In the late 1960s, Jack Stroumsa, director of the Jerusalem Municipality’s Public Lighting Department, met a young Italian engineer named Gianfranco Yohanan Di Segni. Both were olim hadashim – new immigrants to Israel. Born in Rome in 1941, Di Segni …
The remains of the synagogue at Rome’s ancient port of Ostia, dating back to the first century, testify to the continuous Jewish presence in Italy for more than two centuries. They are also a great source of new historical discoveries. …
Also known as the Megillah (the Scroll) in Hebrew, the Book of Esther is a fascinating and mysterious biblical text. The heroism of Esther, the young Jewish queen who saves her people from annihilation at the hands of the heinous …
The United States under Trump’s second administration will be full of surprises, predicted Italian journalist and academic Furio Colombo (photo). A longtime critic of the tycoon-turned-president, Colombo believed this term had the potential to be “worse and more dangerous”. Unfortunately, …
26 etchings and aquatints by the artist Eva Fischer (1920-2015) are now on display at the Civic Museum of Livorno. A painter appreciated by Giorgio De Chirico, Salvador Dalí and Pablo Picasso, Eva Fischer was one of the protagonists of …
Eshkol Nevo, one of the most popular contemporary Israeli writers, has received a special mention in the 25th Literary Prize of the Association of Italian Jewish Women (ADEI-WIZO), named in memory of Adelina Della Pergola. Nevo, who has won the …
In the afterword of the book, Elio Tesciuba notes: “Israel is a land that changes you; it makes you face your beliefs and prejudices.” Then adds: “It’s a country that invites us to think, to call everything into question and …
Jews have lived in Trani, in the Apulia region, from Roman times until 1541, when they were expelled. The community life centered around the Giudecca (as the Jewish quarter was known) and its four synagogues, two of which survived the …
The Gallerie d’Italia in Turin is presenting a major retrospective of Jewish-American photographer Mitch Epstein, open to the public until March 2. Curated by Brian Wallis of CPW – the Center for Photography at Woodstock and entitled Mitch Epstein: American …
At the end of the 19th century, Italian gastronome Pellegrino Artusi knocked on the doors of various publishers to get his cookbook published. He tried, among others, to persuade Emilio Treves, the man who at that moment embodied Italian …