By Guido Vitale* “The hasidic community is usually depicted according to the views of outsiders and frequently appears cold and generally without joy. Yet the Hasidic culture that I have experienced is one that is funny, beautiful, and deeply spiritual.” (Joshua Weinstein, film director)
By Guido Vitale* “The ultimate test of a nation is the manner in which it treats its most vulnerable” (Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth)
Guido Vitale “Ce Festival est incroyable. C’est un merveilleux rassemblement de créateurs, d’œuvres et de passionnés. Il n’y a rien de semblable ailleurs dans le monde ! En plus, Angoulême possède un charme qui lui confère une dimension humaine”. (Chris Claremont, auteur)
By Guido Vitale “There are Jews who believe and those who don’t. There are Jews who practise and those who don’t. But there are few Jews indeed who, when their people are suffering, can walk away saying, ‘This has nothing to do with me’. Maimonides, who defines this as ‘separating yourself from the community’ (poresh …
By Guido Vitale “Social media are a trap” (Zygmunt Bauman)
Guido Vitale Was der Abschied von den Zeitgenossen der NS-Zeit für uns Nachgeborene bedeute, werde ich immer wieder gefragt. Dieser Tage, da die Medien vielfach an die “großen Toten” des zurückliegenden Jahres erinnerten, kam die Frage an den Zeithistoriker noch häufiger als sonst. Tatsächlich sind 2016 zahlreiche Menschen gegangen, deren Lebensweg und deren Lebensleistung viele …
By Guido Vitale* In this faraway corner of southern Africa, scores of German soldiers lie in a military cemetery, their names, dates and details engraved on separate polished tombstones. Easily missed is a single small plaque on the cemetery wall that gives a nod in German to the African “warriors” who died in the fighting …
By Guido Vitale* “I may say that I am lucky,” Ladany says, after more than 50 years as a Holocaust survivor, “but I don’t feel any special joy. For most of the war years I was not really aware of the danger. As a young child, you do not really grasp how terrible things are. …
By Guido Vitale “Somewhere between media and social media — between familiar ideas about politics and the news and the ones that underpin the world we live in today — platforms changed from responsibilities into abdications of responsibility” (John Herrman, The New York Times Magazine).
By Guido Vitale “We have similar conversations around the world about the problem of online hate speech, but we do absolutely see in Israel and the Palestinian territory that this is one of the central issues in society even more in this region than elsewhere.” (Simon Milner, Facebook’s policy director for Britain, the Middle East …
Guido Vitale “I don’t think he’ll move the embassy, and I don’t think he’ll legalize settlements. I’m confident we’ll work with President-elect Trump and his administration to achieve peace and to achieve the two-state solution”. (Saeb Erekat, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization – The New York Times 19th november 2016)
By Guido Vitale “Whatever rises from the rubble of liberalism’s debacle must never repeat that mistake. The decencies of modern life need to be argued with militant passion and broadcast to places where it can be heard by people who don’t read broadsheets. What neither America nor the rest of world can afford right now …
By Guido Vitale “Facebook admitted at the end of October that its trending algorithm couldn’t tell true stories from false. Google doesn’t know the difference between a real Jew and a Nazi stereotype. If you type “Jew” in Google Images, you get a wide variety of Nazi and other anti-Semitic caricatures. Plus, if you Google …
Guido Vitale (…) Les propos du candidat républicain, Donald Trump, promettant dans un premier temps d’interdire l’accès du territoire américain aux musulmans, puis finalement, dans un second temps, aux ressortissants de pays où sévit le terrorisme islamiste, a libéré une parole anti-musulmans et provoqué une vague d’islamophobie comme le pays n’en avait jamais connu. (…) …
Guido Vitale Le fait religieux gagne du terrain en entreprise. Cest du moins ce que ressentent beaucoup de ceux qui y travaillent Près des deux tiers des salariés interrogés pour l’institut Randstad et l’Observatoire du fait religieux en entreprise (Ofre) ont noté en 2016 plusieurs manifestations du fait religieux, contre 50% en 2015. (Les Echos, …
By Guido Vitale “And he went on creating words, / And his fast quill didn’t rest, / And the language grew / And didn’t recognize itself in the morning. / Eliezer Ben Yehuda, / An amusing Jew. / Words, words, words / He invented with his feverish brain”. (Yaron London, Matti Caspi: “Eliezer Ben Yehuda”)
Guido Vitale “En el sur de Tel Aviv, Moshé cierra su kiosco en sabbat. «Necesitamos un día de descanso. Es un tema social pero también religioso ya que Israel es un Estado judío», reivindica”. (El Mundo, septiembre 2016)
Guido Vitale Die Union der jüdischen Gemeinden Italiens (UCEI) richtete ein Sonderkonto zugunsten der Geschädigten ein. Vor allem aber stieß der Verband noch am Mittwoch eine Blutspende-Aktion an: Bürger sollten im römischen Krankenhaus Fatebenefratelli und dem benachbarten Ospedale Israelitico Blut für die Verletzten spenden. Notstand UCEI-Präsidentin Noemi Di Segni erklärte, man habe »konkret und umgehend …
By Guido Vitale ‘Who is this guy, Dad? What is he doing here?’ (Howard Jacobson – Shylock is my Name)
By Guido Vitale El túnel de Ponar, un lugar cercano a la capital lituana ahora llamado Paneriai donde fueron fusiladas unas 100.000 personas, en su mayoría judíos, así como intelectuales polacos y lituanos, es una de las muchas historias que oculta la tragedia interminable del Holocausto y además un suceso cargado de significado. (El Pais)