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October 15, 2018 - Cheshvan 6, 5778

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Italy Celebrated Day of Jewish Culture

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The European Day of Jewish Culture was held in dozens of locations all over Italy on Sunday, October 14, 2018. The selected leading city, Genoa, hosted the national event that honored the victims of the collapse of the Morandi Bridge two months ago. At the beginning of the opening ceremony, the chief rabbi Giuseppe Momigliano offered a prayer for them, their families and the city.
“God, Our Lord, we remember today before you the dear people, men, women and children, that prematurely found death in the terrible tragedy of the Morandi Bridge that happened in this city – said the rabbi – May this calamity become a source of a renewed spirit of compassion and mutual generosity and from the effort to act according to principles of justice and charity may come to be a shared commitment for the good of the city and all its’ residents”.

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A New Way to Visit Jewish Italy

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The Fondazione Beni Culturali Ebraici Italiani (Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy) has launched a new portal and a new way to explore the richness and history of Italian Jewish life and culture.
The website www.visitjewishitaly.com features dozens of sites and other elements all over the Italian peninsula. The visitor can choose among synagogues, former ghettos, cemeteries and museums. Visitors will be instantly presented with pictures, explanations and maps, together with virtual tours to some of the locations of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities.

FEATUREs

Mantua, a Long Jewish History

By Jenna Lustbader*

The first extent mention of Jews living in the ancient northern Italian city of Mantua (Mantova) dates to around 1145. Soon after this, Abraham ibn Ezra (1089-1167), one of the most important Jewish biblical commentators and philosophers of the Middle Ages, stayed for a time in the city, during his exilic journeys. There are no further references to Jews in connection with Mantua until they are mentioned in the new statutes of the city at the end of the fourteenth century, when a relatively large number seem to have lived there.
During the 1400’s the treatment of the Jews varied, and occasionally they were favored by the ruling Gonzaga family. Federico I Gonzaga (1441-84), Marquis of Mantua, had a Jewish physician, but he forbade Jews to keep Christian servants, an exception being made in regard to necessary services performed on the Sabbath. Under the Gonzagas, who generally encouraged the activities and talents of their Jewish subjects, Mantua was a haven of relative racial and cultural tolerance and the community showed significant growth. During the 1500s, Jews made up 7-8% of the population of the city. As the community grew, it went from being made up mostly of money lenders and their families to including merchants, teachers, and rabbis (the city’s Jewish population reached its numerical peak in 1858 with 2,523 Jews.).

*Jenna Lustbader is a student at Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA).

bechol lashon - Français

Sensations

David Bidussa*

En 1940, pendant une période particulièrement obscure, George Orwell écrivait : « Dans le ventre de la baleine convaincus de voir deux mondes à la fois, celui d’aujourd’hui enfermé dans la bulle d’aire de celui d’hier. » J’ai l’impression que aujourd’hui cela soit le même pour nous aussi.

*David Bidussa, historien social des idées. Traduction de Beatrice Bandini, étudiante de l’École Supérieure pour Traducteurs et Interprètes de l’Université de Trieste et stagiaire auprès du journal de l’Union des Communautés Juives Italiennes.

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double life

Grasping onto the Land Sarah and Mahpela

By Yaakov Mascetti*

When it comes to the weekly Torah portion of Haye Sarah, it is arduous for me to ignore the growing rhetorical emphasis placed on the topic of the Cave of Mahpelah and its role as the first acquisition of land made by a Jew in the Promised Land of Canaan. In Genesis 15: 7-21, God, as we know, promises the land to Abraham.

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

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ITALICS

Teaching The Shoah In The Land Of Truffles

By Harry D. Wall*

Piedmont, the stunningly beautiful region of northern Italy, known for its truffles, wine, and hazelnuts would seem to be an unusual venue for a seminar on the Holocaust. Yet over 30 high school teachers from throughout Italy gathered in Asti, the province capital, in early September for a five-day intensive program on Jewish heritage and Holocaust education in Italy.
“Piedmont is a crucial area for the history of anti-fascism in Italy. From 1943-1945 it was the core of the armed resistance against the Nazis,” explains Gadi Luzzatto Vorghera, director of the Fondazione CDEC (The Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center), one of the Italian organizers of the seminar together with the local Institute for the History of the Resistance in Asti. The primary sponsor was the Olga Lengyel Institute for Holocaust Studies and Human Rights (TOLI), based in New York, which organizes teacher training seminars in the U.S. and Europe. (Disclaimer: the author is on the Board of Directors for the organization.).

*The article was published in the The Jewish Week on October 9, 2018.

moked è il portale dell'ebraismo italiano

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.

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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.
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, Michael Sierra, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan.

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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, Michael Sierra, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan.