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June 17, 2019 - Sivan 14, 5779

events

Italian Government commits funds
for the Catacombs of Venosa

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

MIBACT, the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, has granted material aid to value old evidence of Jewish presence in Italy, one that is not very famous, but could tell a lot. €2.5 million is the sum the Government has given for the Jewish catacombs of Venosa, evidence for the great presence in the area between the 3rd and 7th century. It was the new mayor of Venosa, Marianna Iovanni, who announced this commitment; earlier in June she spoke at a meeting about the site and the projects for making it more known, held in Rome, in the seat of UCEI Bibliographical Centre and organized by the Italian Jewish Heritage Foundation together with the association Daniela Di Castro.

*Translated by Rachele Ferin, 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.

events

European Day of Jewish Culture
to kick off in Parma

img header

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The next European Day of Jewish Culture, which is scheduled for Sunday 15th September, will have its departure point in Parma for the first time ever. More than 80 cities in Italy and more than 30 countries in Europe will be engaged in the event.
Guided tours, concerts, kosher tastings, meetings with the authors, theatre performances and events for children will characterize this day dedicated to knowledge and to an in-depth study of the history and the traditions of the Jewish minority.
There will be hundreds of initiatives in synagogues, museums and Jewish quarters for this great national event. It will be coordinated and promoted by the European Association for the Preservation and Promotion of Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ) and by the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI). Every year UCEI sees the participation of tens of thousands of people in Italy alone, with peaks of over fifty thousand visitors.

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

obituaries

A tribute to Scialom Tesciuba (1934-2019)

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

Scialom Tesciuba, memorable leader of the Libyan Jewish community who came to Italy fleeing a ruthless regime, was born in Tripoli in 1934.
Since his arrival in Rome in 1967, he had always had a crucial role in refugee assistance and the reconstruction of a Jewish group that has become ever more significant and essential for Judaism in Rome and all around Italy.
His participation in community life was encouraged by Rabbi Elio Toaff, as Tesciuba himself told at Temple Beth El, which he founded and put his heart and soul into, during an event in 2016. This happened 35 years after his first appointment to the Council and was a surprise event that touched Scialom deeply.

*Translated by Claudia Azzalini and revised by Mattia Stefani, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of Trieste University and interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

bechol lashon - russian

The fall of Europe

Anna Foa*

„

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pilpul

Passively Imitating God and Perpetual Change

By Yaakov Mascetti*

Aharon represents, throughout his life, a character which tendentially is passive, quiet, and follows the instructions provided to him from above. The Mishna in Messechet Avot famously defines Aharon’s nature as that of a man who loves peace and pursues peaceful solutions, one who loves all creatures and endeavors to bring them closer to the Torah. To this starkly positive and proactive character, one could certainly also add that Aharon is fundamentally passive – when the people of Israel ask him to make a physical divinity, as they are terrorized by Moses’ disappearance on Mount Sinai, he complies and makes the Golden Calf. When Miriam protests, at the end of parashat Beha’alotcha, regarding Moses’ detachment from the everyday reality of his family and of the people, Aharon is merely an accompanying voice. And when God kills Nadav and Avihu for having lit an “unrequested” fire, Aharon is silent, a silence which is filled with anger and sorry, but silence nonetheless.

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

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ITALICS

Former Italian synagogue sees first Jewish wedding in centuries

By Cnaan Liphshiz*

An Italian couple whose ancestors were forced to hide their faith got married atop the ruins of an ancient synagogue, giving the site its first Jewish wedding in centuries.
Roque Pugliese and Ivana Pezzoli tied the knot earlier this week in the presence of about 100 guests, including leaders of Italian Jewry, at the Bova Marina Synagogue in the southern region of Calabria.
Rabbi Umberto Piperno, the former Chief Rabbi of Naples, officiated at the Orthodox Jewish wedding of the couple. Both bride and groom have traced their lineage to anusim – people who had had to conceal their Judaism or practice secretly amid persecution in previous centuries.
The couple, both medical doctors, met at the hospital where they work.

*The article was published in Jewish Telegraphic Agency on June 7, 2019.

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.

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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.