Dans un récent numéro du magazine ” Shabbaton “, Avinoam Hersh, éducateur, décrit ainsi sa récente expérience à l’occasion du 27 janvier. Nous nous trouvons en Israël, dans la ” sixième classe ” (parallèle à la première année de l’école intermédiaire italienne), à laquelle il a demandé d’avouer en toute honnêteté leur intéresse aux histoires …
The electoral success of the extreme right-wing, from Itamar Ben-Gvir to Bezalel Smotrich, has entailed worrying analysis of the direction the country might take up over the upcoming four years of rule of the new government led by Benjamin Netanyahu, especially because of the power the right-wing parties have gained. There is fear that they …
By Anna Foa Surfing on Facebook, it struck me to find out how denialism, or at least one type of denialism, is constructed. Among countless examples, here is one. A long and important post, written by a famous writer who clearly took inspiration from the terrible picture from the NYT showing nine Ukrainian civilians in …
Par Anna Segre Un roman qui parle des Juifs italiens pendant les vacances de Noël: La figlia unica (La fille unique) d’A. B. Yehoshua semble le livre parfait à lire à cette période de l’année. Et pourtant, j’avoue que je me suis approchée de cette histoire avec une certaine méfiance, que je ne suis pas …
By David Bidussa* “In my view, the greatest evil is not violence, but aggression, aggression is the mother of all violence”. [Amos Oz, Gesù e Giuda, Feltrinelli, p. 26]. Sometimes, words open passages to begin to understand. *Social historian of ideas
The concept of “silence” appears more than fifty times. An already meaningful number that even doubles if we consider another emblematic term such as “fear”. Attitudes and moods that were the hallmark of Eugenio Pacelli’s controversial pontificate. And in particular of his relationship with Hitler and Mussolini, which has always fascinated historians, and actually, not …
Von Gadi Luzzatto Voghera* Er, das absolut Böse, scheint immer die Hauptperson unserer Alpträume zu sein. Er wird von den Massen heraufbeschworen (kürzlich von den Impfgegnern), die großen politischen Leader sprechen von ihm. Seien sie die Gemäßigten, die große Länder regieren, oder belagerte Präsidenten, die tagsüber und nachts bombardiert werden. Er erscheint vor uns mit …
By Anna Foa* I get a photo on Facebook. It is set in an unspecified American city in 1941. It is an Easter march for peace. I remember that the United States only entered the war in December 1941, after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. In the front row, a middle-aged woman with a funny …
Alberto Cavaglion* I have always enjoyed studying the reception of a writer in a country (or period) different from their own. Reading Yehoshua was the title of an anthology edited by Emanuela Trevisan Semi, which however does not go further than 2006. In this case, I took part in this reception, since one of the first reviews …
By Anna Segre To name a street, a square or a park after someone is not like acquitting them in court: presumption of innocence is not enough, extenuating circumstances are not enough, invoking the peculiar historical circumstances in which that person found themselves is not enough. Otherwise the majority of human beings would deserve to …
By David Bidussa* “I am what I do”, rather than “I am what I think”. In the intermediate time of balances, the possibility of rebirth is linked to the first expression more than to the second. Not because there is a certainty of “tomorrow”. Simply to take secular leave from “yesterday”. *Social historian of ideas
By Anna Foa* Kabul fell into Taliban’s hands. Many Afghans are at risk, but especially girls and young girls do. In Herat, as soon as they took the city, Taliban already asked for the lists of unmarried girls over 12 years old. They are doing the same in Kabul. In a video circulating online, an …
By David Meghnagi* Memory is a dynamic process in which data are continuously remodeled on the basis of what is learnt afterwards. A testimony given immediately or soon after a traumatic event reflects the experience of the moment. Who speaks years later, does so also in light of what they have learnt since, reconstructing a …
By David Bidussa* The radical question about a substantial portion of the anti-vaxxer “enthusiasts” and the use of the yellow star may be this: how do they reconnect to their negationism? Or rather, now that negationists declare themselves anti-negationists how do they agree with themselves? *Social historian of ideas
By Gadi Luzzatto Voghera* The Monitoring Centre for anti-Semitism of the Center of Contemporary Jewish Documentation has been denouncing anti-vax protestors’ misuse of the Nazi anti-Jewish symbols for more than a year. In the last few days, this issue has suddenly become an “emergency” that everyone has started to reckon with, as the use of …
By Anna Foa* As the municipal elections of the city of Rome get closer and closer, a new book by Fabio Martini recalls the figure of Ernesto Nathan, mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913, thought to be the best mayor of the city. Several initiatives, conferences and publications have recently been dedicated to him, …
By David Bidussa* It is not true that the Charter of Values recently signed by 16 right-wing political groups is “against Europe”. That text is the voice and convictions of the “other Europe”. The one that does not have as “livre de chevet” the Encyclopeadia by d’Alembert and Diderot but Memories illustrating the history of …
By David Bidussa* Maybe it’s time to reread Sholem Aleichem. So, just to not have the presumption of thinking that we live in a new and therefore incomprehensible time. But above all, to rediscover the irony and not just the tears. *Social historian of ideas
By David Meghnagi* Located 180 kilometres south of Tripoli, Jadu is the town where the Jewish community of Cyrenaica – deported by order of Mussolini – ran the risk of dying in a few months, from diseases, malnutrition and poor living conditions in a camp. In 1942, in just one month (from May 19 to …
By David Bidussa* These days I have kept my bookmark on two different pages: the first one is in chapter 32 of Isaiah, when trust is expressed in the realization of the dream; the other is in psalm 31, where the psalmist invokes the strength to find the way and thus to get out of …