By Benedetto Carucci Viterbi* We are all French by solidarity and also because we really are all in the same position of being potential targets. For us Jews, this has been true for quite a while. *Benedetto Carucci Viterbi is a rabbi. The article was translated by Annette Lockart.
By Yaacov Mascetti* The predicament of humanity, according to Book 11 of Milton’s Paradise Lost, is having lost, in the name of “Rational Libertie” (XII: 82), the “true Libertie” of knowing God, feeling his Presence, and rejoicing in the unconditional merging of human and Divine cognition. Adam, thou know’st Heav’n his, and all the Earth. …
By Daniela Fubini* As the square fills up with youth, I sit by the wide street leading to it and observe. The stream of groups made of thirty-forty youngsters marches peacefully towards Kikar Rabin: the large majority of them was not born yet, on the 4th of November 1995, when Yitzhak Rabin was murdered and …
by David Bidussa* It gives us pause that someone has sought to burn down Joseph’s Tomb, singling it out as a place that only the enemy identifies with. If a Muslim damages the tomb, considering Joseph a patriarch of only the Jews, then he clearly has not read the Qur’an or, contrary to those who …
By Yaacov Mascetti The last two weeks have been rather difficult in Jerusalem, so I am going to put on hold my personal reflections on Judaism and exegetical messiness, and will just write a few lines on my experience of the violence here in the city I live in. In my posts on Pagine Ebraiche …
By Daniela Fubini* The gates of hell have been kicked open again, and it’s hard to say exactly when or why. We are not at war, not in the middle of a new Intifada, but we are not at peace either. People walk fast and look around with more attention than the usual. It will …
By Yaakov Mascetti* I have to confess that there are many moments, in my life here in Israel as a parent, a university lecturer, a citizen, and a member of a congregation, in which I feel both part of the collective, while a painfully acute little voice keeps reminding me how disconnected I also feel …
By Anna Foa* Once again, Srebrenica. It is not just my fad: twenty years ago that genocide (let’s call things by their real name) broke down Europe’s dreams and caused pain and dread. Serbia can show that it is no longer Milosevic’s country and that the troops of a brand new butcher like Mladic will …
By Daniela Fubini* Just over a week ago, a large number of Tel Aviv citizens and tourists who are able to read Hebrew were caught in the typical act of scratching the top of their heads, looking for answers to a very big question mark hovering on Kikar Rabin. Small groups took selfies, other people …
By Anna Foa* Led by rightwing extremists from Militia and Casa Pound, the “Italian citizens” who hurled abuse at some refugees in Rome and in Treviso – in Veneto, in the North of Italy – setting their belongings on fire, aiming for their expulsion and claiming that they “do not want niggers,” deny being racist. …
By Yaacov Mascetti* Recent events, together with the broad reality we live in here in the Middle East, have brought me to ponder on some questions which I’d like to share with you. There is something unfair in the fact that the violent, aggressive, anti-democratic forces stirring within Israeli society today have always an advantage …
By Yaacov Mascetti* I’m writing these lines after a very difficult and intense few days here in Israel. On the whole it’s been a rough summer. While Obama and Kerry signed the treaty with Iran, and while Netanyahu ignited his same old Berlusconi-like campaign to pump up the consciences of the Israeli citizens, taking about …
By Daniela Fubini* On my way to a meeting last week, to a place I had been before in the heart of Yafo, I found my way blocked by something that looked a lot like an archaeological camp. Too curious to simply find another access to my destination, I stopped and went closer. Yes, definitely, …
By Yaacov Mascetti* As of last Sunday, the (ultra)Orthodox parties control all of Israel’s religious services – this includes conversions, marriages, divorces, funerals etc. This is the most recent, and I would say also the most worrying stage in a long process which has seen a restricted group of rather extremist rabbis take control of …
By Benedetto Carucci Viterbi “Envy, desire, and honor take a person out of the world.” This teaching from the Pirke Avot is, according to rav Wolbe, the key to interpret the protest of Korach and his punishment. *Benedetto Carucci Viterbi is a rabbi and the principal of Rome Jewish School.
By Allan Jacobs* It is my great privilege, as President of B’nai B’rith International, to thank you sincerely for your generous hospitality today. Like our interactions with your esteemed predecessors, our visit – as a delegation of B’nai B’rith representatives from cities across multiple continents – is meant to celebrate and affirm our organization’s profound …
By Benedetto Carucci Viterbi* In the desert, the Israelites followed the divinely-provided cloud cover which accompanied them. They had no way of predicting the length or difficulty of the various stages on their route, but had to continue to perform their daily tasks regardless. This situation recalls the life of each of us, says Rabbi …
By Yaacov Mascetti* When you live in Israel, everything is political. And when you accept to live a religious lifestyle, chances are you will have to face moments of inevitable politicized interpretation of your actions or of the consequences of your actions. Buy a house, cover your head, wear certain kind of pants, buy a …
By Daniela Fubini* As if we didn’t have enough misunderstandings with the biggest (and heaviest) of our rather few allies, in Israel the “State of the Union” was until last year a television show: the comedy/political “Matzav Ha-Uma”. As soon as my Hebrew became good enough to understand about 60% of what they said in …
By Yaakov Mascetti* My daughter Avigail is slowly working her way into adolescence, and as part of this process come questions, difficult questions on a wide variety of topics like interpersonal relations, social issues, and of course on religious dilemmas. As I wrote in my last post, she studies in a religious school in Jerusalem, …