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“Remembrance, Italy takes the lead”

At the beginning of March, Italy assumed the Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
The outgoing Chair Ambassador Benno Bättig of Switzerland handed over the Chairmanship to Ambassador Sandro De Bernardin of Italy. The handover took place at the Italian Embassy in Berlin, and was attended by members of the diplomatic corps representing IHRA’s 31 Member Countries as well as by students of the Albert Einstein Gymnasium. Following is the interview to Mr De Bernardin that was published in the latest issue of Pagine Ebraiche.

By Guido Vitale

The future of democracy and the future of Europe will be played for on the field of Remembrance. Besides celebrations, academic research, cultural creation, the Remembrance of the Shoah still is a hot subject for politics and a testing ground for west societies which are experiencing the wave of populisms and the erosion of civil coexistence. But the field of Remembrance will be also one of those which will see, starting from the next days, Italian diplomacy in a leading role. Our Country is indeed taking the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), the international organisation based in Berlin which deals with the politics concerning the Remembrance of the Shoah and its preservation. Head of the Italian delegation, Ambassador Sandro De Bernardin, who has had a long experience in different diplomatic missions and a happy experience as representative for Italy in Israel, decided to go right to Berlin to take the baton of the IHRA from the outgoing Swiss presidency.
A sign with a high symbolic value which will take place at the Italian embassy in Berlin, in that very same building, considered one of the most fascinating of the German capital city, raised just before the Second World War to symbolize the tragic alliance between the fascist regime and its German allied.
Today the work on Remembrance witnesses Germany on the front line and Italy engaged like never before in order to make the memory of the Shoah not only a formal thing, but an active factor of knowledge and protection for all the civil societies.

Translated by Rachele Ferin and Ilaria Vozza, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities. Photo credit: Dario Laganà.

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Remembrance and Commitment,
from Berlin to Rome

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Remembrance is also a matter of civic duty. This is the message that Italy will send to the world through a special stamp which will commemorate the Italian leadership of IHRA. Ambassador Sandro De Bernardin himself, before going to Berlin to take the baton from the outgoing Swiss presidency, will validate the first stamp of the special series issued by the Italian Post Office to honour the Italian commitment in the international organisation for the Remembrance of the Holocaust. With him in the Philately section of the head office of the Italian Post Office in San Silvestro square, Rome, there will be the chief of staff of the Ministry for Economic Development, Ernesto Somma, too. This will be just the first token gesture of the intense following hours that will lead Italy to the conduction of IHRA for the following, extremely sensitive year of service. After the issuing, in fact, the Italian diplomat, head of the delegation of Italy in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, will receive in Berlin the transfer of power from the Swiss representative Benno Baettig (head of IHRA in 2017). At the Italian embassy in Berlin, the moment will be meaningful and destined to mark the end of a year regulated by the Swiss authorities and full of thinking about Remembrance policy and the opening of a year even more full of challenges and questions. This is what the year of the Italian presidency will have to face.

This article was originally published in the March issue of Pagine Ebraiche and translated by Rachele Ferin and Ilaria Vozza, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

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culture

Documentary on Jewish Family and Destiny
in Italy Wins Prestigious Prize

By Daniela Gross

A ‘remarkable experiment, which combines cinema, history and chronicle with a more personal and intimate purpose: to give a voice and a face to scattered loves and families’, said the jury of Nastro d’argento, an Italian film award. This year, the National Union of Italian Film Journalists (SNGCI) awarded the Nastro d’argento speciale (lit. silver ribbon, special edition) to the documentary “Galut, every end is a beginning” (Diaspora, ogni fine è un inizio), produced by Marina Piperno and directed by Luigi Faccini. Here, Daniela Gross tells us about the story of the documentary.

It is a picture like many others, found in an old photo album. The men look serious in their suits, the ladies smile cheerfully and the little girl in the bottom right corner has her eyes and mouth wide open, as if she were about to speak. They were the Pipernos, the Sonninos, the Fornaris, the Biseses and the Di Segnis, gathered at the Pepinos’ house in Anzio (near Rome). It would be a picture like many others, but it is autumn 1938 and nothing is going to be the same after this meeting.
This is the story told in “Galut, every end is a beginning” by Marina Piperno – the little girl with her eyes wide open – 80 years later. For three years, Mrs. Piperno has travelled between the US, Israel and Italy, tracing back the story with her friend and coworker Luigi Monardo Faccini. This 4-hour-and-40-minute-long movie – presented at last year’s Salone Internazionale del Libro (International Book Fair) in Turin – weaves history and family memories together, going through some of the crucial moments of Jewish history and lingering over Jewish identity and the wounds of persecution.

Translated by Federica Alabiso, student at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

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DEPORTES

El Giro de Italia con los campeones:
"Tel Aviv: la final para los velocistas"

Adam Smulevich
 
En la playa de Tel Aviv, se oye ahora la misma incitación que lo empujó hacia las más altas cumbres de los Alpes durante años: "¡Vamos, Gibo!". Esto es prácticamente pan comido para los cinco veteranos del ciclismo italiano que, estos últimos días, se están levantando muy temprano por la mañana para recorrer por adelantado las etapas del Giro de Italia, que empezará el 4 de mayo en Jerusalén. En el registro civil, "Gibo" está inscrito como Gilberto Simoni, un gran escalador que viene de la región de Italia de Trentino y que ha logrado nada menos que dos victorias y siete podios totales en la competición ciclística nacional. Le gusta mucho el calor y hoy se está bastante bien en Tel Aviv, donde se han registrado unos veinte grados más que en Italia, que, por otro lado, ha sido víctima de la ola de frío siberiano Burian. Mientras pedalea despreocupado, Simoni sonríe y con él sonríen sus compañeros de viaje: Andrea Tafi, de Toscana, Alessandro Ballan, de Véneto, Maurizio Fondriest, de Trentino y Paolo Savoldelli, de Bérgamo. Son estos los campeones que fueron los protagonistas durante al menos dos generaciones y que hoy, por última vez, están llamados a desempeñar el papel de equipo de reconocimiento a lo largo de toda la costa, aunque en momentos distintos. En primer lugar, el programa prevé un pedaleo que inicia en el parque Yarkon, en Yafo, junto con el ex campeón nacional, Niv Libner, y con el director general del Ministerio de Turismo, Amir Halevi. Después, es el turno de Acre y Cesárea, por las que se pasará durante la segunda etapa que comenzará en la ciudad de Haifa. Los cinco ciclistas se sorprenden y expresan toda su emoción al encontrar en la ruta tantas bicicletas y tanta gente residente en la localidad que practica deporte.

Traducción de Anna Pagetti, estudiante de la Escuela Superior para Intérpretes y Traductores de la Universidad de Trieste, de prácticas en la oficina del periódico de la Unión de las Comunidades Judías Italianas.

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MEINUNG

Italien zwischen rechts und populistisch

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bechol lashon -  Français

Une photo  

Pierpaolo Pinhas Punturello*

Sur le lieu de rencontres virtuels tel est Facebook, j’ai posté une photo, prise en 1953, qui montrait des jeunes du Collège rabbinique, Scuola Margulies, dans la cour de l’ancien orphelinat de via Cesare Lombroso à Turin. L’école rabbinique était dirigée par le rabbin Dario Disegni zl. Dans la photo, on voit le rabbin Gustavo Calò zl, sa femme Alba zl, le professeur Begutin zl et beaucoup d’autres jeunes qui seraient les futurs rabbins d’Italie. Beaucoup de personnes se sont émues en regardant la photo, beaucoup de personnes ont pensé à notre passé de juifs italiens et beaucoup plus on souri en pensant à leurs enseignants, malhereusement disparus. J’aime regarder celle photo et remarquer aussi leur tenue convenable et élégante, surtout si je pense aux difficultés économiques de l’après-guerre et des histoires personnelles de certains de ces jeunes. Il n’y a pas de chapeaux parmi les sourires de ces derniers, il y a un seul chapeau très italien qui est celui du rabbin Disegni zl et une seule barbe héritage du Risorgimento du rabbin Calò zl. Cette photo exprime beaucoup de choses.

*Pierpaolo Pinhas Punturello est rabbin. Traduction de Federica Alabiso, étudiante de l’Ecole Superiore pour Traducteurs et Interprètes de l’Université de Trieste et stagiaire au journal de l’Union des Communautés Juives Italiennes.

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pilpul

Veiling the Conveyance
of God

By Yaakov Mascetti*

The urge to know the Divine without the mediation of words or prophets, traditional texts or individuals sanctioned by tradition with the duty to channel God’s word to the people, is a well- known fact in Western tradition. Between Plato’s allegory of the cave and the Pauline statement for an unveiled perception of truth in 1 Cor. 13:12, the Torah proposes a different model, for which the desire for immanence and the immediacy of communion with God is a prerogative of Moses alone, and not for the people as a whole. The veiling of Divine immanence is, so to speak, a precondition for the human interaction with God – the signification of Divine truth is always partial, necessarily veiled.

Exodus 34: 30-35
Aaron and all the Israelites saw that the skin of Moses’ face was radiant; and they shrank from coming near him.
But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the chieftains in the assembly returned to him, and Moses spoke to them.

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



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italics

Pharaoh’s Wheel

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