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January 11, 2016 - Tevet 30, 5776

FEATURES

Venice Commemorates the Establishment
of the First Ghetto

By Rossella Tercatin

2016 marks the fifth-hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the first ghetto in history, which was in Venice in 1516.
The Jewish Community of Venice, the city and the entire country are gearing up to commemorate the event with dozens of initiatives, starting this coming March.
Speaking at the plenary of the World Jewish Congress, the president of the Venice Jewish Community Paolo Gnignati explained the principles that inspired the Community in preparing the program.

NEWS

Ahead of January 27, Two Awards
for Milan’s Holocaust Memorial

By Francesca Matalon

As the celebrations for January 27 approach Milan's Shoah Memorial receives two awards for its growing role as a symbol of remembrance and its activity in educating young people. The architects Guido Morpurgo and Annalisa De Curtis have been awarded an honorable mention of the Gold Medal for Italian architecture by the prominent design and art museum Triennale di Milano. The vice-president of the Foundation for the Memorial and vice-president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Roberto Jarach – as anticipated by Pagine Ebraiche - will receive the Premio Il Campione, an award created by the voluntary association City Angels with the support of the Jewish Community of Milan among others. The prize is dedicated to "people who have launched positive messages and values through the media". Jarach will receive the award in a ceremony that will take place on January 21 in Milan's city hall.

NEWS

An Italian Hypershabbat

By Adam Smulevich

The initiative "Hypershabbat" promoted by French Jews in memory of the four victims of the attack that occurred at the HyperCasher in Paris one year ago received widespread support in Italian Jewish community.
As a symbolic act of solidarity, shop owners in the ancient Jewish ghetto of Rome closed their stores at the same time on Friday morning. The children of local Jewish schools prepared the challot, the bread of the Shabbat, and then distributed it to several families to pay tribute to the victims of the attack.

MEDIA

A Step forward for Melamed

By Ada Treves

Part of the wide offer that the staff of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities produces every day, the weekly newsletter "melamed" - dedicated to education and schools - is taking another step forward. Melamed has been identified for more than three years with a specific section of UCEI's press review. Each week a selection of the most significant items has been sent to teachers, Jewish leaders and to those who have responsibilities in terms of education and schools. In the last year a comment as been added to the selection of the press review, and it has been published also on the daily newsletter of Italian Jewry, paginebraiche24. As part of the gradual growth that has always characterized the work of the newsroom, the new weekly newsletter "sheva - melamed " adds to the weekly press review two sections: "Comment and Debate" and "News".

BOOKS

When Religious Background Has an Influence on Scientific Research

By Elite Olstein*

The book “Vygotsky and Bernstein in the light of the Jewish tradition”, written by Antonella Castelnuovo and Bella Kotik, published by Academic Studies Press 2015, has been presented in Jerusalem on December 23 at Yellin College, one of the oldest and most prestigious College of Education in Israel. The two authors were present and each of them made a speech in front of a wide audience of professors and teachers. The key note speaker was Elite Olstein, Emeritus Professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who expressed herself in very appreciative terms about the book.
Antonella Castelnuovo, who holds a PhD from the London University, is a professor of Intercultural Communication at the University of Siena, Italy. She is among the most important experts on the relationship between minorities, especially the Jewish community, and general society. Her work includes publications such as Ebrei e Protestanti nella storia d’Italia (Franco Angeli, 1996) Minoranze religiose e cultura europea (Franco Angeli, 1999), and the edited volume Giochi di ruolo e formazione interculturale (Carocci, 2007).
She has been a visiting professor at Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at University of Massachusetts in Amherst (UMASS), U.S.A.
At the event, in tune with the Jewish tradition, many questions followed at the end of the speeches and the whole debate was very interesting and stimulating.

It is a very special honor for me to talk about this book, which brings together two of the giants of the twentieth century who have had an enormous impact on educational thinking, research and teaching. It has taken me a long time to come to grips with the idea that one’s roots and ethnic and religious backgrounds can be viewed as having a significant influence on one’s theoretical reflection, choice and research as a scientist. I was finally convinced by the two authors, my colleagues, my friends, that their investigation was worthwhile and yielded this very interesting book. The authors are fully aware of this position towards their endeavor, present a very perceptive description of the historical development of Jewish life, social positioning and the growth of Zionism in Europe in the last two centuries.

*Elite Olstein is Emeritus Professor from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

BECHOL LASHON קול הספרים Sarah Kaminski* לא אוכל שלא לגעת בספרה של דורית רביניאן. למה? ככה. או יותר נכון כיוון שהספר לא שווה את המהומה שמשרד החינוך הישראלי בנה עליו. ספר נחמד, עם המון דפים מיותרים, שמתחמק בסופו של יום מהתמודדות אמיתית עם בעיית השיתוף בין שונים. כולו משהו תל אביבי כזה: האוכל לא טוב אבל מאוד מאוד "איני" אז בוא נקרא אותו ונשתעמם. לעומת זאת אני ממליצה על ספריו של סמי מיכאל ועל סרט מ -2013, בבימויה של לורן לוי "הבן האחר". ותיהנו בלי צנזורה. *Sarah Kaminski teaches at the University of Turin.	PILPUL Silence, Deeds and Words By Yaacov Mascetti* In Charles Dickens' Hard Times, Thomas Gradgrind is presented as a "man of realities," and can be read as a literary representation of the (disturbing) modern trend of adoring and serving facts, empirical data and objective foundationalism. "Now, what I want is, facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them . . . Stick to facts Sir!" *Yaakov Mascetti holds a Ph.D. and teaches at the Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University. Read more

IT HAPPENED TOMORROW A Jewish Inspiration By Guido Vitale “A Jewish inspiration can be found in the sacredness of the language through which God creates the world and all the creatures and by which mankind sets its relationship with God”. (Clotilde Pontecorvo, Introduction to Antonella Castelnuovo and Bella Kotik-Friedgut “Vygotsky and Bernstein In the Light of Jewish Tradition” Boston 2015). Read more	italics Hate of Women By Daniela Gross “It is incredible how the attack in Cologne has gone understated, especially by the male population. It was a hostile action, less bloody but not less hateful than the assault to Charlie Hebdo, which we commemorate on these days. It is an act doomed to leave, in the European consciousness, a scar no less deep, because few people design or read irreverent cartoons, but everyone has a daughter or a dear one, who celebrates the New Year in a big city.” So Aldo Cazzullo commented, in the daily Corriere della Sera, the violence recently exerted against dozens of women, held guilty only of their freedom in the West. On New Year’s Eve, they were assaulted by large groups of men. Read more

moked è il portale dell'ebraismo italiano

This newsletter is published under difficult conditions. The editors of this newsletter are Italian journalists whose native language is Italian. They are willing to offer their energy and their skills to give international readers the opportunity of learning more about the Italian Jewish world, its values, its culture and its traditions.
In spite of all our efforts to avoid this, readers may find an occasional language mistake. We count on your understanding and on your help and advice to correct these mistakes and improve our publication.

Pagine Ebraiche International Edition is published by the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). UCEI publications encourage an understanding of the Jewish world and the debate within it. The articles and opinions published by Pagine Ebraiche International Edition, unless expressly stated otherwise, cannot be interpreted as the official position of UCEI, but only as the self-expression of the people who sign them, offering their comments to UCEI publications. Readers who are interested in making their own contribution should email us at desk@ucei.it
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© UCEI - All rights reserved - The articles may only be reproduced after obtaining the written permission of the editor-in-chief. Pagine Ebraiche - Reg Rome Court 199/2009 – Editor in Chief: Guido Vitale - Managing Editor: Daniela Gross.
Special thanks to: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Eliezer Di Martino, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Francesca Matalon, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins, Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Michael Sierra, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan.

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Pagine Ebraiche International Edition è una pubblicazione edita dall'Unione delle Comunità Ebraiche Italiane. L'UCEI sviluppa mezzi di comunicazione che incoraggiano la conoscenza e il confronto delle realtà ebraiche. Gli articoli e i commenti pubblicati, a meno che non sia espressamente indicato il contrario, non possono essere intesi come una presa di posizione ufficiale, ma solo come la autonoma espressione delle persone che li firmano e che si sono rese gratuitamente disponibili. Gli utenti che fossero interessati a offrire un proprio contributo possono rivolgersi all'indirizzo desk@ucei.it

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© UCEI - Tutti i diritti riservati - I testi possono essere riprodotti solo dopo aver ottenuto l'autorizzazione scritta della Direzione. Pagine Ebraiche International Edition - notiziario dell'ebraismo italiano - Reg. Tribunale di Roma 199/2009 - direttore responsabile: Guido Vitale - Coordinamento: Daniela Gross.
Realizzato con il contributo di: Francesco Moises Bassano, Susanna Barki, Amanda Benjamin, Monica Bizzio, Angelica Edna Calò Livne, Eliezer Di Martino, Alain Elkann, Dori Fleekop, Daniela Fubini, Benedetta Guetta, Sarah Kaminski, Daniel Leisawitz, Annette Leckart, Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, Yaakov Mascetti, Francesca Matalon, Jonathan Misrachi, Anna Momigliano, Giovanni Montenero, Elèna Mortara, Sabina Muccigrosso, Lisa Palmieri Billig, Jazmine Pignatello, Shirley Piperno, Giandomenico Pozzi, Daniel Reichel, Colby Robbins, Danielle Rockman, Lindsay Shedlin, Michael Sierra, Rachel Silvera, Adam Smulevich, Simone Somekh, Rossella Tercatin, Ada Treves, Lauren Waldman, Sahar Zivan.