ITALICS Giorgio Bassani’s Memorial Tapestry
By Adam Kirsch*
The Italian Jewish writer Giorgio Bassani lived to be 84 years old, and he spent most of his adult life in Rome, where he was a prominent editor and man of letters. But almost all of his …
Italian Word of the Week
ITALICS A darker story
The police report said that “the terrified child, Emma Calò, aged 6, clung, weeping, to the clothes of the concierge…M r and Mrs Berna begged the official to desist from his intentions, but he was adamant.” Told that this heart-wrenching …
ITALICS Jamie Oliver Gets Schooled By a Jewish Italian Bubbe
By Rachel Myerson*
If you haven’t been watching Jamie Oliver’s current television show, “Jamie Cooks Italy,” or at least read the accompanying cookbook, “Jamie Cooks Italy — From the Heart of the Italian Kitchen,” do so immediately. The Naked Chef …
ITALICS Teaching The Holocaust In The Land Of Truffles
By Harry D. Wall*
Piedmont, the stunningly beautiful region of northern Italy, known for its truffles, wine, and hazelnuts would seem to be an unusual venue for a seminar on the Holocaust. Yet over 30 high school teachers from throughout …
ITALICS Forgotten Memories of Libya’s Vibrant Jewish Community
By Eness Elias*
My grandmother died a little more than three weeks ago. Grandmother Eness, for whom I’m named, was born in Tripoli, Libya, and lived there until age 13, when she immigrated with her family to Israel. Here she …
ITALICS Italian universities to apologize for expelling Jewish staff, students in WWII
By Rossella Tercatin*
In the first half of the 20th century, the royal family of Italy enjoyed spending their summers in San Rossore, an idyllic estate in the Tuscan city of Pisa. King Vittorio Emanuele III, a passionate shooter, was …
ITALICS Busting Italy’s myths about the Holocaust
By Michael Curtis*
Two coins in the fountain of the historical analysis of Italy’s role in the Holocaust jostle for which one will be blessed. It remains controversial.
The familiar and prevalent view is a positive one of the “good”, …
ITALISCS Italian police recover Renoir and Rubens from heist involving ‘diplomatic rabbi’
By AP and TOI staff
Police in northern Italy have recovered two paintings stolen in 2017 during a heist in which one of the accomplices dressed up as a “diplomatic rabbi.”
Carabinieri art-squad police displayed the paintings — a Renoir …
ITALICS Italian Jewish Brigade to be honoured with Gold Medal for Valour
By Rosie Whitehouse*
Lia Quartapelle has fought for many years for recognition of the role that the Jewish Brigade’s 5,000 soldiers played in the liberation of the Italian peninsula in 1944.
Last month, the MP for the centre-left Democratic Party …
ITALICS Pizza Ebraica
By Rachel Rummel*
Rome’s Jewish quarter isn’t perfumed by the aromas of savory pizza dough. Rather, caramelizing sugars, just-burnt nuts, raisins, and candied citrus waft along the cobblestone. Italians call this creation pizza ebraica, which means “Jewish pizza,” even though …