The Day of Jewish-Christian Dialogue (17 January) has two themes this year. The Jubilee, the theme chosen for this 36th edition, but above all the Jewish world’s alarm at the continuing rift with the Catholic Church. “We are facing a …
Shortly after the announcement of the ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the first hostages held by Hamas, the President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), Noemi Di Segni, appealed for at least one more “ceasefire”: that …
It was only when the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came into force that the mayor of Bologna, Matteo Lepore, decided to put the Israeli flag next to the Palestinian one that had been flying in front of the town …
“Remembrance cannot be an occasional, celebratory event, but must be an integral part of everyday life.” With these words Fortunato Arbib, president of the Jewish Community of Ferrara, introduced a historic moment for the city: the laying of the first …
We herewith publish a copy of the letter sent by the Hevràt Yehudé Italia Be-Israel, the Community of Italian Jews in Israel, to the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, on 31 December 2024. The letter is signed by …
The Ateneo Veneto, the oldest cultural institute in Venice, has longstanding ties of friendship and collaboration with the Jewish community. These ties deepen “the profound regret” expressed by Dario Calimani, president of the Jewish community, upon learning of a conference …
When the Shoah Memorial in Milan opened, on January 27, 2012, “one of the goals was to get 100,000 students’ visits,” recalls the President of the Shoah Memorial Foundation Roberto Jarach. Eleven years later, he can “proudly say “that those …
Franco Cesana was still a child when he fell in combat to help liberate Italy from Nazi-fascism. On September 14, 1944, his young life was cut short in Picciniera di Gombola, near Modena, in the Emilia Romagna region. Six days …
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 …
After World War II, Louis Goldman became an established photographer in the USA. During the war, he was a young Jewish man hounded by the nazi-fascists. Born in Germany to Polish parents, he fled to Paris and later hid in …
The goal was to strip away the rhetoric surrounding Liliana Segre. To move beyond the “very Italian” attempt to turn her into a symbol. And to let her speak today, offering the public a faithful portrait of her story and …
“Years later, as he approached his eighties, Niccolò Introna would feel the need to defend himself for the first time in his life. It was as if he were on trial, not them. Particularly not the two people in question, …
Ruth’s is a kosher vegetarian restaurant next to the synagogue in Florence. Its owner for over twenty years, Tomas Simcha Jelinek, is also a vegetarian. “Everyone has been here. Even the Italian steak king, Dario Cecchini. Outside his realm, he …
After centuries of confinement in the ghetto, the granting of civil rights and freedoms offered Roman Jews the opportunity to build a grand synagogue in that very area, serving as a symbol of their historic shift toward emancipation. The synagogue …
In 2017, the Archdiocese of Palermo’s decision to grant the free use of an ecclesiastical property to establish a synagogue made headlines worldwide. The New York Times captured the moment with the headline: “500 Years After Expulsion, Sicily’s Jews Reclaim …
The film producer Marina Piperno, 89, and Luigi Morando Faccini, 84, are partners both in cinema and in life. They have no children. “Our legacy is our movies, they are our past, our present, and our future,” says Marina, a …
More than 1,500 rare printed volumes from the Jewish community of Mantua have been cataloged as part of the international I-TAL-YA Books project, led by the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). Architectural photographer and visual artist Giulia Flavia …
After living between Milan, Paris and the Far East, photographer Mario Troiani settled in Israel drawn by “the emotions that this country and its light awaken in me.” For Troiani, born in 1962, capturing Israel’s colors and characters was more …
The European Day of Jewish Culture on September 15th will be dedicated to family. And in Rome, “no place better represents this concept than the Great Synagogue, which will soon celebrate 120 years since its inauguration,” said art historian Giorgia …
Also known as Judezmo or Judaeo, Ladino is the ancient language of the Sephardic Jews, which survived the forced expulsion from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century and the subsequent dispersion throughout the Mediterranean region. According to recent …