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April 9, 2018 - Nisan 24, 5778

news

Rav Di Segni Confirmed As Vice-President
of the National Committee for Bio-Ethics

By Pagine Ebraiche Staff

The chief rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni has been confirmed as vice-president of the National Committee for Bio-Ethics of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Italy).
The rabbi is also a radiologist and directed the radiology department of the San Giovanni Hospital in Rome.
The Committee has 26 members that are renewed every four years.
The goal of the body is to express qualified opinions and solutions on issues related to ethics and law as technological and scientific progress create them. The advice of the Committee can be used to draft legislation on these matters as well.

newS

An Italian School Rejects Being Named
after King Who Signed Anti-Jewish Laws

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

A high school in Lucera (Foggia, Apulia) asked to change the name of their because it had been named after Italian king Vittorio Emanuele III.
“Our school bears the name of the king who signed the anti-Jewish legislation that produced terrible consequences for Italians of Jewish faith, including their deportation to death camps. For this reason, we believe it is not appropriate, commendable nor educational that our school keeps on being identified by the name of this king who did nothing to stop that legislation,” declared a group of representatives of the school. Those who asked to change the name are the principal, teachers and students.

Events

Rav Jonathan Sacks Meets the Jewish Community in Florence

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Rav Jonathan Sacks, former chief rabbi of Great Britain and a prominent contemporary intellectual, met with the Jews of Florence in an event organized by the local branch of the Chassidic movement Chabad-Lubavitch. He was introduced by the Chabad emissary rav Levi Wolwowsky.
“Take risks and work hard. And if you want to be a leader, hold a long-term vision, don’t be afraid of going against the general trend. This is what makes a difference and has been the strength of the Jewish people for centuries and millennia. This is our prerogative. Don’t forget, good leaders are those who manage to have many followers. But great leaders are those who are capable of forming other leaders”, the rabbi pointed out.

bechol lashon - deutsch

Kielce

Anna Foa*

"Auschwitz an polnische Führer", diese Inschrift ist kürzlich an den Wänden des Hauses erschienen, in dem ein italienischer Führer von Auschwitz in Krakau lebt. Die Episode ist nicht zufällig, sondern bezieht sich eindeutig auf das von Polen verabschiedete Gesetz, das den Verweis auf den polnischen Antisemitismus während der Shoah kriminalisiert. Jetzt möchte man allen Menschen außer den Polen verbieten, Auschwitz zu beschreiben und zu erklären. Logischerweise würde diese Situation schlussendlich Auschwitz erreichen und eine Einschränkung der Besuche von Auschwitz mit sich ziehen.
Erst vor wenigen Tagen wurde in Polen an das Jahr 1968 erinnert. Damals wurde eine Bewegung geboren, die Demokratie und Freiheit forderte, und in der der staatliche Antisemitismus begann, der zum Exil von mehr als 10.000 polnischen Juden führte.

Anna Foa, Historikerin. Übersetzung von Anna Zanette, Studentin der Hochschule für Dolmetscher und Übersetzer der Universität von Triest und Praktikantin bei der Zeitungsredaktion der Union der jüdischen Gemeinden von Italien (UCEI).

Mehr

pilpul

Out in the World

By Pierpaolo Pinhas Punturello*

In the Torah, we read the commandment and the description of the first seder in our history, the first night of the eternal ceremony that marks the liberation of our people. There are many differences between Pesach “mitzrayim”, the ritual performed by our ancestors in Egypt, and Pesach “dorot”, the ritual of the following generations. A gesture and a commandment stand out: spreading the paschal sacrificial blood on the doors and the lintels of Jewish houses. Such ritual, of course, was not repeated by the following generations. However, this commandment’s lesson stays on: the blood must be spread on the inside of the doors, not on the outside. On the inside, before getting out, before presenting oneself to the world, through articles, thoughts, exhibitions and speeches.

*Pierpaolo Punturello is a rabbi. The article was 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.

Read more

italics

Rome, Through the Eyes of Flavius Josephus

By David Laskin*

Even without a book or a guide, even after two millenniums of crumbling, the image of the seven-branched candelabrum — the Jewish menorah — is unmistakable on the inner wall of the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum. Stand at the base of the single-passage arch and look up, and the scene in bas-relief ripples to life with almost cartoon clarity: Straining porters, trudging along what is plainly the route of a Roman triumph, bear aloft the golden menorah and other sacred loot plundered from the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The opposite side of the arch depicts the victory lap of the chief plunderer, Emperor Titus — who, as an ambitious young general, crushed the Jews’ revolt, leveled their Temple and brought enough booty and slaves back to Rome to finance an epic construction program that included the Colosseum.
I’ve gazed on the Arch of Titus many times in previous trips, marveling at its muscular grace, recoiling from its brazen braggadocio. But it wasn’t until I returned to Rome in October with Flavius Josephus as my guide that I fully grasped the significance of this monument in Jewish and Roman history.

*This article was published in The New York Times, on March 28, 2018.

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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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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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.