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March 23, 2020 - Adar 27, 5780

NEWS

A tribute to Raffaella Mortara (1958-2020)

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

The Italian Jewish community is mourning the passing, at the age of 62, of Raffaella Mortara, whose dedication and courage have left a mark on Italy’s cultural and political life as well as on Italian Judaism. She was a pillar for the Jewish Contemporary Documentation Centre (CDEC) in Milan, and in her youth she had long been part of Giovanni Spadolini’s secretariat, whose political fights she shared.

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“She had an independent spirit; she was the youngest among us cousins. I remember how committed she was in CDEC, MEIS and politics. Politics was commonplace in her family: her father Amedeo was the co-founder of the European federalist movement; he and Raffaella’s mother Luisella were close friends of Spadolini’s, and Raffaella grew up in a cultural and politically engaged atmosphere. She was also very active in the defence of women’s rights and civil rights in general,” recalled Giorgio Mortara, vice-President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities, who underlined his cousin’s engagement in Judaism as well as in the civil sphere. In a book dedicated to Spadolini, she herself wrote about her relationship with the Italian politician, who was a regular guest at the Mortaras’.

Translated by Claudia Azzalini and revised by Mattia Stefani, 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

UCEI President Di Segni to the Jerusalem Post “We work to keep a sense of community”

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

The Italian Jewish community has been challenged by the coronavirus emergency, but it is working to keep a sense of community in spite of the required social distancing, the President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) Noemi Di Segni explained to The Jerusalem Post in an interview last week.
“People are feeling like they need community, and it is a Jewish value to ensure people feel that they are not alone, that they are part of a bigger group, a community that is there to provide them with institutional support,” Di Segni said.
The report pointed out that all synagogues are shut down, public services canceled and ceremonies such as funerals and circumcision are carried out in a very private form, with a very limited number of people attending.

news

UCEI to launch a support hotline
for those in need

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) is preparing to launch a support hotline for those in need at the time of the coronavirus emergency in order to provide some company to those who feel particularly isolated, psychological support to those who need assistance and general medical care, unrelated to the virus diagnosis.
To set up the service, UCEI is cooperating with the Jewish Medical Association (AME).

bechol lashon - français

Une ancienne sagesse

Gianfranco Di Segni*

Quand Rav Houna avait un médicament qui n’était pas accessible au public, il le versait dans une carafe de sorte que celle-ci soit remplie entièrement, puis il l’accrochait à la poignée de la porte de sa maison en disant : Quiconque a besoin de ce médicament, qu’il vienne le chercher.

*Gianfranco Di Segni, Collège rabbinique italien.Traduit par Mattia Stefani et révisé par Sara Facelli, étudiants de l’École Supérieure pour les Interprètes et les Traducteurs de Trieste et stagiaires dans le bureau du journal de l’Union des communautés juives italiennes.

Lire sur la site

pilpul

Touch

By David Bidussa*

"Touch - the anthropologist Marc Augé once wrote - is the last sense that remains among the old, when, deaf and blind, they also seem to have lost the smell and the taste of the things of life". It is one of the many signs of these days merciless towards the old. Who knows if he has come back to reflect on this latter sense, momentarily suspended.

*David Bidussa is a historian of social ideas.

ITALICS

Coronavirus in Milan: Life in ghost town

By Cnaan Liphshiz*

From his home in Italy’s wealthiest city, Rabbi Moshe Lazar can see deserted streets and squares that were bustling with life only two weeks ago.
“Public life is standing still,” he said on Monday. “No one goes out unless they absolutely need to.”
Lazar, 85, moved from New York to Milan 62 years ago with his wife Judy as emissaries for the Chabad Hasidic movement. About a quarter of Italy’s entire Jewish population lives in the northern city.
The Lazars spend some time each day devising solutions for Jews in Milan with urgent needs. When they aren’t coordinating, they read, learn and talk to each other and on the phone with relatives.
It’s a necessity to stay distracted in Italy, which now has the highest toll from the virus in the world — more than China, the country of 1.4 billion people where the pandemic started. On Wednesday alone, the virus killed 475 people in Italy.”

*The article was published in JTA on March 20, 2020.

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.