United States and rights
By David Bidussa* Lessons from America: a right attained is not forever. *Social historian of ideas
Senza categoria
The only daughter, side notes
By Gadi Luzzatto Voghera* Reading The only daughter (Einaudi 2021), the last present that Abraham B. Yehoshua gave us, can’t leave us indifferent. This short story was immediately translated into Italian by the talented Alessandra Shomroni. It couldn’t be otherwise, given that the main theme seems to be the Italian Jews’ identity during the second …
The memory of Carlo Andrea Mortara: “Friendship of youth, friendship forever”
Abraham B. Yehoshua’s passion for Italy has ancient roots. The one who made him more familiar with it was, among others, a great friend: Carlo Andrea Mortara, an economist and advisor to various ministers, who was connected to him by a common militancy in Jewish institutions. Yehoshua was a Secretary General in Paris who worked …
Bassani’s appeals
By Francesco Moises Bassano When we speak of Giorgio Bassani, what comes to mind is, above all, the novelist. However, what is perhaps less well-known is the author’s commitment to safeguarding the Italian artistic and cultural heritage, which stood out particularly in 1955, when we saw him as one of the founders of the cultural …
“Lemberg, der Moment der Erinnerung”
Bei den Bildern, die ihn am meisten beeindruckten, war ein überfüllter Bahnhof, voll mit Menschen, die versuchen, sich zu retten, indem sie in den ersten abfahrenden Zug einsteigen. Manchmal sogar, ohne den Weg oder das Ziel zu kennen. Alles, um sich aus jener prekären Lage zu entfernen. Olek Mincer, Theater- und Filmschauspieler, kennt den Bahnhof …
How a once-neglected Slovenian writer survived the Nazis camps to live to 108
The death of the writer Boris Pahor last week was a sad moment for all of us. One of the most important literary and intellectual voices of the 20th century and a sharp voice against Nazi-fascist crimes and communist repression, he was friend of the editorial staff of Pagine Ebraiche, whom he met several times …
Aggression
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 new fund, frequently asked questions
The UCEI (Union of Italian Jewish Communities), the single Communities and the Jewish institutions are getting a lot of questions and requests for clarification with regard to the new Fund for “the compensation of damage suffered by the victims of war crimes and against humanity crimes, and for the injury of the person’s inviolable rights”: …
WWII, war crimes and crimes against humanity: Italy set up a fund for the compensation of damage
We would like to inform all members of the Italian Jewish Communities that the new Decree-Law no. 36 of 30/04/2022, has set up a fund by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance for the compensation of damage suffered on Italian territory or in any case to the detriment of Italian citizens by the victims …
‘On doit protéger l’art contre les bombes’
Konstantin Akinsha liste les trésors de sa propre Ukraine : les 56000 objets du Musée des trésors historiques de Kiev, les chefs-d’œuvre de l’artiste contemporain Oleksandr Rojtburd, les synagogues dispersées dans tout le pays, les églises, les théâtres, les archives, les monuments. Sous les bombes russes il y a aussi cet immense patrimoine qu’on ne …
Italics – Le destin littéraire de Primo Levi
Par Giorgio Berruto* Si Primo Levi a d’abord été perçu comme un témoin d’Auschwitz, celui qui en a donné l’image la plus exacte et la plus frappante, il est aujourd’hui considéré comme un classique de la littérature italienne du XXe siècle et comme un auteur de portée universelle. Comme le souligne Marco Belpoliti, l’un des principaux …
The duty to ask
By Anna Segre During the Passover seder, the narrative of liberation from slavery cannot begin without a question. It is not just a device to attract the attention of the little ones: the Talmud explicitly prescribes that even “two learned scholars, who know the rules of Pesach, ask each other”, or even, in the absence …
Appeal for a Russian Maidan
By Anna Foa* From the letter in which the writer Jonathan Littell invites his Russian friends to overthrow the tyrant: ” You are very numerous, you are millions. The Moscow police can handle thirty thousand people in the street, a hundred thousand. More than three hundred thousand, they would be overwhelmed. They would have to …
Hope and fear
By David Bidussa* Centuries of modernity, told us years ago Jean Delumeau in his La peur en Occident, have unwrapped in mounting tension between hope and fear. So, along with ostentatious confidences, we saw terrifying monsters everywhere: the devil, the Jew, the witch, the heretic, the ideologic adversary, generally the “other”. Is this really a …
To Mariana Prokopovych
By Alberto Cavaglion* The tragic news from Ukraine sparked two memories. To bring them down from the attic of memory came the catalog of a beautiful exhibition of portraits by Carlo Levi promoted by the Giorgio Amendola Foundation in Turin, where Leone Ginzburg “with red hands” occupies a prominent space: “When I painted them, they …
Gergiev and the fallacies of the intellectual
By Dario Calimani I don’t really like Valerij Gergiev, but it is said that he is a very good (Russian) conductor. I don’t like his gesturality, exaggerated in my opinion, and his blank face, but it is a matter of taste, I admit it. Valerij Gergiev, a supporter of Vladimir Putin, has been asked to …
A symbol of innocence
By Anna Foa* There is a video, circulating on social media, that shows a man in Ukraine who tries to stop with his bare hands a Russian tank and then kneels to do it. A very explicit symbol of the innocent who is helpless in the face of the violence of the armed aggressor. And …
It can happen
By David Bidussa* On November 4, 1956, the Red Army troops enter Budapest. They arrest all the members of the reformist government and order to surrender their arms. The philosopher György Lukács, Minister of Culture, lays on the table his fountain pen by him. I thought back about this scene from many years ago these …
A Debt to history: Libyan Jews and Italy’s colonial legacy
By Jeremy Silverstein* In 2012, the Jewish-Italian Holocaust survivor Messauda Fadlun received a startling demand from the Italian government. For several years, she had been the recipient of a state pension extended as restitution to those who had suffered Fascist persecution, but the letter, alleging Fadlun’s ineligibility, declared a cessation of payments and ordered the …
Directives Cachées
Par Anna Segre Les “directives administratives pour combattre l’antisémitisme dans les écoles” ont été envoyées à tous les professeurs par mail. Transférées par la Proviseure sans aucun commentaire, elles se perdent parmi les communications de tous les jours: des élèves ou des classes qui suivront les cours en distanciel, des échanges de vues sur les …