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April 6, 2020 - Nisan 12, 5780

NEWS

Rivlin to Diaspora Jewish leaders: “Today
more than even, we are a family”'

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

Jewish leaders from all over the world participated in a videoconference with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and the president of the Jewish Agency Isaac Herzog. The initiative offered an opportunity to exchange greetings for the upcoming Pesach but also to discuss how the Jewish world, in the Diaspora, faces the tough time and test of resilience brought by the coronavirus emergency and is mobilizing to offer tangible signs of closeness and solidarity.

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"No plague of our days can break the chain that dates back to the exodus from Egypt and unites our people. Today more than ever I feel that we are a family, with a shared history, values and destiny "said Rivlin, addressing the President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni and the other participants in the meeting.

NEWS

‘Ferrara Ebraica’ exhibition at MEIS
goes virtual

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

A virtual leap in time gives us the opportunity to visit, get to know, and learn more about some Jewish stories from Ferrara. In the time of Coronavirus, when all exhibition spaces are closed, the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah (MEIS) has enriched its remote offering, giving the chance of visiting the exhibition ‘Ferrara Ebraica’ (Jewish Ferrara) online. “In this time of uncertainty, MEIS wants to share – at least virtually – some of the values which allowed Jews to keep building their lives, even in difficult times,” they announced. Because culture does not stop, and MEIS, even in this delicate situation, wants to keep being “a place for freedom, exchange of views and sharing of ideas.”

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

“My protective masks for Livorno, to find
a light as soon as possible”

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By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

“Instead of sitting on my hands, I thought the moment had come to do something, hoping that even such a little gesture can help us win the fight against the virus and see the light as soon as possible.” Gabriele Ortona, 50 years old, from Livorno, is an entrepreneur as well as a representative of the local Jewish Community. His company-Ortona Tensostrutture, founded in 1968–specializes in the construction of outdoor coverings. In this exceptional situation, he decided to switch the production for the manufacturing of protective masks for non-medical use. They produce 500 pieces a day and give them to the Civil Protection.

*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.

bechol lashon - Français

Sur les épidémies
et les complots

Anna Foa*

Toutes les grandes épidémies de l’histoire se sont toujours accompagnées de l’idée qu’à l’origine du mal, il y aurait une volonté manifeste de l’homme visant à les propager et à les transmettre. On sait bien que les Juifs ont été blâmés pour avoir disséminé la peste noire en 1348 et qu’ils ont subi des pogroms et la destruction de communautés toutes entières. Cependant, ils n’ont pas été les seules victimes de la terreur infligée par les épidémies.

*Traduit par Mattia Stefani, 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

The end of the world

By David Bidussa*

Today's challenge is to rethink the scene of the possible "end of the world". No technological madness, no despot who made indiscriminate use of a weapon of mass destruction. Nothing will be the same as before: not even how we imagine the catastrophe. The science fiction stories (not to mention the films) that we have read and seen about tomorrow's world testify to yesterday's fears.

*David Bidussa is a historian of social ideas.

ITALICS

How Jewish communities mourn — and live — under lockdown

By Giovanni Vigna*

On March 16, the former secretary general of the Jewish community of Milan, Michele Sciama, became the first Italian Jew to die of COVID-19. To date, Italy has suffered the most COVID-19 related deaths and is second in the world for infections, after China.
Sciama was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Milan, but his family was forbidden to hold a funeral fitting for the community leader he was.
“Losing a loved one without saying goodbye is really painful. My father died alone and now I can’t even comfort my mother,” Michele’s daughter Stefania told The Times of Israel this week.
Sciama’s son-in-law, Simone Sinai, explained that government regulations that prohibit religious services in places of worship precluded a public memorial service. “Currently only a short farewell ceremony is allowed. It’s very painful, but we had to adapt to the new rules,” said Sinai.
Stefania Sciama and her husband spent the shiva, or traditional seven-day Jewish mourning period, alone and unable to leave the house. Some relatives who live nearby left provisions on their doorstep.

*The article was published in the Times of Israel on March 26, 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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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.