By David Bidussa* We have recently come back to debate the issue of religious symbols on classrooms’ walls. Once it has been decided that those walls should not remain empty, which symbol should be used? It depends on whether the symbol that is proposed has a design function (it talks about what we would like …
By David Bidussa “The executioners next door,” by Jan Tomasz Gross is a book that covers a case of extermination that took place in Poland in 1941 at Polish hands. The book was published in Italy in 2002, and reprinted in 2003. Since then, it has disappeared. Given the political winds blowing in Poland, it …
By David Bidussa The centennial of Fiume (editor’s note: currently Rijeka in Croatian) has been archived with a statue honoring its commander. A different centenary is looming on the horizon. The centennial, which we will search in vain in the history textbooks of our schools, is the burning of the Narodni Dom in Trieste, which …
By David Bidussa “Look how efficient hatred is, how hatred keeps itself in shape in our century. How easily it overcomes obstacles. How easy it appeals to and hooks people.” (Wislawa Szymborska, Hatred). Our time in 170 characters, spaces included. *David Bidussa is a historian of social ideas.
By David Bidussa Thinking back to the beginning of the Second World War – exactly 80 years ago – nowadays we often hear, “never again.” I understand the consoling intent, but I am not convinced. I ask myself this question: Why were totalitarian regimes so appealing? My response is that the majority of public opinion …
By David Bidussa* Agnes Heller, the Hungarian philosopher who recently passed away, belonged to a group of public figures who did not pay homage to the powerful, even when today’s powerful was, until yesterday, an opponent. Because what matters is only what the powerful do once they become powerful, not if they legitimized their power …
By Yaakov Mascetti* I take the traditional negative approach to the figure of Bil’am, the non-Jewish prophet whose story we find in the weekly portion of “Balak,” personally. On this point I have had more than one occasion to express my thoughts in the past. What I had never noticed until now is the complex …
By Daniela Fubini* This is a true story, the story of unexpected gardening. Last year we built raised bed gardens to plant herbs and vegetables at the back of the house. We went to the greenhouse and bought all the plants we thought we might want, and I insisted on zucchini, because there is absolutely …
By David Bidussa* We remember Creo because of Antigone, the main character. History and the history of humankind are often made by those who break the law. It depends on the character of the law. Fiat lex, pereat iustitia. *David Bidussa is a historian of social ideas.
By David Bidussa* Nowadays, hatred is a feeling that does politics. “The cleaning phase has started with Walter Lubcke. But more will come after him. Including you. Your life will come to an end in 2020.” This is the letter that Henriette Reker, the independent mayor of Colony received last Friday. I did not read …
By Yaakov Mascetti* Aharon represents, throughout his life, a character which tendentially is passive, quiet, and follows the instructions provided to him from above. The Mishna in Messechet Avot famously defines Aharon’s nature as that of a man who loves peace and pursues peaceful solutions, one who loves all creatures and endeavors to bring them …
By David Bidussa* The widespread conviction maintains that the State is not on the side of its citizens, that the authorities are not performing their tasks, that the citizen is alone and that only one choice exists: to die or to act. This is part of the reason behind the enthusiastic reaction that the slogan …
By David Bidussa* Ian Fleming is back in the bookstores with all his 007 work. In the past I would have said “Hooray! Heroes never pass!” Today, I feel the atmosphere is different and the protagonist is conspiracy and the strength of the Spectre. Fleming’s books have not changed. It is the new anxieties of …
By David Bidussa* Culture is created by words and images more than by ideas and ideologies. Culture is a mirror of images, projects and dreams that we hold within us. Therefore I wonder: What is our vocabulary today? What are the images produced by that vocabulary? Where is it created? Through which experiences? Which changes …
By Yaakov Mascetti* For once I am not going to be addressing here Jewish matters, in the strenuous effort to justify humanistic values, the inevitable presence of the “Other,” and a staunchly iconoclastic conception of the Divine. What I am also not going to do is rant about pseudo-pagan ideas of providence, and conflations of …
By David Bidussa* Amos Oz would have turned 80 last week end. The absence of his voice is felt, and it makes a difference. *David Bidussa is a historian of social ideas.
By Daniela Fubini* In the local supermarket, three days before Pesach, among a frenzy crowd there are three women: an Israeli, a French and an Italian. And this is not the beginning of a joke, it is my 72-hours-to-matzah moment, this year. So the setting first of all: a quite large but not American-size large …
By David Bidussa* To think does not mean to tweet compulsively. To think with others means to re-establish and redesign a vision of goals that are worthy of being pursued through the means of reason and critical thinking. This is true at least if we don’t want to give up the will, desire and passion …
By David Bidussa* “Words can become like little doses of arsenic: ingested unconsciously they might seem of no consequence, but after a while the toxic effect emerges,” (Viktor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich). What language are we speaking? *David Bidussa is a historian of social ideas.
By David Bidussa* On April 1, 1979, Iran woke up as an “Islamic Republic”. The results of the referendum on the matter doesn’t leave any doubts: 98% of the votes in favor and 2 % opposed. We have not entered the 21st century in “unforgettable 1989” but in “forgotten 1979”. *David Bidussa is a historian …