Having trouble viewing this email? Click here December 21, 2020/ 6 Tevet, 5781

By Adam Smulevich

Italy has lost Nedo Fiano, one of the last witnesses of the Shoah who was still alive. Born in Florence in 1925, he passed away in Milan, the city where he started to live a dozen years after the war, in the elderly residence of the local Jewish community, which announced his death at the end of Shabbat. Fiano has been one of the first survivors to discuss his dramatic experience in public. To speak and also to write about it. The only one of his family to survive the deportation, Fiano was captured by a fascist in his Florence, locked up in the city jails and then, after being interned at the camp of Fossoli, deported first to Auschwitz and later Buchenwald.
On the platform of the concentration camp, he gave a last hug to his mother, about which he always recalled with deep emotion. A hug marked by the awareness that they would never see each other again. Indelible wounds, but Fiano had nonetheless the strength to build and rebuild a life together with his beloved Rina Lattes, the schoolmate he met again after the Shoah: they had three children, Enzo, Andrea and Emanuele. Fiano used to remember: “What has characterized my whole life was my deportation to the Nazi extermination camps. With me in Auschwitz my whole family ended, they were all exterminated. At eighteen I was orphaned and this devastating experience made me a different man, a witness for life". 

Read more

By Pagine Ebraiche staff*

United in the diversity of souls and paths. A perspective which the World Jewish Congress wanted to promote with an event entirely female oriented, with various voices of women in leadership roles within the Jewish world who gave their own testimony. Among them, Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities - UCEI, who was called to open the congress alongside the Israeli Minister of Diaspora affairs Omer Yankelevitch and the former parliamentarian Ruth Calderon. Diverse topics of discussion and debate were mentioned on this occasion, with references to both Italian and global challenges. “Diversity is a fact; unity is a goal. Several questions need to be asked: Why do we need unity? Then: How much do we acknowledge each other’s right to live our Jewishness? In what way do we live together in the Diaspora? Can we do the same in Israel? Can we guarantee Jewish unity as part of the future? And also, a question that is especially important for Italy, are we consistent with what we affirm officially? All these are questions - began Di Segni - that I believe can be answered through the specific spectrum of the female experience”

Translated by Oyebuchi Lucia Leonard, student at Trieste University, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities - UCEI.

Read more

By Pagine Ebraiche staff

For twenty years, the first Sunday of Hanukkah has been a big celebration in the Jewish Community of Casale Monferrato, involving a joyful party and the addition of new Hanukkah lamps to the Museum of Lights unique collection. And despite the pandemic, the tradition was respected also this year. A week ago, the community met with hundreds of friends virtually and eight beautiful Hanukkah lamps, all created by artists, made their way into the permanent collection.
The artworks are two Progetti di Chanukkiah (Two Hanukkiah projects) by Stefano Levi Della Torre; Hanukkah 2020 by Nicola Bolaffi; Speranza (Hope) by Florine Offergelt; Dwellings of Light by Clarice Zdanski; Ponte (Bridge) by Enrico Francescon; La luce di domani (Tomorrow’s light) by Enrico Challier and Massimo Biglia; Candelabro – 295 (Candelabrum - 295) by Fabrizio Prevedello. Finally, a silver Hanukkah lamp dating from the end of nineteenth century (picture) was donated by the Furcht family in Milan in memory of Roberto Furcht.
The new additions bring the Museum of Lights collection to 250 pieces. It is a powerful symbolism, as the sculptor Gabriele Levy stressed during the online meeting. In Hebrew, the numerical value 250 is indicated by the letters nun and resh, which together read as ner, candle.

Par Anna Foa*

Qu’est-ce qui motive une chercheuse, à savoir une virologiste dans des postes de responsabilité, à accorder une interview à un quotidien d’extrême droite allemand, connu pour ses théories complotistes, après avoir fait parler d’elle en juillet pour sa participation à un congrès du parti d’extrême droite Alternative pour l’Allemagne avec des histoires de conspiration au sujet de la diffusion de la Covid-19 en Italie? Qu’est-ce qui relie les thèses complotistes autour du coronavirus à celles autour de la Shoah, et le négationnisme politique au négationnisme sanitaire? Dans le cas de cette virologiste, est-ce peut-être le désir d’apparaître? Sinon, est-ce parce qu’elle politiquement proche du racisme et du souverainisme qui sont les fondements d’Alternative pour l’Allemagne, ou parce qu’elle est négationniste et complotiste à l’égard du coronavirus? Bref, qu’est-ce qui est apparu en premier: l’œuf ou la poule?

*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 - UCEI.

Par Renée Fregosi*

Samedi 19 décembre, élection de Miss France: April Benayoum, Miss Provence élue Première dauphine, en présentant ses origines multiples, dit que son père est italien et israélien. Aussitôt sur le net, le nombre de tweets faisant référence à Israël explose pour atteindre près de 40 000 dans la soirée: «Israël: vous connaissez cette origine? Moi pas. Israël n’est pas un pays» ou encore «Israël n’existe pas, c’est la Palestine».
Une fois encore, l’antisémitisme antisioniste se déchaîne sans retenue. Car c’est bien sous cette forme que l’antisémitisme a principalement ressurgi depuis quelques années. Violence verbale, l’insulte antisioniste fait écho à la violence physique contre des personnes juives, le nombre et la gravité des attentats antisémites ne cessant d’augmenter en France notamment.

*This article was published on Le Figaro on December 21, 2020

Read more

In addition to our social media in Italian, Pagine Ebraiche International recently launched its new profile on Facebook. On our page, we share news, photos, and updates. Please take a moment and visit it, and once there, click “Like” or “Follow”. We look forward to bring you great information and connect with you.
We encourage you to comment, ask us questions, or share the content with your friends, family, and co-workers. Join us on Facebook