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February 2nd, 2015 - Shevat 12th, 5775
Antisemitisme à gauche By Guido Vitale* Certains des mes collègues “condamnes Israel de façon virulente pour ce qu'ils appellent 'un nettoyage ethnique de masse'. Ils sont dans l'amalgame le plus primaire, un amalgame que mes copains de Charlie Hebdo n'auraient jamais cautionné. Un amalgame qui est l'expression de cette obsession anti-israélienne qui sert de masque au 'nouvel' antisémitisme qui pousse comme de la moisissure en France et ailleurs en Europe. C'est pathétique de voir l'extrême gauche concurrencer l'extrême droite”. (Michel Kichka - Angouleme 2015) *Guido Vitale is the editor-in-chief of Pagine Ebraiche.   Italian Word of the Week: COMMERCIALE By Daniela Gross “Commerciale” is the Italian version of the English “commercial, mercantile”. It is a word deriving from the Latin “commercium”, that indicates the action of trading goods or money. In European history, for many reasons, Jews were often linked to the commercial and banking world. But it is not the subject of this column. Here, I would like to concentrate on a form of good wishes really frequent, during this last month, in the Italian Jewish world, “Buon anno commerciale – Happy new commercial year”. Since the Jewish New Year has already begun, it is a way of distinguishing ourselves from the majority, which celebrates the New Year on December 31. It is also a way of participating in a festive event that in the Italian world is anyway strongly and joyfully present. However, these good wishes - which remind us of a similar expression widespread in Israel - sound a bit awkward. In some way they signal the peculiar position of the Italian Jewry. Settled in the country since the 2nd century BCE and flourished in a deeply Catholic society, it always had to deal with the outside world, trying to find the right balance between its own culture and the majoritarian one. Throughout history this effort, common to all the Jewish Diasporic world, was at times complicated and sometimes impossible. So, the wish “Buon anno commerciale”, has a good reason for existing, and, although awkward, it is kind and courteous.		NEWS A New President for Italy  By Rossella Tercatin Sergio Mattarella, who was elected president of the Italian Republic on Saturday, visited the Fosse Ardeatine, as his first official act as president. “The alliance between nations and people succeeded in defeating the Nazis, racists, anti-Semitic and totalitarian hatred which this site painfully symbolizes. The very same unity in Europe and in the world will enable us to defeat those who want to drag us into a new season of terror,” Mattarella said during his visit to the Ardeatine caves outside Rome. Here in 1944, 335 people including 75 Jews were massacred as a reprisal for a partisan attack against the Nazis. Read more NEWS Scenarios for a Changing Italy - Special: Shoah Memorial Day By Ada Treves Considering the Memory of the Shoah definitely acquired, after all the hard work aimed at making it a permanent heritage of civilization and awareness for all Italians, could be a serious danger. It is still necessary to intensify the work of information and cultural programmes and to invest in education. There must be an effort to rescue the Memory of the Shoah from the rhetorical framework of the official celebrations, to avoid the risk that the consciousness in the population becomes lower and lower. Read more  EXHiBITIONS - The End of Horror By Rachel Silvera Who ever imagined the liberation of the Nazi death camps as a joyous moment of celebration should think again. Above the entry to the camp and beyond the offensive notorious sign that reads, “Work sets you free”, the vision is devastating: how can one rejoice when you weigh a little more than thirty pounds and are laden with a sense of fear, death and humiliation? In this spirit, the exhibition, "The End of the Horror. The liberation of the Nazi camps” was inaugurated last Tuesday at the Vittoriano in Rome. The exhibition is put on by the Foundation of the Shoah Museum in Rome with the support of the local Jewish community and the collaboration of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, the patronage of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities and Tourism, the Region of Lazio and Roma Capitale and it will be open until March 15. Read more JERUSALEM POST OP-ED Jewish life in Europe is about much more than anti-Semitism By Rossella Tercatin* At the beginning of December, I took part in the Masa Leadership Summit, together with another 230 young people from all over the world. On the very last morning of the summit, one of the panels was devoted to presenting “Masa-Israel Leadership, Enrichment and Growth Tracks,” programs jointly offered by Masa and other institutions to further enhance the experience of the participants in Israel. Out of the six programs presented, three were reserved for North Americans, one for Russian speakers and one for North Americans and people from the Former Soviet Union. Only one was open to everyone regardless of their origin: the Masa-Shalom Hartman Institute Fellowship I-Engage. And yet, even this last one, which I currently attend (and find very interesting), is solely focused on the relationship between Israel and the North American Jewish community. It is hard to say when our hearts are still bleeding from the umpteenth brutal attack upon Jews in France, but Jewish life in Europe is much more than the threat of anti-Semitism and the fight against it. And Israel, not to mention American Jewry, seems to have completely forgotten that. *This article was published on the January 20th printed edition of the Jerusalem Post. Read more Español Canciones Francesco Moises Bassano “Arvoles yoran por luvyas, i muntanyas por ayres. Ansi yoran los mis ojos, por ti kerida amante. En tierras ajenas yo me vo murir. Enfrente de mi ay un anjelo, kon sus ojos me mira. Yorar kero i no puedo. Mi korason suspira. Torno i te digo: ke va a ser de mi? En tierras ajenas yo me vo murir.” Son muchas la canciones, que se cuenta, fueron cantadas en lo campos de concentración nazis por los internados judíos. Esto himno es en Djudezmo, es un canto del exilio que data de una diáspora y una persecución mas lejana, la que de la península ibérica. Leer más Words, Words, Words By Yaacov Mascetti* In a world of useful people and of useful job, lost in the craziness of useful projects and necessary actions, I have had to come to terms with being useless, unnecessary, not part of any focused process. Literary scholars, like me for example, deal with the nature of literary fiction and invest a great effort into teaching students how literature reveals the constructed nature of all forms of representation. This may sound a tad post-modern and highfalutin, but I sincerely believe that the study of literary texts may teach us how to free ourselves from the constraints of foundationalisms, irreconcilable ideologies and ultimately to acquire a meta-position from which one may see that beliefs are ultimately arbitrary and not absolutely true. Literature, or in general the study of texts, may lead, I think, to see how things represented in them are always fictional, verbal illusions. In this way, the interpretation of literary texts and their understanding as verbally generated illusions, could offer society a critical perspective on the ideological systems by which beliefs are nourished and enforced as “true” – and it should be clear to my reader that among these systems one should include those that discount the special status of literary forms. *Yaakov Mascetti holds a Ph.D. and teaches at the Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University. Read more
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