By Adam Smulevich He is not 18 yet, but the entire Jewish community of Rome is dreaming with him. Giorgio Spizzichino, young talented player of the Lazio soccer team was very close to making his debut as a professional at a very special game: the city derby against Rome played last week. After wearing jersey number 43 …
By Pagine Ebraiche staff It is well known that Nice is the most Italian city in France, not only because the city was Italian until 1860 and the legendary Giuseppe Garibaldi was born there, but also because Italians are currently the second largest foreign group in Nice and many more go there on vacation. …
By Francesca Matalon Resilience is the central theme of this year’s exhibition at the Israel Pavilion at the Biennale in Venice, called “LifeObject: Merging Architecture and Biology.” The exhibition explores the relation between architecture and biology. The Biennale is a contemporary visual art exhibition, so called as it is held biannually, in odd-numbered years. …
By Chavie Lieber* A Torah scroll takes years to finish, is written on a special parchment made of animal skin, by a select few who learn the craft, and is locked away, safely, in a special closet when it’s not in use. It is celebrated: It gets kissed, danced with, stood up for, and is …
By Francesca Matalon It is time for celebrations for the Jewish Community of Milan. The year 2016 marks the 150th anniversary since its foundation. The following article is the second installment of a two-part series devoted to the history and present life of the Community. After Second World War, the Jewish community of Milan found …
By Francesca Matalon It is time for celebrations for the Jewish Community of Milan, as 2016 marks the 150th anniversary since its foundation. The presidents Milo Hasbani and Raffaele Besso announced that the Community will be sharing this important moment with all the city, with a festival of Jewish Culture – called “Jewish and the …
By Tom Kington and Philip Willan* Five hundred years after it was founded in Venice, Europe’s original Jewish ghetto is fighting to preserve its ancient synagogues as monuments to Jewish resilience — and as a warning about intolerance and segregation. The singer Barbra Streisand is among backers of an 8 million fundraising drive by Venice’s …
By Ada Treves* Ambassador Sandro De Bernardin (in the picture with demographer Sergio Della Pergola), recently appointed Head of the Italian Delegation of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, is resolute and full of energy. His name is not new to Italian diplomacy, working as the Italian ambassador in Israel and holding several tasks of significance …
By Julie Carbonara* Through the centuries, in spite of their meagre numbers, Italian Jews have had a huge impact on Italian life and on Judaism as a whole. Currently, Italian Judaism is undergoing a transformation, fuelled partly by the influx of Jews from Arab countries over the past decades and a revival in the South …
By Rossella Tercatin 2016 marks the fifth-hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the first ghetto in history, which was in Venice in 1516. The Jewish Community of Venice, the city and the entire country are gearing up to commemorate the event with dozens of initiatives, starting this coming March. Speaking at the plenary of the …
By Rachel Silvera Chaya and Simi are two brilliant and funny girls. Born and bred in Sidney (Australia), they are the daughters of a local rabbi. In a conversation with Pagine Ebraiche, they explained how they wanted to find a compromise between their two Bibles: Torah and Vogue (of course!). This is the reason why …
By Adam Smulevich In the December issue, Pagine Ebraiche presents its readers with an unpublished picture of extraordinary symbolic value. The picture portrays Aron Colub, the American soldier who broke the seals placed by the Nazis on the synagogue of Rome. The event happened on June 4, 1944, the day that the Italian Capital was …
By Francesca Matalon “Fluctuat nec mergitur”, Tossed but not sunk: it is the motto of Paris, referring to its symbol, a ship sailing through a stormy sea. But the same symbol represents Paris in the sky of the twinned city Rome, where a bronze statue stands bringing a little bit of the City of Light …
By Ada Treves It is truly impossible to explain the complexity and the profound humanity of Katja Petrowskaja, recent winner of yet another price, that of the Adei-Wizo, the Italian Association of Jewish Women, part of the Women’s International Zionist Organization, named after Adelina Della Pergola. The only chance is to read her book, Maybe …
By Daniel Reichel “You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt,” (Exodus 23:9). The biblical ethic urges us to welcome foreigners but on the other hand, as explained to Pagine Ebraiche by rav Alberto Moshe Somekh, the highest level of …
By Francesca Matalon “Greek Jews are coping with the crisis in the exact same way as every other Greek citizens do: we anxiously stand in line at ATMs to withdraw fifty euros a day and are concerned about our future in Europe.” This is the straight-to-the-point answer given by Moses Constantinis, president of the Central …
By Rachel Silvera “Dentro e fuori dal Ghetto” (“Inside and Outside the Ghetto” published by Mondadori Education), the new book written by Micol Ferrara, professor of Jewish studies at the BA offered by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), is not just a history textbook, it`s deeper than that. Bypassing the barriers of distance …
By Ada Treves The satisfaction and joy of the delegation representing Israeli animation in Venice, for Cartoons on the Bay were already great, but the official closing ceremony had one more surprise: the Pulcinella Award for the “Best educational and social work” went to the Israeli short film “Anafim Shvurim” (Broken branches), by Ayala Sharot. …
By Francesca Matalon The collection of Hebrew books of the National Library of Turin are on display in the exhibition “Judaica Pedemontana” and is being shown to the public for the first time. The exhibition organized and promoted by the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy (FBCEI) and by the National Library was inaugurated …
By Ada Treves A new study published this week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and anticipated in the February issue of Pagine Ebraiche demonstrates that antisemitism is a significant concern among Jews in Italy, with clear indications that many perceive it to be a growing problem, particularly online. Co-Authored by Sergio Della Pergola …