Gorizia and Nova Gorica. Italy and Slovenia. Two towns, once separated by the iron curtain, united today by the shared award of 2025\u2019s \u201cEuropean Culture Capital\u201d. A dossier significantly centred also on the glorious local Jewish history, testified by numerous, recent and less recent traces, and particularly on the renovation and improvement of the Valdirose cemetery \u2013 today Slovenian territory \u2013 where some of the great Jews of Gorizia rest: from rabbi Isacco Samuele Reggio to philosopher Carlo Michaelstaedter, from linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli to journalist Carolina Luzzatto Coen. Thanks to the Jewish Cultural Heritage Foundation in Italy, which has taken this commitment to heart for a long time.
\nThe occasion to take stock of the project, developed from an idea of the Pagine Ebraiche newsroom, was given by an online seminar titled \u201cThe two Gorizias united in the restoration of the memory of the ancient Jewish presence\u201d. Numerous and qualified were the interventions for the restoration of the cemetery, which is unique because of its cross-border location.
\n\u201cThis evening we are going to linger on one of the most relevant projects we are working on, focused on the improvement of an asset of crucial importance at Italian as well as European level\u201d stated president of the Foundation Dario Disegni in his opening greeting. A meaningful collaboration between two towns which not long ago were symbol of two mutually hostile worlds, occurring in the sign of a history, that of the Jewish Gorizia, \u201cwhich saw the convergence of Jews from all over the Austro-Hungarian Empire, from Italy, and, through Triest, from Dalmatia\u201d. In other words, \u201ca great European history\u201d, which can also be revisited through a forthcoming website available in Italian, Slovenian and English.
\nPointing out the great value of this endeavour were also the other institutional representatives intervened: Nova Gorica\u2019s Deputy Major Damjana Pavlica, Gorizia\u2019s Mayor Rodolfo Ziberna through a video-message, vice-president of the Jewish Community in Triest Livio Vasieri, Head of the History Department at Udine University Andrea Zannini and a representative from the Beneficentia Stiftung Foundation.
\nMaddalena Del Bianco, professor of History of Religions at Udine University, gave an historical background recalling how and why Gorizia is known as \u201cIsonzo\u2019s Jerusalem\u201d, and historian Renato Podbersic, from Nova Gorica University, elaborated in detail the Valdirose case.
\nAfterwards project manager Andrea Morpurgo and Renzo Funaro, respectively counselor and vice-president of the Foundation, took the stage. The interventions will be implemented with the most advanced technical systems of detection, cataloguing and preservation, it was explained.
\nThe contributions to the last session of the seminar, dedicated to what being a \u201cEuropean Culture Capital\u201d entails, were inspiring: Paolo Verri\u2019s, head of the Matera Basilicata 2019 Foundation, and in conclusion Lorenzo De Sabbata\u2019s, coordinator of the dossier dedicated to the two Gorizias. Giorgio Segr\u00e8, member of the Foundation\u2019s committee, moderated the meeting.<\/p>\n