VENICE AND THE GHETTO

Mercy versus Law: Christian or Jewish

The extraordinary week that has seen the return to the Ghetto of the most famous Venetian Jew of all times is arriving to its end: tonight "The merchant in Venice" will be performed for the last time in the Campo del Ghetto Nuovo by the Compagnia de' Colombari. As written in the booklet distributed to the public "In 2016 the stars have aligned. It is the year of an extraordinary intersection, the 500th anniversary of the formation of the Jewish Ghetto in Venice and the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death". And during this magic week the lucky ones who have spent their time in Venice have really profited by a rare alignment of the stars: as Pagine Ebraiche as written in its special pages about the Quincentennial edited by Ada Treves, the Merchant has been only one of many exceptional events: exhibitions, conferences, a symposium on the Hebrew Book in Venice and an amazing mock trial, in which the appeal by Shylock has brought in front of the judgment of the court Antonio, the Republic of Venice and Portia. An event that has seen Ruth Bader Ginsburg quickly taking control of the situation, in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, and magisterially showing her competence and passion. Many difficult themes have been raised in the discussion: from racism to prejudice, from antisemitism to the very idea of what is "alien", a word Shakespeare has used only three times in the whole of his work. In the booklet by Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Compagnia de' Colombari and Committee for the 500 years of the Ghetto a text by Susannah Heschel (also translated into Italian and published in the special pages devoted to #VeniceGhetto500) delves with some of these issues. We publish it here, first in a series of issues of this newsletter that will offer to our readers the content of the joint effort of the three institution that most have worked to make this year even more extraordinary.

By Susannah Heschel*

“Which is the merchant here? And which the Jew?” asks Portia as she enters the courtroom, disguised, of course, as the maledoctor of laws, Balthasar. Portia’s gender disguise is accompanied by her confusion: can she not recognize the Jew on sight?
In Shakespeare’s wonderfully subtle, implicit way, he is also suggesting that Portia is in a religious disguise: does she speak in the name of Christianity when she speaks of mercy, or are her courtroom legal maneuverings drawn from rabbinic legal arguments (at least as understood by Christians), but disguised as Christian?

*Susannah Heschel is a professor at Dartmouth College. The picture is by Giovanni Montenero.

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NEWS

UCEI President Di Segni Looks at the Future
of Italian Jewish Life

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The new president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni was in Venice last week. The trip marked her first official visit to one of 21 Italian Jewish communities. It was an occasion to speak about the present and the future of Italian Jewish life.
In Venice Di Segni attended some the initiatives connected to the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Ghetto in the city: she attended the special production of “The Merchant of Venice” performed in the square of the Ghetto for the first time. The mock trial of an appeal hearing for the main character Shylock was presided over by US Supreme Court judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She visited the exhibition “Venice, the Jews and Europe; 1516-2016” at the Doge’s Palace.

*The picture is by Giovanni Montenero.

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eventS

Two Weeks of Workshops
with Pagine Ebraiche

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bechol lashon - Español

Venecia, el espacio
de los judíos y el futuro

de Ada Treves*

Se trata de un año extraordinario, en el que se conmemoran los 500 años de la instauración del gueto, que se ha convertido en el símbolo de todas las exclusiones. La recurrencia coincide con el aniversario de los 400 años de la muerte del dramaturgo que dio vida al judío veneciano más famoso del mundo. La celebración del quinto centenario de la instauración del primer espacio de confinamiento representa una gran ocasión para reflexionar, y cuenta con un calendario de manifestaciones culturales como seminarios, simposios, exposiciones y espectáculos que se suceden ininterrumpidamente.

*This article is the introduction of the special section on the 500th anniversary of the Venice Ghetto featured in the August issue of Pagine Ebraiche. The article has been translated by Giulia Castelnovo, student at the Scuola superiore interpreti e traduttori di Trieste, ‎who is doing her apprenticeship in the newsroom of Pagine Ebraiche.

Leia mas

pilpul

Descents

By Benedetto Carucci Viterbi*

According to the Biblical narrative, we all descend from a single man and we all share the same genealogical tree. According to some evolution theories, we all descend from apes (perhaps African). No matter what, no one can claim to be better than another.








*Benedetto Carucci Viterbi is a rabbi.








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VENICE AND THE GHETTO

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Presides
Over Shylock’s Appeal

By Rachel Donadio*

What do Supreme Court justices do on their summer vacations? For Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — longtime liberal standard-bearer, recent Donald J. Trump critic — this year’s answer is: Go to Venice, watch your grandson perform in a production of “The Merchant of Venice” and preside over a mock appeal of the city’s most notorious resident, Shylock.
And so, on Wednesday afternoon, in the monumental 16th-century Scuola Grande di San Rocco, beneath ceiling paintings by Tintoretto, Justice Ginsburg and four other judges, including the United States ambassador to Italy, John R. Phillips, heard arguments on behalf of Shylock and two other characters, before reaching a unanimous ruling.

*This article was published in the New York Times on July 30, 2016. The picture is by Giovanni Montenero.

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IT HAPPENED TOMORROW

Shylock versus Antonio

By Guido Vitale

Shylock versus Antonio. In Venice everyone was speaking of the Mock Trial. Only at the time of the delivery of the judgment the public has realized how far it was from a joke. It has been a real process, much more serious than many others we have been forced to watch in recent years.

















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italics

The Next Child Star

By Jessica Weinstein*

"It's quite funny - you're walking along and you suddenly see all these small, dark children," one mother laughed as she joined the queue beside the sign that read "auditions here today!"
It was easy to spot them - the boys and their parents, gathered in an otherwise deserted street in London's Theatreland, drawn by the chance to star in the next Steven Spielberg movie.
The families had come to the Umbrella Rooms in Shaftesbury Avenue early last Sunday in response to an advert in the JC publicising an open casting call.
Mr Spielberg was, so the notice said, on the look-out for a "special and gifted" boy of "Italian-Jewish" appearance, aged between six and nine, to star in The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, the true-life story of a Jewish boy from Bologna who, in the 1850s, was secretly baptised by a maid.

*This article was published in the Jewish Chronicle on July 28, 2016.

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