By Pierpaolo Pinhas Punturello* In the Torah, we read the commandment and the description of the first seder in our history, the first night of the eternal ceremony that marks the liberation of our people. There are many differences between Pesach “mitzrayim”, the ritual performed by our ancestors in Egypt, and Pesach “dorot”, the ritual …
By Susanna Calimani* 10 easy rules to survive Pesach: 1. Empty the pockets of jackets and bags you want to use during Pesach, or you will find them full of… “dust”. 2. Make sure to buy at least one bottle of KLP (Kosher for Passover) Coke, two bags of KLP chips, Samson Kosher cheese spread, …
By Daniel Leisawitz* The results of the Italian elections on March 4 were both surprising and predictable. The upstart populist party, Movimento 5 Stelle, was predicted to do well, and indeed it did, gathering the highest number of votes of any single party, with 32%. When this number is added to the 17% garnered by …
By Yaakov Mascetti* The urge to know the Divine without the mediation of words or prophets, traditional texts or individuals sanctioned by tradition with the duty to channel God’s word to the people, is a well- known fact in Western tradition. Between Plato’s allegory of the cave and the Pauline statement for an unveiled perception …
By Susanna Calimani* Last week I opened Facebook, it was already the third time that day. I check my newsfeed multiple times a day out of boredom: in the metro, in the elevator, while waiting for colleagues in the canteen. The pictures of a wedding, the first birthday of a friend’s kid, the 10km run …
By Daniela Fubini Here we go again: the Italian elections are approaching, and my Italian ear is close to deaf. I have plenty of good excuses: extremely entertaining local politics which never fail to reach higher level of noise and cause scandals, and let’s not forget war games gone bad with Syria or Iran this …
By Yaakov Mascetti* Purim is a rather complex ideological construction, founded on a number of canonical themes such as good and evil and the blurring thereof, the hiding of God’s face in history, Divine will versus destiny (“pur”), et al. Within the framework of the orderly narrative chaos of the Book of Esther, good and …
By Susanna Calimani A law has recently been passed by the Polish Parliament’s Lower House criminalizing any mention of Polish crimes or complicity during the Shoah. As a consequence, all of a sudden, concentration and death camps will lose their context. Things just happened, no Polish people were ever involved. Jews, maybe, built the camps …
By David Bidussa* “Just words count. The rest is chattert”, said Eugene Ionesco. Only convictions exist. Slips of the tongue don’t. *David Bidussa is a historian.
By Daniela Fubini It started already. The annual Italian stream of consciousness on social and regular media: new shocking or plainly realistic testimonials, old books being revamped by the random editor who wants to be part of the memory business, theaters bringing Primo Levi back to life on stage, and an endless series of conferences, …
By Myron Love* In commemoration of the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day this year, a number of Winnipeg Jewish groups have partnered with the Italian community to focus on the plight of the Jews of Italy during the Holocaust. Numerous organizations will be participating, including Winnipeg’s Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Education Centre, B’nai Brith Canada, …
By Susanna Calimani In the new division I joined last September there is a high turnover, it is mostly due to rotation with other sections, meaning that new people come from other divisions, old people go to different ones. Every time someone leaves, you sign a “See you soon” card, there is a little farewell …
By Daniel Leisawitz* As the holiday of Hanukkah approaches, our minds turn to pleasant images of warmly flickering candles, steaming latkes, sweet sufganiyot, and spinning dreidels. We may also reflect back on the 2nd-century BCE battles of the Maccabees against the Seleucids for control of Judea, or the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem once …
By Yaakov Mascetti* Twenty years ago, after having lived on a religious kibbutz for about a year, I decided it was time to go learn somewhere. It was time to learn Judaism. I chose, for a number of reasons, the hesder yeshiva of Shilo. It was a very challenging experience, but most of all that …
By Elin Schoen Brockman* It’s been 32 years since Calvin Trillin’s famous proposal, in the New Yorker, that Spaghetti alla Carbonara replace turkey as our national Thanksgiving dish. After all, Trillin argued, the Indians could have brought it to that first Thanksgiving dinner (their ancestors having learned how to make it from Christopher Columbus). In …
By Daniela Fubini* In a few days the celebrations for Hanukkah will be in full throttle, and all of a sudden the Black Friday makes totally sense. First it seemed like a flu that we contracted by being too close to our American broad – and richer – family; not on a government level, where …
By Daniel Leisawitz* Thus He will judge among the nations and arbitrate for the many peoples, and they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks: Nations hall not take up sword against nation; they shall never again know war. (Isaiah 2:4) Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks …
By Yaakov Mascetti* Abraham is the first of three paradigms of the monotheistic faith, and probably the most interesting one. Despite the fact that the complexity of Yaakov’s personality and life are without doubt riveting, as his life is full of challenges, mistakes and great blessings, and despite the fact that Yitzhak is, to me …
By Dario Calimani* Perhaps it’s the rising age, perhaps the unexpected events of life, but as time passes you have the strange feeling of a growing belief that being a Jew doesn’t just mean that you passively accept a given identity, be it for a coincidence or for your choice. You wonder if, in order …
By Susanna Calimani* In Venice, for Sukkot, the Jewish Community builds a big sukkah in the garden of the Community Centre: it is decorated with childrens’ drawings, fruit and vegetables hanging from the ceiling When we were kids, we also used to make garlands with crepe paper, and the father of one of us used …