Having trouble viewing this email? Click here September 20, 2021 – 14 Tishri 5782

Simone Zaraffi, a 30 years old horse rider who represents the Israeli national team since 2020, at the end of this week will debut at the World Breeding Championships for Young Horses which will take place in Lanaken, Belgium. The qualification came thanks to an excellent result obtained in a recent race. In that competition he will be riding Tzuriel, a five-year-old horse. Its name in Hebrew means “The Lord is my rock”.
Attending the World Cup is a great achievement for Zaraffi, the only Israeli who qualified, and has many admirers in Italy and in the Florentine Jewish community which has seen him growing up with this great passion since he was a kid. Among his main challengers are the Belgian hosts, but also Dutch and Germans. “We will have to fight”, he said.
We asked him what is the most exciting moment for a rider, besides jumping. He replied: “When I enter the competition area. There is everything there, a condensation of various moods: concentration, adrenaline, tension, desire to do well. And a thousand other sensations that I cannot describe. That's what I've always wanted”. Lanaken is a reward for the many sacrifices made along the way. And maybe the starting point for something even more significant.  

a.s.

Many significant guests will characterize the 12th edition of the Jewish Book Festival organized in Ferrara, from Thursday 23 to Friday 26 September by the National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah. The theme of this edition - which will also see the preview presentation of I-TAL-YA Books, the international digital census project of about 35,000 Jewish books coordinated by the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities - will be “home”. A central topic for an identity like Judaism, which has made the house “an instrument of choice for the transmission of identity and values; a resource that has allowed the survival of a people in diaspora”.
From this perspective, the festival will confront the many challenges of the present. “Over the years, – explained the president of MEIS Dario Disegni - we have had the honor of hosting some of the most representative Italian and international authors of contemporary literature in Ferrara. For the second consecutive year, despite the difficulties and limits imposed by the pandemic, we did not want to give up a festival that brings with itself the inestimable value of culture”.
All the meetings will take place under the sukkah, the traditional hut built on the occasion of Sukkot festivity which commemorates the years that the Jews spent in the desert on their way to the Promised Land. It is an evocative and stimulating choice. “The hut with the roof made of branches in which, according to the Torah, Jews must reside in for seven days, represents the precariousness on which humanity must reflect in the most intimate context of the dwelling”, stressed the director of MEIS rabbi Amedeo Spagnoletto. “But it is also the symbol of a space open to hospitality, a welcoming place, precisely because it is simple and essential and everyone can recognize oneself and participate”.
Events are free, and reservation are suggested. Info here. Many events will be streamed via Facebook on the page @MEISMuseum.

Above, a meeting under the sukkah from the Jewish Book Festival latest edition.

The Jewish Book Festival. festival starts on September 23 at 5:00 p.m. with the opening speeches, by the president of MEIS Disegni; by Daniele Ravenna representing the Ministry of Culture; by the regional councilor Mauro Felicori; by the mayor of Ferrara Alan Fabbri, and by the UCEI president Noemi Di Segni.
At 6:00 p.m. the festival opens to the public with a dip in the past: a multi-voiced conversation dedicated to life in Pompeii, Jerusalem and Rome in the crucial decade from the 70s to the 80s of the first century. The director of the National Archaeological Museum of Naples Paolo Giulierini discusses it with the emeritus professor of Classical Philology at the University of Bari Luciano Canfora, author of the book “Il tesoro degli ebrei. Roma e Gerusalemme” (The treasure of the Jews. Rome and Jerusalem”), Laterza 2021 and Samuele Rocca, author of “ Mai più Masada cadrà” (Never again will Masada fall”), Salerno, 2021. Archaeologist and digital media curator Astrid D’Eredità moderates the meeting.
Friday 24, the morning (9:30-11:00) will be dedicated to schools with “What is a house for?”, a philosophy workshop for children by the philosopher, educator and writer Sara Gomel. At 12:00, presentation of “Il merito dei padri. Storia de La Petrolifera Italo Rumena 1920-2020” (The merit of the fathers. History of La Petrolifera Italo Rumena 1920-2020) by Tito Menzani, Emilio Ottolenghi and Guido Ottolenghi published by Il Mulino in 2020.
The book recounts the story of a company and a family, between the obstacles of war and the racial laws, falls and ascend. Guido Ottolenghi dialogues on the subject with Romano Prodi, current president of the Foundation for Collaboration among Peoples. The new dean of the University of Ferrara Laura Ramaciotti moderates the meeting.

Above, the logo image of the Jewish Book Festival evokes the theme of this edition through the worlds Bait-Casa (Home, in Italian and Hebrew). 

Read more

By Anna Segre

To name a street, a square or a park after someone is not like acquitting them in court: presumption of innocence is not enough, extenuating circumstances are not enough, invoking the peculiar historical circumstances in which that person found themselves is not enough. Otherwise the majority of human beings would deserve to have named after them not only a street, but maybe also a school, an airport, the top of a mountain. Choosing someone to name something after, among the millions or the billions who have nothing named after them, it means choosing this person as a role model, identifying in their ideas, particularly admiring their actions. Who suggest to name a street after a fascist, does not suggest it in spite of them being fascist, but exactly because they were a fascist. Who suggests to name a street after an anti-semite, does not suggest it in spite of them being anti-semite, but exactly because they were an anti-semite. Moreover, they believe that fascism and anti-semitism will bring consensus.
This reasoning applies even more so for suggestions of unnaming after (I apologise for the neologism – the fact that this term does not exist shows how rare an instance this is).

Translated by Silvia Bozzo, student at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, intern at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities.

Read more

Entre 35 y 40 mil textos de la historia de los judíos italianos desde el siglo XVI al siglo XX serán digitalizados con la finalidad de ponerlos a disposición de académicos de todo el mundo.
La iniciativa inicial corresponde a I-TAL-YA Libros: crear una base de datos bilingüe italiano-hebreo de decena de miles de volúmenes, que cubren la historia judío-italiana desde el invento de la imprenta, que incluye a 14 comunidades judías y 25 instituciones estatales.
Colaboran en esta iniciativa la Unión de Comunidades Judías Italianas (UCEI), la Biblioteca Nacional de Israel, la Biblioteca Nacional Central de Roma y la Fundación Rothschild; y los textos se encuentran en colecciones en comunidades judías locales, bibliotecas de propiedad del Estado, el Vaticano e instituciones eclesiásticas italianas.
Concluida la fase de prueba, el proyecto avanza a un “ritmo rápido”. Según publicó Pagine Ebraiche, una publicación de la UCEI, se han subido 2.000 volúmenes en “Teca», el portal de la Biblioteca Nacional Central de Roma; y la Biblioteca Nacional de Israel estima que tardará aproximadamente tres años en completarse.

* Este articulo fue publicado en Iton Gadol el 16 de septembre de 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