events

"Abating Antisemitism in the Wake of the Holocaust: Efforts by the Catholic Church"

By Dina Porat*
 
Started in Bologna last December on initiative of the Foundation for Religious Sciences Giovanni XXIII (Fscire), the European Academy of Religion has organized "Ex Nihilo - A Zero Conference on Research in the Religious Fields".
For five days, in Bologna, hundreds of delegates coming from the whole world have tested the idea of a European Academy of Religions which is both a shared platform for research and a useful network.
Under the guidance of Professor Alberto Melloni, historian and secretary of the Fscire and thank to the work of many scholars and collaborators, EuARe - acting under the patronage of the European Parliament and the Italian representation of the European Commission - since December has grown to prove how much the original idea responds to a much-felt need.
More than a thousand accredited participants, about one hundred and fifty panels organized in more than two hundred work sessions have been hosted by various institutions, and have shown the variety and diversity of topics and disciplines that deal with the religious experience.
Many have been the sessions with a Jewish theme or organized by a Jewish institution, and Dina Porat, the Israeli historian, has given a very appreciated lectio - a recurrent appointment to close the days of Ex Nihilo - entitled "Five Popes - four visits - two statements: The Israeli-Jewish Perspective on the Changes in the Vatican towards the Jewish People".
Following, the full text of her speech:

On December 10, 2015, at a press conference held in the Vatican, the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews issued an unprecedented declaration of utmost historical importance, titled “‘For the Gifts and the Calling of God Are Irrevocable': A Reflection on Theological Questions Pertaining to Catholic-Jewish Relations." It marked the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate (“In Our Time”), the 1965 declaration that was at its time a watershed in Jewish-Christian relations.   
Yet it should be noted that prior to the issuing of this declaration, "a very special general audience" was organized, according to the wishes of Pope Francis, on October 28, 2015, exactly on the day Nostra Aetate was promulgated. A major conference, with hundreds of participants, held on that day in the Pontifical Georgian University in Rome, was addressed by the pope, who spoke quite emphatically about inter-religious dialogue and cooperation. Why was there a need to issue the December declaration, in addition to the very warm and clear address the pope delivered barely a few weeks before?

*Dina Porat is head of the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and is Chief Historian of Yad Vashem.

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news

Andrea Bartali, Son of Cycling Legend and Righteous Among the Nations Honorary
Gino Bartali, Passed Away at Age 75

By Adam Smulevich

Andrea Bartali, son of the legendary Florentine cyclist, Gino Bartali who was a  “Righteous Among the Nations” for the assistance he gave to Jews persecuted by Nazi-fascism, died at the age of 75.
Andrea spent his last years sharing his father's story with new generations through multiple initiatives. His passing leaves a great void.
He was a very good friend of Pagine Ebraiche.
In 2010, Pagine Ebraiche, after a first encounter with Andrea and his mother Adriana, together with Sara Funaro, a psychologist and a current member of the city council of the City of Florence, launched an appeal to collect testimonies for the attribution of the title of Righteous to Gino Bartali.

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NEWS

Five Star Movement Leader Mentions Italian Fascist Leader as Source of Values for his Party

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culture

Jérusalem reprise

par Daniel Sibony*

Tout événement important met en jeu votre origine ; il vous défie de la ressaisir, de l’articuler à d’autres événements pour faire tenir une histoire.
Mais quand cet événement c’est votre origine elle-même, qui remonte à la surface après avoir été enfouie sous un couvercle de silence, sous une dalle de déni millénaires? Alors l’événement est sidérant, sidéral, hallucinant au sens propre : cette ville était depuis 26 siècles un objet de désir, d’imploration, de prière ; cet Objet a tellement manqué qu’il a été halluciné. Et voilà que le 6 juin 67, (grâce à plusieurs hasards et à quelques nécessités dont la rencontre s’appelle « miracle »), l’Objet s’est présenté dans le réel, reliant toutes les attentes frustrées, faisant sauter toute une chape de la mémoire.
Essentielle apparition : l’objet était là, dans sa nudité réelle, on l’avait sous les yeux, il « confondait » les deux visions – symbolique et imaginaire. Le passé immémorial devenait présent, lui qui n’était retenu que par le Texte et par les voix qui le chanje sais pasfil des siècles. Ce présent ramenait tout droit au passé lointain qui à son tour éclairait ce cadeau du temps, ce présent inouï.
Car l’événement essentiel est une déchirure du temps normal, chronologique, il met à nu votre ancrage dans l’être et fait surgir de l’abîme un Objet chargé de temps, un édifice qui vous redonne tout le temps invécu, tout le bloc de temps qui attendait depuis longtemps, qu’on vienne le prendre.

*Daniel Sibony est Écrivain et psychanalyste.

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bECHOL LASHON - Français

Une collection d’objets nazis découverts
en Argentine

par Christine Legrand*

Un buste d’Adolf Hitler, une loupe qui aurait appartenu au dictateur, des statues d’aigles impériaux, des instruments médicaux permettant de mesurer les crânes pour établir les standards de la race aryenne…, ce sont quelques-uns des soixante-quinze objets à la gloire du IIIe Reich retrouvés par la police dans une cache d’un appartement d’une banlieue de Buenos Aires, une des plus grosses collections d’objets nazis retrouvées dans la région.
Plus de soixante-dix ans après la fin de la seconde guerre mondiale, des traces des nombreux nazis et autres criminels de guerre européens qui trouvèrent refuge en Argentine sous le premier gouvernement du général Juan Domingo Peron (1946-1955), réapparaissent régulièrement sur le devant de la scène à Buenos Aires.




*Le Monde, 23.06.17.



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Double Life

The War of the Beauties

By Daniela Fubini

No, the war of the beauties in Israel did not happen or not yet at least. Blondie Bar Refaeli is covering all possible ads on TV and street posters and has one baby, one on his/her way and a quiet husband. Brunette Gal Gadot is raging on screen as Wonder Woman and holds two babies and a quiet husband. So perhaps, the trick is, ladies of Israel, get a quiet partner and you can conquer the world.
The war never unfolded probably only because Gal Gadot is an actress and Bar Refaeli a model, but since cinema and fashion shows are not always so linear, also Bar starred in a few small productions and I personally have quite a nice memory of "Kidon", a comedy where she blondly plays as team member of the most feared unit in the Mossad, responsible (well, allegedly) of many under-the-radar assassinations and other non-reported activities who may or may not have saved the same existence of Israel as a nation.

*Daniela Fubini (Twitter @d_fubini) lives and writes in Tel Aviv, where she arrived in 2008 from Turin via New York.

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IT HAPPENED TOMORROW

Commitment
and Tolerance

Guido Vitale

“Unless we can flip the devastating message that Israelis don’t have the same tolerance and commitment to human rights that Americans do, we lose”. (Fern Oppenheim, Herzliya Conference - June 2017)
















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italics

Hiding in Plain Sight: Natalia Ginzburg’s Masterpiece

By Cynthia Zarin*

In this summer of our discontent, I’ve been rereading “Family Lexicon,” the autobiographical novel by the Italian writer Natalia Ginzburg, which was recently reissued by The New York Review of Books, in a new, attentive translation by Jenny McPhee. The book, first published in Italy, in 1963, comes at its subject, which is life itself and what it asks of us, obliquely. In the author’s preface, Ginzburg states, “The places, people and events in this book are real. I haven’t invented a thing, and each time I found myself slipping into my long-held habits as a novelist and made something up, I was quickly compelled to destroy the invention.” In an interview, in 1990, Ginzburg recalled, “Autobiography crept up on me like a wolf.”

*This article was published in The New Yorker on June 22, 2017.

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