Having trouble viewing this email? Click here August 9, 2021 – 1 Elul 5781

To name a street after Giorgio Almirante means not just to celebrate him but Fascism, and this “cannot and should not happen”. So the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities and the Jewish Community of Turin addressed the mayor and the main institutional authorities after the green light by the Toponomy Committee of Alessandria municipality to the proposal of the city council president Emanuele Locci to name a street after the neo-fascist leader.
According to Locci, elected in a civic list but reported to be in strong harmony with Fratelli d'Italia, the work of Almirante would represent a beacon "by which be inspired continuously" and his support for the antisemitic cause must be considered a trivial youth experience "to be contextualized in a historical perspective". The word on the proposal will now pass to the mayor and the town council of the Piedmont municipality.
The intervention of the UCEI President Noemi Di Segni and the President of the Jewish Community of Turin Dario Disegni is aimed at averting an outcome detrimental to the history, memory, and dignity of Italy.
We consider it a precise civil duty - they wrote - to raise our voice to prevent that dedication” even more so because the City of Alessandria was awarded the Gold Medal for military valor for its merits in the Resistance to Nazi-Fascism. A street honoring Almirante would be an outrage to Alessandria and to "the heroic struggle waged by its population against Nazi-fascism during the dark years of the war and to the tribute paid by Alexandrian Jews, twenty-five of whom, in a population of 245 Jews in the city, were arrested by the Nazi-fascists, ended up in extermination camps and never returned”.

Above, the façade of the historic synagogue of Alessandria.

Read more

“The coronavirus crisis has in all respects sped up some changes we were undergoing and has brought problems that already existed into the spotlight. After their abrupt closure, the cultural institutions began asking themselves: What exactly is our role? Do we have one or not? As they have all, to different extents, reinvented themselves and found other ways to promote their own culture, especially the museums, I think they responded well”.
The negative dynamic of the pandemic has therefore had at least some positive effects: we rediscovered the role of culture in our lives and institutions were pushed to put themselves in the game, explains the director of the Museum of Modern Art of Tel Aviv Tania Coen-Uzzielli to Pagine Ebraiche.
“This change will affect us permanently, even when we return to being a normal cultural institution, one that opens the doors, and highlights art in the traditional way. At the same time, we will continue, I believe, to use different platforms as well as different ways of thinking to reach a wider audience. This means we will try to be an institution that is less tied to a specific sector.
As the director of the Museum since 2018, Coen-Uzzielli has been awarded Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy in recent weeks, a prestigious recognition from the Quirinal Palace. “I am very happy about this honorary award. I believe it represents my efforts to serve as a bridge between the Italian culture and the Israeli reality properly”.

Translated by Oyebuchi Lucia Leonard and revised by Gianluca Pace, 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.

Read more

On 3 August 1944, the family of Robert Einstein, a cousin of Nobel Prize Laureate Albert Einstein, was murdered by German soldiers in Rignano sull’Arno, in Italy shortly before their withdrawal from the area. Robert’s wife was executed with his two daughters and the house set on fire.
At the time Robert, who had lived in Italy for many decades, was in hiding. Since neither his wife or daughter were Jewish, he deemed his family not to be in danger. He survived but committed suicide less than a year later. Despite the efforts of Albert, the perpetrators were never brought to justice.
Last week, as every year, the massacre was commemorated in a public ceremony in Rignano, 20 kilometers southeast of Florence. “The memory of this event invites to a reflection on different levels. The first is the importance of never forgetting how an ideology can go so far as to fear, hate, estrange, dehumanize and even exterminate those who are considered different. The second is a reflection on the importance of carrying on the memory, also remembering these painful events”. 

By David Bidussa*

The radical question about a substantial portion of the anti-vaxxer “enthusiasts” and the use of the yellow star may be this: how do they reconnect to their negationism?
Or rather, now that negationists declare themselves anti-negationists how do they agree with themselves?

*Social historian of ideas

By Jordan Palmer*

It’s important that Jews of the 21st century understand and keep alive, the spirit and importance of past Jewish community’s contributions to society, including the area of the arts. Despite persecution and exile, Jews throughout the world have always been key contributors to the arts, both as patrons and artists. The art that has survived the centuries must tell its story. Now, it’s our turn to listen.
In March, The Saint Louis Art Museum presented “Signed in Silk: Introducing a Sacred Jewish Textile,” an exhibition highlighting an extraordinary 2019 acquisition, a 1755 Torah Ark Curtain, or “Parokhet.” The free exhibition is on view in Gallery 100 through Oct. 3.
After this story was originally published in January, word has spread about the Torah Curtain, and the story it tells. This weekend, our partners at Forward published their own version, thus finding more national and international interest in this rare art, that you can see without flying out of town.
Artist Simhah Viterbo embroidered a dedicatory inscription across the lower edge of this magnificent textile when she was only 15. The year was 1755, and Viterbor was living in the Italian port city of Ancona on the Adriatic coast. Viterbo was continuing in a long tradition of Italian Jewish women who created sumptuous textiles for their synagogues.
 
*This article originally appeared on St Lewis Jewish Light on August 1, 2021.

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