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October 22, 2018 - Cheshwan 12, 5779

newS

After Medal, Jewish Brigade Honored
at Piangipane Cemetery

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Two weeks after receiving the Gold Medal of Military Valor, the Jewish Brigade was honored in a ceremony at the Piangipane cemetery near Ravenna, where its fallen are buried.
The Gold Medal of Valor was awarded to the Jewish Brigade after a unanimous vote by the Italian Parliament. The ceremony took place in Israel, attended by surviving soldiers who fought in the Brigade.

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Union of Young Jews of Italy Elects New Board

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The Unione Giovani Ebrei d’Italia (UGEI, i.e. Union of Young Jews of Italy) held its annual general conference in Rome last week end.
Greeting the participants to the conference were, among others, the president of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni and the president of the Jewish Community of Rome Ruth Dureghello, the chief rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni.

FEATUREs

Padua, the Cradle of Italian Rabbis

By Nicholas Oliveti*

Padua is a mid-sized city located in northeastern Italy, about 25 miles east of Venice. Around the year 1000 the first Jews arrived in Padua. Towards the mid-14th century, many Jews from around Italy, who practiced banking and the art of moneylending came to Padua at the invitation of the Carrera feudal lords. Padua was relatively liberal at the time, and generally accepting of Jews. Of course, the Carrera’s invited the Jews for a specific purpose, which was to develop Padua economically. In terms of banking, the city granted the Jews full freedom to engage in commerce and loan banking. In time the Jews of Padua established a synagogue and Jewish cemetery. By 1616 the Jewish population in Padua numbered 655 people and was increasing. Today the Jews of Padua number roughly 200.
By the 13th century Padua become part of the Venetian republic. This political maneuver led to a problem with the money lending business. The Venetian authorities believed it would be beneficial to lower interest rates on loans. This demand was met with the closing of money lending businesses throughout the city, a form of retaliation by the Jewish bankers in order to demonstrate their displeasure. The socio-economic situation got worse when the authorities suggested the further reduction of interest rates. Many Jewish bankers lost their rights to real estate ownership and commerce, and eventually in the late 1450s the businesses were eradicated from the city (though they were allowed to return after a couple years).

*Nicholas Oliveti is a student at Muhlenberg College (Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA).

bechol lashon - Français

Montesquieu

David Bidussa*

De temps en temps il faudrait affronter l’épreuve des Lettres persanes de Montesquieu : voir sa propre nation, sa propre culture, sa propre idéologie avec un regard étranger ; il faudrait juger ses propres coutumes comme si elles étaient des coutumes étrangères.

*David Bidussa, historien social des idées. Traduction de Beatrice Bandini, étudiante de l’École Supérieure pour Traducteurs et Interprètes de l’Université de Trieste et stagiaire auprès du journal de l’Union des Communautés Juives Italiennes.

Lire sur la site

double life

Noise

By Daniela Fubini*

When written words are your line of business, but most of your day is spent among people (in my case, on a rather long commute and in a small but highly interactive office) you have two options in front of you: either you embrace the noise or you look for quiet - actual silence is not a possibility, that's for sure.
Embracing the noise is a very Israeli thing to do, and I am sure that some day I will be able to do it, and go with the flow. For now, I observe. As opposite to my previous Italian life, where close to 100% of the population spoke some kind of Italian, maybe with a strong regional accent, but still Italian, in Israel the noise comes in the form of voices speaking several languages.

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

Read more

ITALICS

Jamie Oliver Gets Schooled
By a Jewish Italian Bubbe

By Rachel Myerson*

If you haven’t been watching Jamie Oliver’s current television show, “Jamie Cooks Italy,” or at least read the accompanying cookbook, “Jamie Cooks Italy — From the Heart of the Italian Kitchen,” do so immediately. The Naked Chef has, happily, given all the healthy eating/culinary cultural appropriation stuff a rest and returned to promoting wholesome comfort food with the help of adorable Italian grandmothers who constantly critique his technique while pinching his cheeks affectionately.
In the “Tuscany” episode, Jamie visited Pitigliano — a walled, hilltop town coined “Little Jerusalem” due to its once-flourishing Jewish community and the old city-esque cobbled, narrow streets of its ancient Jewish quarter.
Pitagliano’s Jewish population peaked in the early 19th century, when it accounted for some 20 percent of the town’s inhabitants. But after Italy was unified in 1861, Pitagliano Jews began immigrating to larger cities with greater economic promise. The town’s dwindling community decreased further after Italy’s Racial Laws were implemented in 1938, which restricted Jewish civil rights and prohibited Jews from education and public office.

*This article appeared in Nosher on October 18, 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.
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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.