Having trouble viewing this email? Click here January 18, 2021/ 5 Shevat 5781

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Very often located in the heart of cities, Italian synagogues witnessed over two thousand years of history and of this history they bear all the engraved signs, between ups and downs that have characterized a long and sometimes tiring, however never banal, course. To retrace their story is a new volume recently released and already welcomed by numerous reviews and reports appeared in the national press.
Written by Adam Smulevich, a journalist of the UCEI editorial staff, and illustrated by Pierfranco Fabris, the book “Sinagoghe italiane. Raccontate e Disegnate” (Biblioteca dell’Immagine) is a lively journey through words and colors that takes the reader along the arc of this itinerary. From Trieste to Palermo, 42 cities are involved in this survey that focuses on the salient aspects of this ancient presence, enhancing the particular and universal vocation of buildings that are often easily recognized but not always really known.
From the synagogues built in the ghetto to the Emancipation monumental ones, an impressive series of small jewels and large jewels from North to South are revealed also through the field experience matured by the author in his work in the newsroom of Pagine Ebraiche, and the stories and anecdotes offered to readers in these years. In some Italian regions the book will be on sale throughout the month of January also in newsstands in offer with some daily local newspapers.
(Above, the synagogue of Trieste. Illustration by Pierfranco Fabris)

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By Pagine Ebraiche staff

After the initial pilot phase, the digital census project of about thirty-five thousand Jewish-themed volumes, “Y-TAL-YA Books”, had officially started last summer. The project, conceived from a collaboration between the Union of Italian Jewish Communities - the institution in charge of the initiative - the National Central Library of Rome, the National Library of Israel and the Rothschild foundation, aims to create a bilingual database in Italian and Hebrew which will cover the entire period, from the origins of the press to the 1960’s. The survey was carried out on fourteen Jewish communities and twenty-five government bodies. Andrea De Pasquale, director of the National Central Library of Rome and member of the administration council of the Jewish cultural Heritage Foundation in Italy, stressed in an essay the historical value of the project. “The realisation of a census that allows us to be aware of the Jewish Italian bibliographic heritage currently present in the communities and cultural institutions has always been hoped for, after the loss and destruction experienced during the last war” he writes on DigItalia Web, digital magazine on cultural heritage.

Translated by Oyebuchi Lucia Leonard and revised by Silvia Bozzo, students at Trieste University and 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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By Alberto Cavaglion*

The first good news of 2021 is delivered by the Superintendence for the Archival and Bibliographical Goods in Emilia-Romagna: the restoration of the 96 books of Villa Emma’s kids is completed. I remember when news of the finding spread out.
The books were found in 2002 in an attic in Nonantola, near Modena. A primary school teacher had saved them. This library, made for unaccompanied, fleeing minors might be a resource for our present.
At the time of the finding, I was overwhelmed with emotion. World War II is also an adventure novel made of lost papers, burnt papers, as well as rescued papers. I remember writing about it as soon as I was informed on the matter: I had a first list of those volumes, which were for the most part written in German (Hamelin, Storia e Storie 27, 2011). A library like no other, a rescue of books that would need a Tribunal of the Righteous. The Righteous ones aren’t just those who save a life: saving a book deserves recognition just as well.

*Historian

Translated by Silvia Bozzo and revised by Antonella Losavio, 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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Par Anna Foa*

Je crois que nous sommes confrontés à des nouvelles formes d’antisémitisme et que, comme beaucoup de choses autours de nous, l’hostilité envers les Juifs est aussi en train de changer de nature. Ou alors, plus que changer totalement sa nature, elle réintroduit de façon renouvelée et avec d’autres priorités le langage antisémite et peut-être même sa pratique. Regardons donc les deux images de l’assaut du Capitole à Washington le 6 janvier dernier: dans la première il y a un homme avec un t-shirt disant “Camp of Auschwitz” et dans la seconde un autre avec le slogan “6 millions n’ont pas suffis”. Il faut se garder d’envisager ça comme du simple folklore, de la même manière que les drapeaux confédérés, l’ostentatoire refus du port du masque, les accusations portées contre Soros et les “pédophiles”, les suggestions d’un christianisme évangélique fondamentaliste qui n’a rien à envier aux islamistes radicaux, et le suprémacisme blanc. Ce n’est pas du folklore, mais plutôt une fusion de différents morceaux qui s’emboîtent jusqu’à créer pas vraiment et seulement une idéologie, mais surtout une mutation de nature anthropologique: une mutation qui plaît, séduit et permet à n’importe qui d’interpréter le monde à sa manière, ne disposant pas des outils pour y parvenir. L'antisémitisme fait partie à part entière de cette fusion basée uniquement sur le conspirationnisme.
 
*Historienne
 
Traduit par Mattia Stefani, étudiant de l’École Supérieure pour les Interprètes et les Traducteurs de Trieste et stagiaire dans le bureau du journal de l’Union des communautés juives italiennes.

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Por Debora Donnini*

"Vanidad de vanidades, todo es vanidad". Esta conocida expresión es el hilo conductor del libro bíblico del Eclesiástico que forma parte de las cinco volutas o los cinco Megillot, es decir la tercera sección principal de la biblia hebrea.  Y precisamente sobre este texto reflexionarán el Rabino Riccardo Di Segni y el Cardenal José Tolentino de Mendonça, después del saludo del Cardenal Vicario Angelo De Donatis, en un encuentro organizado en Roma con motivo de la Jornada que se celebra en Italia el 17 de enero, para la profundización y el desarrollo del diálogo entre católicos y judíos. De conformidad con las normas vigentes, la reunión no contará con la presencia del público, sino que se transmitirá en directo por "Telepace" y por streaming en la página de Facebook de la diócesis de Roma. En este contexto, Vatican News entrevista al Rabino Riccardo Di Segni, quien explica las razones de poner el libro del Eclesiástico al centro de la reflexión de esta Jornada.

*Este articulo fue publicado en Vatican News el 17 enero 2021.

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