Having trouble viewing this email? Click here June 7, 2021 - 27 Sivan 5781

The National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah - MEIS of Ferrara celebrates its reopening with a new exhibition, “Mazal Tov! The Jewish wedding”, curated by Sharon Reichel and Amedeo Spagnoletto and set up by the architect Giulia Gallerani, that was inaugurated on June 4.
“After months of forced closure caused by the health crisis, in which the MEIS still continued to work, we decided to inaugurate the reopening with a joyous exhibition, a true and proper “wedding invitation”. Marriage is a cornerstone for Judaism, it symbolizes the continuity of the rites and traditions and it is marked by a vital ceremony and rich with significance”, highlights the president of the MEIS Dario Disegni, during the exhibition presentation to the press. An initiative that is set to satisfy “the curiosity of many visitors” and wants to be a sign of hope for the future. An opportunity to reopen to the public and ferry it to the great exhibition that will be open in autumn, titled “Beyond the ghetto. Inside & Out”. 
“We wanted to offer the visitors an exhibition that was good for the heart”, notes the director of MEIS Amedeo Spagnoletto. “Marriage is one of the deepest acts of love and trust in regards to the future and it brings with it a message of universal hope, a balm for the complex time in which we currently live. ‘Mazal Tov!’ is an exhibition that contains the past and the present, ancient rites and modern practices and although in its specificity, will be able to involve anyone who comes to visit it”.

(Above, the evocative installation set up at the MEIS reminding the chuppah, the canopy under which the couple stands during the wedding. Image by Francesco Mancin e Bruno Leggieri)

Translated by Oyebuchi Lucia Leonard and revised by Antonella Losavio, students at Trieste University and 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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Yesterday, today, tomorrow: The Jewish marriage is nurtured by precepts and rites of the past, it is the emblem of continuity, it has its roots in the Bible; yet it coexists with a vibrant present, dialogues with the culture in which it is immersed, marks the birth of a new family. “Mazal Tov!” exposes this very balance between ancient and modern, combining precious documents with works of contemporary art. At the centre there are dozens of stories; fragments of centuries long amorous discourses and fixed forever through objects; acts; shots. The first halls illustrate the two phases and practices that make up the wedding ceremony: the Qiddushin (or Erusin) and the Nissuin. Formerly celebrated separately, they are now held together, one immediately following the other. What makes them peculiar is the setting under the chuppah, the canopy of the fabric that symbolically unites under the same roof the two spouses; the signature of Ketubbah, the nuptial ceremony born also with the aim of protecting women rights and that over time has been enriched by the very fine decorations, and the breaking of the glass, immortalized by many films and images. To tell in a clear and thorough way all the steps chosen to combine different works and communicative tools: on display will be the precious Ketubbot of the 17^th and 18^th century held by Estensi Galleries of Modena (Biblioteca Estense Universitaria); the theatre of the Genoese artist Emanuele Luzzati from the Jewish Museum of Bologna and the footage of a contemporary wedding.

(Above, the poster image of the exhibition reads "Mazal Tov! The Jewish wedding")

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Gorizia and Nova Gorica. Italy and Slovenia. Two towns, once separated by the iron curtain, united today by the shared award of 2025’s “European Culture Capital”. A dossier significantly centred also on the glorious local Jewish history, testified by numerous, recent and less recent traces, and particularly on the renovation and improvement of the Valdirose cemetery – today Slovenian territory – where some of the great Jews of Gorizia rest: from rabbi Isacco Samuele Reggio to philosopher Carlo Michaelstaedter, from linguist Graziadio Isaia Ascoli to journalist Carolina Luzzatto Coen. Thanks to the Jewish Cultural Heritage Foundation in Italy, which has taken this commitment to heart for a long time.
The occasion to take stock of the project, developed from an idea of the Pagine Ebraiche newsroom, was given by an online seminar titled “The two Gorizias united in the restoration of the memory of the ancient Jewish presence”. Numerous and qualified were the interventions for the restoration of the cemetery, which is unique because of its cross-border location.

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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By David Meghnagi*

Located 180 kilometres south of Tripoli, Jadu is the town where the Jewish community of Cyrenaica - deported by order of Mussolini - ran the risk of dying in a few months, from diseases, malnutrition and poor living conditions in a camp. In 1942, in just one month (from May 19 to June 21), 15 groups of Jews for a total of 2,527 people were deported with the accusation of "connivance" with the enemy. The camp, an old barracks, was controlled by the Italian authorities, with the presence of some German soldiers and the help of Arab askari.
Five hundred and sixty people, fewer than a quarter of the Jewish community of Cyrenaica, died in a few months from hunger, thirst, embezzlement and diseases. The crime was committed in an isolated place far from the public eye, against defenceless people, harshly oppressed by racial laws and weakened by war. They would all have died from the typhus epidemic if the allied troops had not liberated the camp after the victory of El Alamein.
 
*Psychoanalist
 
Translated by Antonella Losavio and revised by Oyebuchi Lucia Leonard, students at Trieste University and the Advanced school for interpreters and Translators of Trieste University, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

By Katharine Q. Seelye*

Sister Margherita Marchione, who became known as “the fighting nun” for her defense of Pope Pius XII against allegations that he had failed to do as much as he could have to save the Jews from Nazi atrocities during World War II, died on May 19 at her convent, Villa Walsh, in Morristown, N.J. She was 99. Her death was confirmed by Sister Patricia Pompa, provincial superior of Sister Margherita’s order, the Religious Teachers Filippini.
The author of more than 45 books, Sister Margherita was the American-born daughter of Italian immigrants and spent nearly two decades teaching Italian language and literature at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison, N.J. She was the first nun to become a tenured professor at the university. Early on, she delved into research on Philip Mazzei, a Florentine surgeon and horticulturalist who came to the United States in the 1700s, fought in the American Revolution and became friends with Thomas Jefferson.

*This article was originally published on The New York Times on June 1, 2021.

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