Having trouble viewing this email? Click here  October 5, 2020/17 Tishri, 5781

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The Jewish new year started with a remarkable cultural accomplishment. The translation of the Talmud into Italian went a step further with the release of the tractate “Chagigah”, literally “Festival offering”. It is the fifth of the Babylonian Talmud tractates to be translated into Italian so far, after “Rosh haShanà”, “Berakhòt”, “Ta‘anìt”, “Qiddushìn”.
“Chagigah” is devoted to the Three Pilgrimage Festivals – Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot – and the pilgrimage offering that men were supposed to bring in Jerusalem. In the middle of the second chapter, the text discusses topics of ritual purity. Published by Giuntina, a Florence-based publisher that specializes in Jewish books, “Chagigah” was edited by the chief rabbi of Rome Riccardo Di Segni, who chairs the first ever Italian translation of the Babylonian Talmud.
The Babylonian Talmud Translation Project - initiated by Clelia Piperno, law professor at University of Teramo and developed under the scientific and operational guide of rabbi Riccardo Di Segni - got under way in 2011 with an agreement between the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Education, the National Committee for Research (CNR), and the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI) – CRI (Italian Rabbinical College). The translation of the Talmud, which consists of 36 tractates written in Aramaic and ancient Hebrew, is being edited by a team of about 80 researchers, among them expert and trainee translators, proofreaders, content and publishing editors, supported by a team of about 10 computer experts and the administration staff.
 

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By Pagine Ebraiche staff

The Italian Holocaust survivor Sami Modiano has been presented with the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the German ambassador, Viktor Elbling, on behalf of the German government. The award was made in recognition of Mr. Modiano work in combating racism and in promoting tolerance especially among the youngsters. “I believe in young people and in their ability to change the word. Both as Italians and Germans, we must be united in this effort crucial for humanity”, he told Pagine Ebraiche. Sami Modiano - who on the occasion of his 90^th birthday, in July, was nominated to the honor of Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic - has been sharing his story with the public for 15 years.
“Talking about the past has never been easy for me. Every time it is a terrible suffering”, he said. “However, I did and am still doing it in order to leave a message to young people and to guide their behaviors. I can see that in the eyes of everyone I talk to, both in Italy and in Germany. Witnessing is my mission, and it is what I am going to do, with the help of God, as long as I got strength”.
 

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By Pagine Ebraiche staff

This year, for the first time, a Sukkah will be built in the Garden of MEIS, the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara. The temporary hut, which commemorates the years that the Jews spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land, will play an important role in the upcoming Jewish Book Festival. The 11^th edition of the three-day festival - which is realized with the contribution of Regione Emilia-Romagna and the support of Giulio Barbieri Outdoor Solutions, Coferasta, and Fercam, will inaugurate on Tuesday at 6:00 pm with a conversation on “The power of sign”, focused on writing and identity in Biblical Hebrew and Egyptian hieroglyphics, with the director of the Egyptian Museum in Turin Christian Greco and the director of MEIS Amedeo Spagnoletto.
Wednesday at 4:00 pm, Saverio Campanini, professor of Hebrew Language and Literature at Bologna University will give a presentation of the book Archivio e camera oscura - Carteggio 1932-1940 (Adelphi), which he curated. The volume assembles the correspondence between the philosopher Walter Benjamin and the philosopher and theologist Gershom Scholem. The social historian of ideas David Bidussa and Shaul Bassi, professor at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice and Director of the Center for the Humanities and Social Change at Ca' Foscari University in Venice will participate in the discussion.

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By Pagine Ebraiche staff

A series of conversations online honor the life and work of Amos Luzzatto, the writer, university professor, scholar and former two-time head of UCEI who recently passed.
Organized by his family, the lessons focus on some issues related to the Torah as a continuation of Luzzatto commitment to deepening and divulgating its wisdom.
The final conversation will be held a month after his death. Monthly events will follow for a year. The events take place on Zoom and on Facebook  Links are listed below.

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By David Bidussa*

Walter Benjamin died on the night of 26-27 September 1940. 80 years later, what is left of Walter Benjamin? Friendship. It is only friendship – the friendship he had with Gershom Scholem, Theodor W. Adorno and Hannah Arendt, above all – which allows us to keep memories of Walter Benjamin today.
It was Adorno – with the help of Scholem’s scientific advice – who promoted Benjamin’s first collection of writings in 1955 in Germany; it was Hannah Arendt who worked on a second anthology of his writings in 1968, in English this time. As a result, the whole intellectual world – and not just Benjamin’s inner circle – started to take an interest in his work. It is not much nor does it change the ending, but it is a way for Walter Benjamin to be able to talk to and with us even to this day. 

* David Bidussa, social historian of ideas
Translated by Sara Facelli and revised by Mattia Stefani, students at the Advanced School for Interpreting and Translation of Trieste University and interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.
 

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By Jewish News Reporter*

The doyenne of Italian film stars, Sophia Loren, is returning to cinema after an 11-year absence. Now 86, but still trailing her legendary glamour, Loren stars in a new Netflix film, The Life Ahead, directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti. Loren plays Madame Rosa, a Jewish Holocaust survivor who helps raise the children of deceased sex workers, because she, too, was once a prostitute. She then strikes up an enduring friendship with Momo, a 12-year-old Senegalese orphan who tries to steal her candlesticks. The film is based on a novel by Romain Gary and is the second to be made – a 1977 film starred Simone Signoret as the eponymous Madame Rosa. Following a premiere in Rome in October, Netflix will stream The Life Ahead on 13 November. Loren, despite more than a decade off-screen, “jumped at the chance” to play Madame Rosa, who, she says, reminded her of her own mother. She has worked with her son twice before, most recently on 2002’s Between Strangers.

*This article was published in JewishNews Reporter on October 2, 2020.

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