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September 5, 2016 - Elul 2, 5776

culture

Celebrating Jewish Books in Ferrara

By Ada Treves

It has been a success. The first Festa del libro ebraico (Jewish Book Festival) organized in Ferrara by Simonetta Della Seta, the new director of the Museo dell'Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah (MEIS), and under the new presidency, has managed to host in little more than a day a huge variety and richness of events, also giving Italian Jewry a chance to confront and discuss together ideas and projects for the future. The opening concert, on Saturday night, saw the Avishai Cohen Quartet on stage in the Palazzo Roverella gardens - venue of the whole festival. It attracted a huge public, much bigger than expected, showing immediately the interest and affection of a whole town that has been following the process of growth of the MEIS and is now expecting its opening, due in Autumn 2017.

EVENTS

Italy Gears up to Celebrate Jewish Culture
and Its Languages

By Rossella Tercatin

The 2016 European Day of Jewish Culture is coming up, and, as for usual, Italy is going to be among the countries with the highest number of events and locations taking part in it.
This year edition will investigate the topic of Jewish languages and dialects: Hebrew, but also Yiddish, Ladino, Aramaic, the different Judeo-Italians and many more.
Milan, whose Jewish Community celebrates the 150th anniversary since its establishment in 2016, has been selected as the leading city. On Sunday, September 18, the Day will feature lectures, exhibits, guided visits to Jewish sites, concerts and performances, in Milan as well as all over Italy.
“The European Day of Jewish Culture was started over 17 years ago to promote the direct knowledge of Jewish culture and traditions by opening the doors of synagogues, museums and Jewish sites located all over the continent,” highlighted the president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) Noemi Di Segni in presenting the Day, adding that “the initiative is the result of the belief that the better tool to fight prejudice is to foster knowledge.”

newS

Italian Jewish Community Comes to the Aid with Earthquake Relief

By Adam Smulevich

The Italian Jewish community is working to help the population hit by the recent earthquake which killed almost 300 people in the four Italian regions (Lazio, Umbria, Abruzzo and Marche). Following a statement in which its president Noemi Di Segni expressed full solidarity with the victims, the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), together with the Jewish Community of Rome, the Jewish Medical Association and an association of Jewish blood donors, set up a blood drive in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake, on August 24.
Few hours later, the UCEI also opened a fundraising campaign inviting all to donate. The campaign raised nearly 30,000 euros, with the cooperation of international organizations such as the European Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

bechol lashon - Español

Solo 2.424 judíos sefardíes han pedido ser españoles

Miguel González*

"Puede haber hasta medio millón de personas que puedan considerarse sefardíes en el mundo, pero parece que menos de 100.000 acabaran solicitando finalmente el pasaporte espacio", declaraba en enero pasado a EL PAIS el director de la Unión Sefardí Mundial, José Benarroch. Sus cálculos pare-clan avalados por la avalancha de peticiones de información que recibieron los consulados españoles, especialmente en Israel, cuan-do se anunció que España estaba dispuesta a reparar la injusticia hist6rica cometida con los judíos que fueron expulsados de Castilla y Aragón por los Reyes Católicos en 1492 y que se dispersaron por el norte de África, los Balcanes o el Imperio Otomano. Más de un alió después de publicarse la ley y a los diez meses de su entrada en vigor, el 1 de octubre de 2015, solo 225 sefardíes residentes en Israel han solicita-do el pasaporte español. Y la cifra total de peticiones es de 2.424, según datos del Ministerio de Justicia a 4 de agosto pasado. Solo una nacionalidad ha sido concedida hasta ahora al amparo de la nueva ley y otros 256 expedientes están concluidos, mientras que los restantes se encuentran en trámite.

*El Pais 28.08.2016

Leia mas

pilpul

The Three-Act Manifesto
of a Faithless Nihilist

By Yaakov Mascetti*

Act 1 A few weeks ago, I had an interesting conversation with an old friend in Italy – the discussion revolved around things I had expressed on Facebook regarding the role of religion and God in the daily life of a Jew. At the end of the discussion, I proclaimed myself a "faithless nihilist," a statement which left the other side quite wordless, and allowed me to deal with my own personal need to state clearly what my rapidly changing religious conceptions are at the moment. Yes, I am a faithless nihilist. I do not "believe" that belief is a necessary component of a Jew's life and I yearn for a clear acknowledgment of the Divine absence, more than his presence. And all this is a necessary process for the acquisition of a clearly humanistic stance vis-à-vis history – or, in other terms, speak less about God and the Chosen People and how the transcendental Divinity directs the historical vicissitudes of the Jews and supports their eternal right to the Land of Israel, and focus more on the human sphere of the individual, of his / her obligations vis-à-vis the "Other."

*Yaakov Mascetti holds a Ph.D. and teaches at the Department of Comparative Literature, Bar Ilan University.

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VENICE AND THE GHETTO

The Jews in the Age of the Medici

The Center for Jewish History in New York will mark the 500th anniversary of the creation of the Venice ghetto in 1516 with a new exhibition that reveals the complex history of Jewish life in the Mediterranean world following the confinement of Venetian Jews to a walled-off section of their city.
This unique assemblage of Italian materials - some of which date from the 16th century - opens a window onto intellectual and artistic achievement, Jewish practice and thought, enduring economic and cultural ties to the Christian and Islamic communities, and the ways in which the Venice ghetto served as a point of connection for Jewish communities in Europe and the Ottoman Empire.
Prominent objects in the exhibition include the Meshal ha-kadmoni, courtesy of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, written in 1281 by a Castilian Hebrew poet, scholar and Cabalist, as a response to the popular Arabian Nights. To increase its popularity, the book was embellished with fascinating miniature woodcuts, making it one of the first illustrated Hebrew book ever printed. Other prominent objects include a Bomberg Bible from 1547 from the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research collections, a 19th Century Italian Torah shield from the Yeshiva University Museum and "Della influenza del ghetto nello Stato" from 1782 from the collections of the Center for Jewish History.

IT HAPPENED TOMORROW

Blutspenden nach
dem Beben

Guido Vitale

Die Union der jüdischen Gemeinden Italiens (UCEI) richtete ein Sonderkonto zugunsten der Geschädigten ein. Vor allem aber stieß der Verband noch am Mittwoch eine Blutspende-Aktion an: Bürger sollten im römischen Krankenhaus Fatebenefratelli und dem benachbarten Ospedale Israelitico Blut für die Verletzten spenden.
Notstand UCEI-Präsidentin Noemi Di Segni erklärte, man habe »konkret und umgehend gegen den aktuellen Notstand aktiv werden« wollen. Dabei sind jüdische Einrichtungen nach bisherigem Stand von dem Beben nicht betroffen. Doch das Bergland Umbriens, Latiums und der Marken blickt auf eine lange jüdische Geschichte zurück: Sie reicht vermutlich fast zwei Jahrtausende zurück in die Zeit, als nach der Zerstörung Jerusalems und dem gescheiterten Bar-Kochba-Aufstand Zehntausende Juden aus der damaligen römischen Provinz Judäa nach Italien deportiert wurden. (Juedische Allgemeine, Berlin - September 2016).

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italics

Earthquake Relief
A Perspective

By IsraAID*

Within a few short hours of the earthquake in Italy, IsraAID's emergency roster of professionals were on standby. Among the first to be recruited to the team was psychologist, Silvana Winer who was born in Rome and came to Israel at age 20. With Italian as her mother tongue and with a deep understanding of the cultural sensitivities, Winer is an asset to the IsraAID team.
At ground-zero in the village of Matrice, Winer works in close coordination with the local Red Cross and the Medical Personal of the Italian Carabinieri. Her role is to work side by side with the rescue teams as they uncover bodies and assist families to identify loved ones trapped under the ruins.

*IsraAID is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to providing life-saving disaster relief and long term support.

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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.

Questo notiziario è realizzato in condizioni di particolare difficoltà. I redattori di questo notiziario sono giornalisti italiani di madrelingua italiana. Mettono a disposizione le loro energie e le loro competenze per raccontare in lingua inglese l'ebraismo italiano, i suoi valori, la sua cultura e i suoi valori. Nonostante il nostro impegno il lettore potrebbe trovare errori e imperfezioni nell'utilizzo del linguaggio che faremo del nostro meglio per evitare. Contiamo sulla vostra comprensione e soprattutto sul vostro aiuto e sul vostro consiglio per correggere gli errori e migliorare.

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.