PERIODICAL – The Jubilee, hope and the Jewish roots. The fifth issue of Erre has been released

The fifth issue of Erre, the periodical published by the Rut Foundation, is now available. A spin-off of the project translating the Babylonian Talmud into Italian, the foundation dedicates almost 200 pages to the Jubilee, paying special attention to the Jewish roots of this institution.
In this sacred year for Christianity, one of the key themes of the new issue, presented at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome on October 22nd, is hope. It “makes sense”, it reads, to still evoke this feeling because “in between wars, crises and disasters, it seems like everything on the planet is going downhill”. But the data tells a different story: poverty, famine and illness are at an all-time low, and life expectancy and human rights are improving. Therefore, we must take a global view on the present, despite its challenges. Some of the most painful wounds have arrived in recent years from the Middle East, where hope is only now making a tentative comeback.

These topics are discussed at length in the “messaggi dal fronte” (messages from the front), written by the Italian-Israeli journalist Manuela Dviri. Meanwhile, the Dinah Project focuses on the widespread use of sexual assault by Hamas. The goal is to ensure that sexual assault is recognized as a crime against humanity and to establish more efficient evaluation parameters.

The periodical also delves into the role of sport. In an interview, Evelina Christillin, a member of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) Council, reaffirms the function of sport as a unifying force, never as a barrier. This is also true of the Middle East, because “it is our responsibility to ensure that sport unites, not divides.”

Among the more strictly Jewish content developed by the periodical led by Giovanna Martelli, there is an intervention by musicologist and Hebrew scholar Stefano Patuzzi. He reminds us that the Jubilee was a particular period in the Land of Israel. During this time, “confiscated land was returned” and slaves were freed “with the intention of undoing or mitigating social and economic inequalities”. The Jubilee was heralded by “the stentorian sound of a ram’s horn, in Hebrew ‘Yovel’, hence the name’.

Erre also addresses many other topics, such as the connection between the Jubilee and Hinduism, how the Vatican Museums view the Jubilee, and the Buddhist Soka Gakkai’s perspective on the present moment as a sacred time. The publication also focuses on stories of migration and the Amazon, ‘the lungs of the earth’, and the knowledge of its peoples.

a.s.

Translated by Rebecca Luna Escobar and revised by Matilde Bortolussi, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainees in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities — Pagine Ebraiche.