By New Europe staff* Over 500 years after their descendants were expelled from Spain in 1492, more than 132,000 Jews have applied for Spanish nationality under a limited-term offer that expired in early October The Spanish parliament passed a law in October 2015 that sought to address a what it called a “historic mistake” by …
By Evan Kleiman* For more than 5000 years, Jewish families have made their homes in Italy. Though Jewish contributions to Italian cuisine are perhaps not widely known or understood, Los Angeles chef Steve Samson hopes to change that. On the first night of Rosh Hashanah this Sunday, his restaurant Rossoblu in downtown’s Fashion District will …
By Joan Nathan* When Shalom Saada Saar was visiting Italy back in 2006, he yearned for the food of his childhood in Benghazi, Libya. In Rome, he met Hamos Guetta, a fixture in the city’s Libyan Jewish community of 5,000 or so, to whom he carefully recited the dishes his mother cooked at Rosh Hashana, …
By Christoph Strack* Although the site is remote, it has plenty of symbolism: Beginning this Sunday, Jewish and Muslim religious leaders from some 15 countries will meet in the southern Italian city of Matera, one of Europe’s 2019 cultural capitals, to take part in the Jewish European Islamic Summit. The leaders are laying the groundwork …
By Yvette Alt Miller* Edda Servi Machlin has died at the age of 93. The cookbook writer changed many people’s understanding of Jewish cuisine and culture by writing prolifically about her childhood growing up in Italy’s distinctive Jewish community. Dating to Biblical times, the Jews of Italy have their own unique traditions, distinct from both …
By PJ Grisar* On September 1, 2019, the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II, 34 countries will observe the European Days of Jewish Culture, opening the doors of historic synagogues and engaging local communities in over 400 cities throughout the continent. That anniversary is notable, but rather than focusing on the Holocaust …
By Marcy Oster* A collection of about 8,000 antique Jewish books in Italy is in need of restoration and the country’s main Jewish body is taking up the challenge. The Union of Italian Jewish Communities, or UECI, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to preserve the Italian Jewish literary heritage. The books include the collection of …
By Jan Schneider* It is Friday evening and a Jewish family’s preparations for the Sabbath, the holiest day of the week, are in full swing. In the living room, everyone has gathered around the big table for the traditional celebration as tantalizing aromas of hot food drift through from the kitchen. The youngest son breaks …
By Leah Koenig* Almost exactly five years ago, I tasted sour cherry soup for the first time. I was at a restaurant in Budapest, very pregnant and dining with an equally pregnant friend who had a powerful craving for dairy. Scanning the menu, her eyes lit up when she saw meggy leves, a chilled sour …
By BBC Vase of Flowers, estimated to be worth millions of euros, has been in the hands of a German family. In January Uffizi head Eike Schmidt said Germany had a “moral duty” to help bring it back to the museum. Dutch master Jan van Huysum painted the still life and it was first displayed …
By Kobi Nachshoni An ancient scripture discovered in Florence, Italy, uncovered an old Jewish Italian custom: to marry off several men and women in a mass ceremony on the eve before Passover. The scripture, that is now being put for auction, and the custom it describes, remained a mystery until Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, Chief …
An Italian couple whose ancestors were forced to hide their faith got married atop the ruins of an ancient synagogue, giving the site its first Jewish wedding in centuries. Roque Pugliese and Ivana Pezzoli tied the knot earlier this week in the presence of about 100 guests, including leaders of Italian Jewry, at the Bova …
By Adrianne Richardson* Teachers and administrators from Temple Beth Sholom Innovative School in Miami Beach, Temple Judea in Coral Gables, the Michael-Ann Russell JCC in North Miami Beach and the Center for the Advancement of Jewish Education recently visited Reggio, Italy. There, they met with Jewish professionals from the United States, Europe and Israel for …
By Marcy Oster* The more than one thousand fires which led to the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes have been extinguished, Israel’s National Fire and Rescue Services announced. The fires, aided by dry and hot weather conditions, burned from Thursday until Saturday night. Among the causes of the fires were faults in …
By Simon Griver* Israeli big events organisers, which helped stage the Giro last year, told a Tel Aviv conference: “The Giro D’Italia will return to Israel in 2022 and we are in advanced negotiations with the Tour de France.” He added: “The contribution to Israel of large events like the Giro and Eurovision is in …
By AFP and TOI STAFF* Pope Francis is being urged by experts to take greater care when referring to “hypocritical” Pharisees, a stereotype that fueled centuries of bad blood between Catholics and Jews. Catholic-Jewish relations blossomed after the Second Vatican Council — which in 1965 finally urged respect for Judaism — and Francis is a …
By James Masters* The memory of Gino Bartali, the champion cyclist who risked his life to save hundreds of Italian Jews during the Holocaust, is set to be honored with the establishment with a youth leadership school in his name. Italian Bartali, one of the world’s leading cyclists during the 1930s winning three Giro d’Italia …
By Carly Silver* What survives in the archaeological record never ceases to be a marvel. There are a few unique references to Roman women converting to Judaism—inasmuch as one can term that religion as a singular entity in antiquity—in the first century C.E. As various religions filtered throughout the Mediterranean, people began following different gods, …
By Daniel Sugarman* In April 1944, 75 years ago, a group of Jews gathered together for a Pesach Seder like few others. The setting was Bari, Italy — more precisely, a British army camp in the southern Italian city, established as the Allies slowly fought their way up through the country. And the participants were …
By Susan Moore* There could be no more appropriate period than Passover to turn the spotlight on one of the rarest and least known of Hebrew illuminated manuscripts: the Lombard Haggadah. Produced in Milan in the late 14th century, it is the earliest standalone Italian manuscript of this text, which tells the story of the …