Having trouble viewing this email? Click here May 31, 2021 – 20 Sivan 5781

By Adam Smulevich
 
An exciting Giro d'Italia has just ended for the Israel Start-Up Nation, the first Israeli professional cycling team, in its fourth consecutive participation. For the first time the team, led by Israeli-Canadian philanthropist Sylvan Adams, has obtained the pink jersey, the symbol of primacy, worn for two stages by one of the two Italian athletes who were part of the group: Alessandro De Marchi, 35 years old, who has fulfilled the dream of a whole career. But it has also celebrated a victory in the most difficult mountain stage with his captain Daniel Martin (who finished at the tenth place in the general classification).
In addition to this, it has performed well on many other occasions, coming close to other victories and also earning much praise from the media. A more than positive outcome for this young team, which is now aiming for great goals to achieve in the next Tour de France. Its captain in that circumstance will be the legendary Chris Froome, who has won the race four times and hopes to make it a fifth (but also the podium would be a great result).
On the eve of the Giro, interviewed by Pagine Ebraiche, Adams commented: “We have never been so strong, I am sure that we will leave our mark”. The promise was kept. The hope of Israeli fans is that's just the beginning.

The Italian Jewish community is mobilizing in support of Eitan Biran, the Israeli child who is the sole survivor of the Mottarone cable car tragedy. In the accident, which occurred on May 24^th, a total of 14 people, including Eitan’s parents Amit and Tal, little brother Tom, and great grandparents Itzhak and Barbara, were killed.
The boy awoke last week. At his side, his aunt Maya e his paternal grandparents, who flew from Israel. “It is an extremely hard situation”, emphasized the President of the Milan Jewish Community Milo Hasbani, who spent these difficult moments along with the family. To support Eitan and guarantee him a future, the Jewish Community of Milan together with the other Italian Jewish Communities launched two solidarity campaigns.
The first initiative was launched by the Fondazione Scuola Ebraica di Milano – Milan Jewish School Foundation (here the link) and is aimed at supporting the child’s education. The other one (here the link) is aimed at covering all the expenses the family would incur “such as logistics, a  lawyer, or a psychologist: the intention is to cover all these needs”.

(Let's help little Eitan, reads the image symbolizing the solidarity campaign launched by the Italian Jewish Communities)

With antisemitism on the rise in the United States and globally, the World Jewish Congress (WJC) concluded last week its quadrennial gathering addressing key issues affecting Jewish communities and setting policy for the years ahead. During its final convening the 16^th Plenary Assembly formally announced the election of its leadership, including the reelection of the philanthropist Ronald Lauder as president. Italy’s role is confirmed as important with the election of the President of the Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni in the new executive committee.
In keynote remarks (full speech transcript available here), Lauder raised the alarm of the frightening rise of antisemitic hatred seen globally during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We come together at a difficult hour for the Jewish People”, he said. “It’s not 1936, Nazi Germany is not on the rise. And we have a strong, resilient Jewish homeland, now in its 74th year. But this year, 2021, has given us some real Tsourus. On top of the Pandemic, we have seen a frightening rise of antisemitic hatred throughout the world. No country is immune, Great Britain, France, Germany, Argentina, even in Israel, and right here in the United States. You have all seen this where you live, and right now, I am speaking to you in 106 different communities on six continents”. 

(Above, Ronald Lauder with the President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni in a previous occurrence)

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Israeli artist Dani Karavan passed Saturday in Tel Aviv, where he was born in 1930. Famous for his poignant monuments in Israel and around the world, Karavan had a particular relationship with Italy, born at the time he was studying Fresco painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. Master of environmental art, he was the author of some of the most important artworks in Israel such as the huge wall carving in the hall of the Knesset, named Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem, 1965-1966) and his first site specific environmental sculpture – the Negev Monument (Be’er Sheva, Israel 1963-1968), which became a landmark in Environmental Art.
Dani Karavan was commissioned to create environmental sculptures in Israel, France, Germany, United States, Korea, Taiwan and Japan to name a few. He exhibited in numerous museums around the world and is a recipient of prestigious international awards. Among his last exhibitions there was the one in Italy, at the MEIS - National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah in Ferrara, where the then director Simonetta Della Seta had called him. It was 2018, the 80th anniversary of the promulgation of racist laws. “The Garden that doesn’t exist” is a site-specific project, which represents Karavan’s homage to Giorgio Bassani’s book The Garden of the Finzi Continis.

(Above, the Israeli sculptor Dani Karavan during a visit at the MEIS. Image by Marco Caselli Nirmal)

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ABBIATEGRASSO, Italy — The prize money from Friday’s 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia bike race will be donated to the victims of the cable car accident on Mount Mottarone that cost 14 lives, the professional cyclists’ association (CPA) announced.
The route for the stage had already been changed so the peloton would not ride up the mountain, where the tragedy last weekend left 5-year-old Israeli Eitan Biran as the sole survivor among the 15 people on board.
“The riders unanimously decided to donate all the cash prizes of today’s stage to little Eitan and to the families affected by this terrible tragedy,” said the CPA. Biran’s parents were killed in the crash, along with his 2-year-old brother and great-grandparents.
The accident happened about 100 meters from the last altitude station of the cable car to the top of Mount Mottarone. Three managers from the operator of the cable car have been arrested, with police accusing them of deliberately disabling the emergency brake.
 
*This article was originally published on The Times of Israel on May 28, 2021.

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