“U mi midbar mattanà u mi mattanà nachaliel… Du désert à Mattanà et de Mattanà au don divin” (Bemidbar, 21). Les commentateurs ont expliqué ce verset de la parashà de Balaq avec celle de Chuqqat, en le comparant à la condition du peuple juif tout au long de son histoire : le désert (midbar) est …
Rav Moshè David Valle est une figure rabbinique qui, malheureusement a vécu dans le siècle qui a été défini comme “le moins connu de l’histoire des Juifs de Padoue”. À cette considération de caractère général, on peut ajouter également trois raisons qui contribuent au fait que ce maitre padouan doit être encore complétement découvert: 1)Parce …
“When publishers complain, we have to take the past into account. For over 500 years editors and publishers have complained that books don’t sell enough or that it’s too expensive to make them. We can read this even in the very first documents regarding printing, so there is nothing new here”. Thus Roberto Barbieri, executive …
Abraham B. Yehoshua lo ha demostrado más de una vez en sus libros: la familia constituye la mejor llave para interpretar y revelar las dinámicas de las relaciones humanas. Se trata de una lección puesta en práctica con maestría por la dramaturga florentina Laura Forti en su último libro Una casa en llamas (ed. Guanda). …
Over the past year, a great number of Ukrainians fleeing Russian military aggression arrived in Italy as it never happened before. But the atlas of human suffering is wide, covering several regions and continents: from Nigeria to Bangladesh, from Georgia to Egypt. Many have left their homeland as a result of long-standing persecution and wars. …
By Daniela Gross* In the darkest months of the Nazi Occupation, when the raids were increasing in number and violence was covering Trieste with blood, San Giovanni compound seemed to be a safe place from the storms of history. It was a hospital area, a place of care and hospitality, a whole another universe with …
By Daniela Gross The Community’s centuries-old collection is loaded onto a special train bound for Germany two days before the Jews of Rome are deported. An immense heritage of history, knowledge and tradition is thus snatched from Italian Judaism – seven thousand texts dating back to the late Middle Ages and including codices, incunabula and …
Por Daniel Reichel En una sociedad vulnerable, afectada por los efectos de la pandemia, del conflicto y de la inflación, los sentimientos de incertidumbre, de frustración y de rabia aumentan. Crece también la tendencia de buscar un chivo expiatorio y, como consecuencia, sube el número de los episodios de antisemitismo. Se trata de un asunto …
By Daniel Reichel One of the hardest times for Rabbi Mayer Stambler, head of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine, was March 2022. Russia’s aggression had just started. The gloomiest predictions – back then considered the most credible ones – envisioned a swift conquest by Putin’s army. In Dnipro, the city where the Rabbi …
2023 will be a year marked by several anniversaries. Among the most significant ones is the celebration of the 30 years from the signing of the agreement between the State of Israel and the Holy See. “It was a milestone, and it has already born fruit enjoyable by both parties. But what has been done …
By Adam Smulevich Joshua Cohen was in Jerusalem at the time it was announced that he had won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Just a few minutes later, he said, “my house was surrounded by reporters. None of them had read the book, clearly, and it was funny to be asked so many questions aimed …
For weeks, in the summer of 2021, we talked about little else. Then, attention started fading while Afghanistan disappeared from the front pages and stopped making headlines. Yet the humanitarian crisis has not stopped for a moment and rather intensified. While Western public attention dropped and the Taliban repression increased, the challenge remains that of …
Siempre es el momento para hacerse la pregunta contenida en el título del libro de Abraham Joshua Heschel ¿Quién es el hombre? Una lectura que el rabino rav Giuseppe Momigliano de Génova, dice que hizo hace varios años y que ha vuelto a cogerlo hace poco. “Como dice el título, se habla del sentido de …
In the middle of summer, as Italy found out that it had to go back to the polls again, a publishing initiative showed how books can be a symbol of solidarity too, reminding us that not far from this country, a gruelling aggression is still going on. In particular, for the many families from Ukraine …
By Daniel Reichel Arieh, doctor of the Israeli NGO Hatzalah Lelo Gvulot (Rescue without borders), is on the phone. He wants to know if an ambulance is available to take away three Ukrainian refugees. They have to reach Rzeszów, a Polish town ninety kilometres from the border. From here, they will leave for Israel. We …
By Daniel Leisawitz* The history and culture of the Jews of Italy are largely unknown to most Americans, as they are to most Italians. Even among well-educated American Jews, it’s news that Italy is home to a multi-millennial Jewish history, its own minhag, and many consequential Jewish thinkers, writers, artists, and historical figures. If anything, …
By Kyle Tassone* What is “illumination”? In addition to being a synonym for “light”, Illumination, is also a unique project that gathered passionate professional musicians under the guiding vision and direction of cellist Ayela Seidelman, to rediscover early modern Jewish-Italian liturgical music. In this convocation of musical minds, the project was formed, and with it, …
By Alan David Baumann* Children of artists never abandon the strong bond with the parents, although psychologically the umbilical cord must be severed. On the one hand the artwork helps, on the other its constant presence can mean a sort of perennial “devotion” or “subjection”. I can imagine what is going on in Alessandra, Andrea, …
By Pagine Ebraiche staff As the restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus outbreak in Italy are progressively eased up, Italian Jewish communities started to celebrate again life-cycle events in person, according to the guidelines of the authorities. In Rome, Elinor and Marco, who were supposed to get married in Jerusalem in March, celebrated their wedding …
By Pagine Ebraiche staff As a child, he remembers taking walks, sometimes close to the Synagogue. And his love for art and beauty, which his father passed on to him during the unforgettable visits of the most important landmarks of their city. These fragments of life are anchored in the memory of David Cassuto, a …