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July 15, 2019 - Tamuz 13, 5779

culture

The Jewish Italian community:
a women-woven history

By Daniel Reichel*

“It all started out with a question: did Italian Jewish women just take care of their house and their children, however important it was, or did their role entail something more? The answer is, yes, women’s role in the Italian Judaism is as varied and complex as the weft of a piece of fabric”. It was this question which inspired the exhibition Warp and weft – women as custodians of Jewish heritage in Italy, inaugurated at the U. Nahon Museum of Italian Jewish Art in Jerusalem and curated by Anastazja Buttitta.
She explained to Pagine Ebraiche that her exhibition is intentionally meant to “pay a tribute to the current exhibition at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, The colours of Judaism in Italy, and to its curator, Dora Liscia Bemporad, who is also my mentor”. Precious fabrics from the Nahon Museum collection, dating back to the 16th-20th century, tell us the story of the complex role of women within the Italian Jewish society.

*Translated by Sara Facelli, with the help of Claudia Azzalini, both 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.

news

Biella, a special Bar Mitzvah

img header

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Everyone experienced a unique emotion in Biella Synagogue, where the local Jewish Community celebrated a very special Bar Mitzvah. An American boy had the chance to celebrate the Jewish coming of age ritual, that is reached at the age of 13, reading Biella’s valuable Sefer Torah. This sefer dates back to 1250 and it is the most ancient sefer composed in Europe that belongs to a Jewish Community and is still consultable.
The Torah scroll was restored, on behalf of the Foundation for Jewish Cultural Heritage in Italy, by sofer Amedeo Spagnoletto with the support of the President of the Jewish Community of Vercelli and Biella Rossella Bottini Treves.

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.

exhibitions

Leonardo da Vinci on display in Jerusalem

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

An exhibition devoted to the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death was inaugurated at the Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem on July 4.
“The continuous and extensive research, the meticulous method, and the craving for knowledge which has no taboo and defies every preconception: these are just few of his teachings that today, after 500 years, we still treasure,” Italian ambassador to Israel Gianluigi Benedetti said on the occasion.
“Although Leonardo’s heritage has universal value, we Italians feel very proud of his roots. To be here today, praising his wit, is important in two ways as this year diplomatic relationships between Italy and Israel turn 70. Seventy years rich in cooperation, dialogue and mutual enrichment is a strong bond confirmed by this momentous event,” he added.

bechol lashon - español

Génova, refugiados
en el muelle

Anna Foa*

Tras la expulsión definitiva de España de los judíos en 1492, las embarcaciones llenas de refugiados se esparcieron a lo largo del Mediterráneo. Muchas se hundieron. Algunas llegaron al puerto de Génova. En aquella época, el gobierno de la ciudad no aprobaba la presencia judía dentro de sus muros, a pesar de que se les concedieron a los expatriados unos salvoconductos. Esperando ser recibidos, o expulsados, muchos judíos se vieron obligados a quedarse en el muelle en condiciones muy desfavorables. Fue a principios de 1493 y hacía mucho frío. Muchos se convirtieron, otros murieron y otros fueron vendidos como esclavos. Otros fueron recibidos por la ciudad de Ferrara. El canciller genovés Bartolomeo Senarega en su Crónaca histórica nos ha dejado un testimonio de este acontecimiento, con palabras cargadas de compasión.

*Anna Foa, historiadora. Traducido por Mattia Stefani, estudiante de la Escuela Superior para Intérpretes y Traductores de la Universidad de Trieste, de prácticas en la oficina del periódicos de la Unión de las Comunidades Judías Italianas.

Leia mas

pilpul

Hiding and Revealing
the Divine

By Yaakov Mascetti*

I take the traditional negative approach to the figure of Bil’am, the non-Jewish prophet whose story we find in the weekly portion of “Balak,” personally. On this point I have had more than one occasion to express my thoughts in the past. What I had never noticed until now is the complex combination of motifs of revelation /uncovering and of hiding / covering.
Num. 22:2ff “Balak son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. Moab was alarmed because that people was so numerous. Moab dreaded the Israelites, and Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now this horde will lick clean all that is about us as an ox licks up the grass of the field.”

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

Read more

ITALICS

Celebrating Sabbath with Iran's
Jewish minority

By Jan Schneider*

It is Friday evening and a Jewish family's preparations for the Sabbath, the holiest day of the week, are in full swing. In the living room, everyone has gathered around the big table for the traditional celebration as tantalizing aromas of hot food drift through from the kitchen.
The youngest son breaks the unsalted bread, then reads from the Tanakh as his father pours the obligatory glass of red wine to be passed around the table. Although it may look very like the kind of typical scene to be found in thousands of households across Israel every weekend, there is one important difference here. This one is happening in Iran.
The last rays of winter sunshine are just dipping out of sight behind the Alborz mountains on this cold January day in Tehran. It is the last day of the week, which in Iran begins on Saturday. There are no major buildings — and certainly none of a religious nature — to punctuate the skyline in this part of town, with its plethora of small kiosks and supermarkets.

*The article was published in DW on July 13, 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.

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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© UCEI - All rights reserved - The articles may only be reproduced after obtaining the written permission of the editor-in-chief. Pagine Ebraiche - Reg Rome Court 199/2009 – Editor in Chief: Guido Vitale.
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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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.