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February 23rd, 2015 - Adar 4th, 5775
No Time By Guido Vitale* "There is no time for anything inessential." (Oliver Sacks) *Guido Vitale is the editor-in-chief of Pagine Ebraiche.   Italian Word of the Week: CITTADINI By Daniela Gross The word of the week, “cittadini”, indicates the citizens and is usually opposed to the word “suddito”, which means subject. As in English, “cittadino” (to be pronounced chit-ta-dee-no) has a more political than geographical meaning. The word comes from the Latin “civitas”, which indicates the city, all its citizens, and the citizenship itself.  To be a citizen, then, involved specific rights and duties, that didn’t apply instead to the subjects or the slaves. With the French Revolution, the citizenship took on a new impressive meaning. It was expanded to all the people, and not only attributed to those privileged by birth or census. This is the way we currently talk about citizenship in a democracy: an inclusive condition, strictly related to an active participation to public affairs. So, this is the reason why the honorary citizenship attributed to rav Luciano Caro, which you can read about in this issue, is really important. Especially in these days, when the first reaction of many European Jews to the terroristic attacks and to the call to emigration was “We are European citizens”.		NEWS European Attacks and the Right to Choose Aliyah  By Daniela Gross Should we stay or should we go? The murders in Copenhagen, the bloody attacks in Paris, and the vandalizing of graves in Northern France, fueled an international debate about the right choice for the European Jews. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called them to move to Israel. “Jews have been murdered again on European soil only because they were Jews,” he said. “I would like to tell all European Jews and all Jews wherever they are: Israel is the home of every Jew.” His declarations ignited a wide reaction. “Terror is not a reason to move to Israel,” replied Jair Melchior, Denmark’s chief rabbi, adding that he was “disappointed” by Netanyahu’s comment. “Terror is a perfect reason to move to Israel,” retorted Shmuel Rosner on the Jewish Journal. What happened in Europe in the last months, he affirmed, “is a stark reminder that Israel is still the only place in which Jews have some control over their future, and is a stark reminder that the question of the safety of Jews — the naked, brutal question of the physical safety of Jews — is still a highly significant one." Read more NEWS - Back to Bertinoro By Adam Smulevich Rabbi Ovadiah ben Abraham of Bartenura (1445-1515) was a fifteenth century Italian rabbi known worldwide for his commentary on the Mishnah. Five centuries after his death rav Luciano Meir Caro, chief rabbi of Ferrara, received honorary citizenship of Bertinoro, Ovadiah's birthplace. This was to honor his contribution to interreligious dialogue and to his keeping alive the memory of the great commentator. Read more Out of the Boot Uber Ride around Miami with Rebecca By Simone Somekh* In the past decade, the trend has arisen for adolescent Italian high-school students to engage in study-abroad programs for a semester, or — in order to fully submerge themselves in the foreign country of their choice — for a full academic year. Despite the Italian schooling system being drastically different compared to the ones elsewhere, more and more students, and their parents, decide that this life changing experience is worth the hassles. Thus numerous young and brave individuals have been travelling to several English-speaking destinations, such as the States, Australia, and England. The aims of such experience are clear: learning English, exploring a new culture, and ultimately expanding one’s horizons before making the difficult decisions that arise after high school. Among the many teenagers from the Italian Jewish schools who are studying abroad this year, there is Rebecca Raccah, a 17-year-old girl from Rome, who is spending one semester at Miami’s Sheck Hillel Community School. *Simone Somekh is a student at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, and works as a freelance writer. Shirly Piperno, fashion styling and communication student at Istituto Marangoni, London, contributed reporting. Read more Français Coup de vent Francesca Matalon "Les événements graves, heureux ou malheureux ne changent pas l’âme d’un homme mais ils la précisent, comme un coup de vent en balayant les feuilles mortes révèle la forme d’un arbre". (Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française) The Thought of Rav ShaGa"R  Purim, Alcohol and the Fluidity of Thought By Yaacov Mascetti* A few years ago, roundabout this time of the year, I stumbled across a booklet on Purim entitled "Pur, namely Destiny – Thoughts and Lectures on Purim, by Rav ShaGaR." Rabbi Rosenberg was the rosh yeshiva in a small but extremely unique rabbinical seminar called "Siach Yitzchak" in Gush Etzion, and was relatively unknown to Israeli readers until, after his untimely death from cancer in 2007, his students undertook the editing and publishing of his works, his teaching notes and recorded lectures. I'm not much of a disciple, let alone admirer of rabbinical figures, but Rav ShaGaR has always managed to address some of the key questions that buzz relentlessly around my mind, without the need to hide behind ideological models or apologetic explanations, but rather with the mind-boggling capacity to use Talmudic and post-Talmudic tradition as a hermeneutic tool for post-modern thinkers to use in order to address questions relevant to their world. *Yaakov Mascetti holds a Ph.D. and teaches at the Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University. Read more
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