By Joel J. Levy* Walking through the streets of the world’s first “ghetto,” one might come across a variety of sights: the impoverished Jews confined to that quarter; rabbis reciting elegant speeches in the Italian vernacular; crumbling buildings; musicians singing Hebrew psalms. Although Jewish life has been restricted in cities all over the world for …
By Kayla Pantano* On Wednesday evening, the Italian Institute of Culture (IIC) in New York honored accomplished authors, Nadia Terranova, Gli Anni al Contrario, and Marco Belpoliti, Primo Levi di Fronte e di Profilo, for their literary contributions as the Italian winners of the book award called “The Bridge.” The book cover for the Italian …
By JTA The international soccer governing body FIFA slapped a more than $30,000 fine on Italy’s national soccer team for the anti-Semitic behavior of some of its fans at a match in Haifa. FIFA fined the Italian team 30,000 Swiss francs, or about $31,000, for the “improper and discriminatory” behavior of team Italy fans who gave …
By Sam Kestenbaum* More than 300 men and women who identify as descendants of Jews whose families were forced during the Spanish Inquisition gathered in the Sicilian capital of Palermo on Sunday to celebrate their shared bond of Jewish history. “This celebration of Jewish culture in the heart of Palermo underlines the resilience of the …
By Daniel Leisawitz* This summer, my family and I visited the beautiful synagogue in via Mazzini. After our visit we stopped in a nearby yogurteria for lunch. When I ordered a “piadina with hummus, hold the prosciutto,” the owner looked up at me. Maybe it was the way I pronounced “hummus,” or the fact that …
By Laura Paull* In the late-modern period of the Italian Renaissance, Jews living on the Italian Peninsula translated the phonetic sounds of the regional name Italia into Hebrew: I-Tal-Yah, or “Island of Divine Dew.” It was a linguistic pun. That the Jews of 15th- and 16th-century Italy would make this lighthearted joke might reflect a …
By IsraAID Within a few short hours of the earthquake in Italy, IsraAID’s emergency roster of professionals were on standby. Among the first to be recruited to the team was psychologist, Silvana Winer who was born in Rome and came to Israel at age 20. With Italian as her mother tongue and with a deep …
By Jessica Weinstein* “It’s quite funny – you’re walking along and you suddenly see all these small, dark children,” one mother laughed as she joined the queue beside the sign that read “auditions here today!” It was easy to spot them – the boys and their parents, gathered in an otherwise deserted street in London’s …
By Daniel Leisawitz* Having just returned from Italy, I find myself reflecting over the various places and people we encountered on our trip. Some of the most meaningful experiences took place in the small city of Cuneo, tucked away in the Northwest corner of Italy, in the mountain-ringed region of Piedmont. By no means a …
By Ariel David* Peace must be on the verge of breaking out in the Middle East. Hamas is apparently just a political party that has resorted to terrorism solely because of “the isolation of Gaza.” Meanwhile, “Christians, Muslims and Jews are living peacefully together” in Bethlehem (a Palestinian town where there are no Jews and …
By Caitlin Hu* In the fall of 1943, German soldiers in Italy began rounding up Italian Jews and deporting them—10,000 people were sent to concentration camps during the nearly two-year Nazi occupation. Most never returned. But in Rome, a group of doctors saved at least 20 Jews from a similar fate, by diagnosing them with …
By Joe Freeman* After climbing the famed golden staircase at Venice’s Palazzo Ducale, I came upon the princely apartment of the bygone Doge (chief magistrate) and was greeted by a rumbling, clanking sound from within. The noise was the audio component of a dome-shaped installation that glowed a fiery orange. The piece, which greets visitors …
By Daniela Gross In addition to Brexit, let’s speak about the return of the Nazis. The founder of Il Fatto Quotidiano Antonio Padellaro urged readers, last Sunday, not to limit their focus on the English upheaval. As he was writing, the UK’s EU referendum was yet to be voted, but, in any case, his call sounds both imperative and …
By Daniel Leisawitz* The Jews of Rome have the curious custom of referring to Shavuot as “Pasqua rosa” or “Pink Passover.” It is generally thought that this epithet derives from the profusion of flowers that decorates Jewish homes and synagogues on this occasion, meant to remind us of the miraculous blossoming of flowers on Mt. …
By Pagine Ebraiche staff Last week, Tablet magazine ran two articles about the experience of two people who felt they were able to reconnect to their Jewish roots during their visit to Italy. “None of these experiences struck me quite as profoundly as the Shoah Memorial in Milan, which is built on platform 21 of …
By Daniel Leisawitz* I’d like to congratulate Jacov Di Segni and his family on the occasion of his smikha, which was celebrated on the evening of Lag ba’omer in the Great Synagogue of Rome. This seems a good occasion to reflect upon some thoughts put down over a century and a half ago by another …
By Daniel Leisawitz* Vito Volterra was born 156 years ago this month into a poor Jewish-Italian family in the city of Ancona. He would go on to become a leading physicist and mathematician at a time when there were many Italians at the forefront of these fields. A surprising number of these Italian innovators were …
By Daniel Leisawitz* The victory of Sadiq Khan (Labour) in the London mayoral race means that he will become the British capital’s first Muslim mayor. His margin of victory (he won 56.8% of the vote) and the sheer number of votes that he garnered (1,310,143: more than any previous London mayoral candidate) demonstrate that his …
By Pagine Ebraiche staff The Senate of Italy has approved a bill that punishes Holocaust denial, taking it a step forward in turning it into law (another vote by the Italian Chamber of Deputies is required for this purpose). On the day of the Senate vote, the prominent Italian daily Corriere della Sera featured an …
By Daniel Leisawitz* The latest edition of Pagine ebraiche featured a series of articles dedicated to the progress of the years-long Babylonian Talmud Translation Project. Earlier this month a ceremony was held at the Accademia dei Lincei in Rome to celebrate the completion of the first tractate of the Talmud to be translated fully into …