The September 6 edition of the 2026 European Day of Jewish Culture will also extend into the digital sphere, with the National Library of Israel (NLI) will present a special online exhibition inspired by the Song of Songs, in keeping with this year’s theme of love. This collaboration is one of the most prestigious cultural partnerships of the European initiative.
Italy features prominently in the exhibition through a 17th-century ketubah (Hebrew: Jewish marriage contract) from Mantua, which is richly decorated with colorful floral motifs and micrographic passages from the Song of Songs. This ketubah reflects a period when such documents “were often transformed into works of art, combining local Renaissance-Baroque aesthetics with Jewish textual traditions” and framing marriage “through a language of beauty, devotion, and sacred love.”
The exhibition brings together a wide range of materials, including a 17th-century Persian manuscript of Laila and Majnun, a ballad by Greek poet and playwright Iakovos Kambanellis who survived deportation to Mauthausen, and an original reinterpretation by Israeli visual artist Emily Shapiro Katz.
Programs for Bologna and the other participating Italian cities are available on the UCEI 2026 program page. The initiative offers an opportunity to explore the complexity, plurality, and vitality of Jewish history, culture, and values.
Image: the Mantua Ketubah, 1619.