Having trouble viewing this email? Click here  April 26, 2021 - 14 Iyar 5781

“Now more than ever it is necessary to remain united in a joint effort that allows us to make us ever stronger and reaffirm the values and ideals that are the basis of our civil life, that common thread that, from the Risorgimento to the Resistance, has led to the rebirth of Italy”. This is the appeal launched by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in celebrating yesterday Italy’s 76^th Liberation Day.
On the occasion, both the President and the Prime Minister Mario Draghi sent a strong message to the country on the occasion of 25 April. Mattarella defined the Resistance to Nazi fascism as an act of courage. “Resisting meant fighting, risking death. But it also meant healing, welcoming the persecuted, bearing witness to one's humanity. It meant writing and speaking. Preparing the time of freedom for everyone with new ideas. It meant courage and hope”.
However, pointed out the Prime Minister Mario Draghi referring to the myth of the decent behavior of Italians during WWII, it must not be forgotten that part of the country made a different choice and either took the side of the oppressor or remained indifferent. “In honoring the memory of those who fought for freedom – he said - we must also remember that we Italians were not all ‘good people’; there was also those who turned to the other side. We must remember that not choosing is also immoral”.

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“April 25 is Italy's identity celebration. An appointment with history, with the homeland, with our flag, which can never be a ‘divisive’ appointment, but the collective recognition of what happened in our cities - from the largest to the smallest - and above all an opportunity to form consciences, educate young people, empower those in institutional positions of all ranks”. So the President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities marked the anniversary of Liberation day as an opportunity to strengthen the collective awareness.
The community as a whole is called into question, she stressed: “who is today in the same situation as those who then could choose which side to be on. Against life or for life. Against the fundamental and natural values of freedom and peace, with indifference that hides selfishness and ignorance or against secular hatred and for a future without oppression. Choices made then by young and very young, by powerful and very weak”. Despite the restrictions set by the pandemic, many initiatives were organized by the Jewish communities.

Above, the insignia of the Jewish Brigade and of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities at the ceremony in piazza Castello in Milan.

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“Collecting fragments of a history long more than 2000 years in the wings of a museum, or within an evocative multimedia exhibition, it is not just an ambitious project – it is a due act of gratitude towards a community which contributed, factually and not, in building the city that once was the capital of Southern Italy”. Nico Pirozzi, journalist, writer and a great expert in local Jewish matters, is promoting a new venture: the foundation of a Shoah and Judaism in Southern Italy documentation centre, which was presented on the symbolic date of 25th April (Liberation Day) in Fusaro’s Borbonic Park during a press conference held by promoting institutions Jewish Community of Naples, Bacoli city council, and “Memoriae – Shoah Museum” Association.
“Naples, the Mediterranean’s door, has been for centuries one of the most densely populated and culturally vibrant cities of the Old World, along with Paris and London. It is one of the reasons why its port was the most important landing point in the Mediterranean”, Pirozzi recalls in presenting his venture.

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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Von Anna Foa* 

After Dieses Jahr ist einer der Olivenbäume des Gartens der Gerechten unter den Völkern in Rom zu Elena Di Porto gewidmet worden. Sie spielte eine außergewöhnliche Rolle, aber jahrelang ist sie nicht vollkommen anerkannt worden. In seinem Buch 16 ottobre 1943 erwähnt Giacomo Debenedetti eine Frau, Celeste, die eigentlich Elena ist. Sie ist die „in schwarz gekleidete, zerzauste, schlampige, durchnässte” jüdische Frau, die am Vorabend der Beutezug die Juden davor verwarnte. Ihr wurde trotzdem nicht geglaubt. Zur Eröffnungszeremonie des Gartens hat uns Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi, Historiker und Mitarbeiter der Museumsstiftung des Holocausts, etwas über sie erzählt. Sie wurde im Jahr 1912 geboren. Sie war eine arme Frau mit zwei Kindern, die von ihrem Mann getrennt war. Sie arbeitete als Straßenhändlerin und Dienstmädchen. Im Jahr 1941 wurde sie verbannt, weil sie antifaschistische Tendenzen gezeigt hatte. Sie hatte nämlich einen alten Mann gegen die Mitglieder der faschistischen Sturmabteilung verteidigt. Danach war sie aber immer noch rebellisch und sie konnte keine Ungerechtigkeit ertragen. 

* Historikerin

Übersetzung von Sara Facelli, und Revision von Antonella Losavio, beide Studentinnen der Hochschule für Dolmetscher und Übersetzer der Universität von Trieste und Praktikantinnen bei der Zeitungsredaktion der Union der jüdischen Gemeinden von Italien.

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By Cnaan Liphshitz*

An abandoned and ancient synagogue in Libya is being turned into an Islamic religious center without permission, the World Organization of the Jews of Libya said. David Gerbi, a Libya-born Italian Jew and member of the organization, which promotes the interests of people belonging to the Libyan Jewish Diaspora, wrote about the Sla Dar Bishi in Tripoli last week in a report published by Moked, a Jewish publication in Italy.
“Since there is now no Jew living in Tripoli and since the power is in the hands of the local authorities (read: Militias) it was decided to violate our property and our history,” he wrote. “The plan clearly is to take advantage of the chaos and our absence.” Gerbi said The World Organization of Jews in Libya “calls for this transformation to be stopped immediately and to leave the Tripoli synagogue intact with the hope that one day it will be restored.”
 
*This article was originally published on Jewish Telegraphic Agency on April 15, 2021.

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