The money and slave labor were then used to build a gigantic amphitheater you've probably heard of. It's called the Colosseum. So there's no denying that Jews have been in Italy for a very, very long time. It's the most ancient community of Jews in the Western world, one that has withstood centuries of sorrow and tsoris while producing some of the nation's most important thinkers and writers. And it's a topic that's the center of attention at the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah. (In Italian, that's Museo Nazionale dell'Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah, or MEIS for short.)

*This article was published in The Washington Post on June 10, 2018.

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bechol lashon - deutsch

Antisemitismus

Anna Foa*

Ich gehöre nicht jener Seite italienischer Juden an, möge sie auch die Mehrheit darstellen, die jegliche Kritik an Israel, gar jede abweichende Meinung über die Politik der israelischen Regierung als ein Ausdruck des Antisemitismus wahrnimmt. Ich glaube vielmehr an die Notwenigkeit der Debatte und freien Meinungsäußerung in Bezug auf die Welt der Juden.
Aber trotz dieser Haltung kann ich dennoch die antiisraelischen Flaggen und Transparente auf der Settimia Spizzichino gewidmeten Brücke nicht nur als wahnsinnig große Dummheit betiteln, sondern sehe dies tatsächlich als definitiv antisemitischen Akt.



*Anna Foa, Historikerin. Übersetzung von Milena Porsch, Studentin der Universität von Regensburg und Praktikantin bei der Zeitungsredaktion der Union der jüdischen Gemeinden von Italien (UCEI).

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double life

Food & Ball

By Daniela Fubini*

One of the things that keeps new and old immigrants connected with the original country, especially when you are an Italian and you live anywhere else on the globe is naturally the food.
Luckily, Italian food is a cult in many countries around the world; unluckily, about 99% of the times it is kept by proper heretics who dare to call "Italian" stuff that is barely edible to any Italian, or by people who mean well but have absolutely no idea how to even boil the water for pasta, let alone dress a salad or cook a simple risotto. Therefore, I am known to come back from my short trips back home with a full suitcase of ingredients, ready to cook the all way until the next trip. A real Italian respects his or her kitchen, first of all.

*Daniela Fubini (Twitter @d_fubini) lives and writes in Israel, where she arrived in 2008 from Turin via New York.



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ITALICS

Rome mayor blocks street dedication
for neofascist leader

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