By Daniela Gross
Urtisti, the word of the week, is quite uncommon, and quite hard to understand if you are not Roman. It comes from the verb “urtare”, which probably derives from the Provencal, and it means to bump into …
By Daniela Gross
Unluckily, the Italian word of the day is “attentato”. The Treccani Encyclopedia, one of the most authoritative linguistic Italian sources, explains that the word derives from the Latin verb “attemptare”, that means “to attempt”. At this point, …
By Daniela Gross
It is a really old fashioned word. Nowadays, if in Italian you say “filmini” (the singular is “filmino”), the youths probably won’t understand what in the world you mean. It is a word that reminds us of …
By Daniela Gross
It happened a little over one century ago. La “Marcia su Roma”, the “March onto Rome” took place in 1922, from 22 to 29 October. The march itself comprised fewer than 30,000 men, but its symbolic and …
By Daniela Gross
In Italian the word for wedding is “matrimonio”, from the Latin “matrimonium”. In the Jewish world, to get married is always a complicated and delicate issue, but the complications of a Jewish wedding in Italy are even …
By Daniela Gross
In Italy, as in any Jewish Community, the “cimitero” is among the most important services provided. The sound of it is very similar to the word “cemetery” because both the Italian and the English term derive from …
By Daniela Gross
“How many people are reunited here tonight … It’s so beautiful, so surprising”. To speak so was a gentleman with a fascinating white and huge hat, in a little synagogue in the South of the United States …
By Daniela Gross
Maybe nothing like Yom Kippur is able to stir and dissolve the infinite differences of the Jewish world. Beyond different ritual habits and melodies, in that day the Jewish people experience at each latitude a deep feeling …
By Daniela Gross
The whole expression sounds as “Che sia un anno dolce come il miele” (“May this year be as sweet as the honey”) and translates the traditional Hebrew wish for Rosh Hashanah. It is quite common to hear …
By Daniela Gross
The word of the day is “cultura” not for its linguistic implications, so intuitive (its translation is “culture”), but because today the “cultura” has been the leitmotiv both for the Italian and the European Jewry. Today, during …