Our Jewish history along a river of dialogues

On Sunday 10 October, Padua will be the leading Italian city of the 22nd European Day of Jewish Culture, which this year is dedicated to the theme of “Dialogues”, a theme that lends itself to a range of possible declensions. “Sometimes we are tempted to imagine Jewish history as a succession of centuries in which there have been only persecutions – certainly the result of the absence of any interest in dialogue with the Jewish presence and the prevalence of blind hatred”, points out the President of the Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni.
“But even alongside the forced diasporas, the centuries of discrimination and subordination, the Inquisition, the era of ghettos, modern antisemitism, and its tragic consequences in the first half of the 20th century, there has always been a karst river of dialogue and exchange with other religions and with entire society, which has also led to shining examples of coexistence”.
“The history of the Jewish people is also the history of a constant and fluid exchange with the surrounding world”, she says. “An exchange that today, in advanced and pluralist democracies, is evidently the norm, and which with globalization has also become global”.
As for Jewish Padua, an international centre of reference for rabbinic education, Jewish Padua has expressed a vast array of intellectuals, academics, and professionals in several different ages and represents at its best the spirit of pluralism that the European event is aimed at highlighting. The program of the European Day of Jewish Culture, which will be held all across Italy, is available online.