From October 9 to 11, the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS) in Ferrara will host the 17th Jewish Book Festival. This year’s theme is “Families: A Private Novel.”
The three-day festival will delve into the various facets of family, seen as a “source of warmth and support” that offers comfort, yet also as a “nest” that can feel “too small and crowded.” It will explore family as a constant source of ideas and identities in evolution, and as the “first source of care, and the “first scar that each of us carries.”
The family will also be examined as perhaps the most enduring subject of storytelling, from the Bible to contemporary literature and the great family sagas of the nineteenth century. “We want to explore the theme in all its many facets,” said MEIS director Amedeo Spagnoletto.
One of the books featured at the festival is Rita Levi-Montalcini’s In Praise of Imperfection (Baldini+Castoldi). Her niece, Piera Levi-Montalcini, will discuss the book with students during two dedicated sessions. This event marks the 40th anniversary of the Turin-born scientist receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The festival’s main program will take place on Sunday, October 11. At 3:30 p.m., historian and journalist Lucetta Scaraffia will present her book Ebrei senza saperlo (Jews Without Knowing It), published by Raffaello Cortina Editore, in conversation with historian Giovanni Maria Vian and Anna Maria Quarzi, president of Ferrara’s Institute of Contemporary History.
Writers Nadia Terranova and Ilaria Gaspari will discuss “Family Intermittencies: Natalia Ginzburg and Marcel Proust.” Then, at 6:00 p.m., Israeli novelist Assaf Gavron will discuss his latest book, Seguendo le tracce (Following the Traces), with Giuntina publisher Shulim Vogelmann and journalist and writer Anna Momigliano.