Having trouble viewing this email? Click here March 14, 2022 – 11 Adar 5782

In the past few days, the European Jewish Congress has initiated deliveries of trucks to the Hungarian and Slovak borders with Ukraine as part of its ongoing effort to assist refugees fleeing war in Ukraine. Set up with the help of Jewish communities in bordering countries, especially the Federation of Jewish Communities in Slovakia (ÚZŽNO), and the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities (MAZSIHISZ), relief trucks contain basic necessities including food, medicine, sanitary products and other items
Deliveries will be replenished on a constant basis and expanded to further locations according to needs on the ground.
"Our goal is to assist as many refugees as possible during this urgent humanitarian situation, and to provide them with a measure of relief and safety," explained EJC Executive Vice-President and CEO Raya Kalenova, who together with EJC Vice-President Ariel Muzicant and ÚZŽNO President Richard Duda supervised the first dispatch of trucks leaving Bratislava to the Slovak- and Hungarian-Ukrainian borders. "Human life is the most precious and sacred thing. We are so proud that our communities have mobilised to protect the most vulnerable, and we will continue to provide all material, financial and moral support to the best of our ability" she added.
"We must do our best to save our Jewish brothers and sisters in Ukraine, and all refugees who require support, to help them leave the country and to give them shelter, food, clothing and any form of psychological and financial support," remarked Ariel Muzicant.
As Richard Duda pointed out, Slovakia directly borders Ukraine, and the Slovak Jewish communities, under the leadership of ÚZŽNO have come together to assist refugees. Over the last two weeks, around twenty families were welcomed in Slovakia and assisted so they are able to settle in.
"We are glad that we are not alone in our mission, we welcome the cooperation with the EJC and express our readiness to continue to work tirelessly for the benefit of all who have had to leave their homes against their will," he said.
The Jewish community of Vienna is also conducting efforts to provide a dignified welcome to refugees. Shelter and basic necessities are being organised in three hotels, as well as access to medical doctors and psychologists. In addition, two Russian-language school classes and a kindergarten have been opened for small children, as well as cultural programs.

Above, the first delivery of relief trucks. Second from right, EJC Executive Vice-President and CEO Raya Kalenova, together with ÚZŽNO President Richard Duda and EJC Vice-President Dr Ariel Muzicant.

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An extraordinary woman that did difficult things in complex situations. She was a great scientist also because she took care of the people outside the laboratory. This is also what we want to remember today". She is the pride of Rome, as Roberto Gualtieri, the mayor of the city, claimed welcoming in his city a street named after Rita Levi-Montalcini. "She is the proof that women are a step ahead. We want to honour her scientific and intellectual heritage in the best way possible" the mayor adds.
 We are in the Municipality 4, close to Pertini Hospital. This is not a place bounded to the life of the scientist from Turin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1986, but it is still a symbol that reminds the capital of her heritage. In a symbolic date as March 8th, this is an homage to a great Italian woman that also went through the tragedy of the antisemitic persecution in her youth. This episode, paradoxically, paved the way to the highest grade of awareness.
Paradoxically enough, she told her story to Pagine Ebraiche during one of her last interviews, "I should thank Hitler and Mussolini that, in declaring me racially inferior, precluded me from any distraction, university life and condemned me to lock myself in a small room where I couldn't do anything but study. The bed, the desk, the incubator, few rudimentary tools and the chicken embryos that I could hardly get... the first basic discoveries were born there. Isn't it a miracle?".

From top, the ceremony held in Rome last week and he intervention of her niece Piera.

Translated by Alice Pugliese and revised by Gianluca Pace, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.

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A painter, a writer, a doctor. Jewish, antifascist, journalist. Carlo Levi is one of the most complex and interesting figures in 19th-century Italian culture: a man of a multifaceted talent, driven by a profound humanity and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. On the occasion of the 120th of his birth, many initiatives are under way in Italy to remember his remarkable legacy. Among them, the beautiful exhibition realized by the Fondazione Ragghianti in Lucca, to which the last issue of Pagine Ebraiche dedicated a feature, that explores the friendship between Carlo Levi and the art critic Ludovico Ragghianti through works of art, letters, documents, photographs, and footage and the initiatives organized in Levi's hometown, Turin.
Titled "Tutta la vita è lontano" (All life is far), this latter project is organized by Circolo dei Lettori Foundation in collaboration with Camera - Italian Center for Photography, Gam - Turin Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, and the Cinema Museum. "Returning Carlo Levi to his city and to all of Italy on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of his birth was an extraordinary adventure for the Circolo dei Lettori Foundation - explained the director Elena Loewenthal - a discovery that has broadened our horizons over time and in space making them gradually wider and unexpected".

Above, Mother and sister, 1926 (Ph. Riccardo Lodovici)

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By Dario Calimani

I don’t really like Valerij Gergiev, but it is said that he is a very good (Russian) conductor. I don't like his gesturality, exaggerated in my opinion, and his blank face, but it is a matter of taste, I admit it. Valerij Gergiev, a supporter of Vladimir Putin, has been asked to condemn the recent atrocious actions carried out by his despot friend. He remained, legitimately, quiet and impassive. Theatres from all over the world do not want him anymore and his contracts have been cancelled, following the precept according to which the artist is also a man, and has therefore to speak up.
We should have expected that the supporters of the ideological defence of civil rights would raise their voices to protest: condemning an artist because he is Russian is racism. As if to say that if I told the signatory poets of the "Manifesto of Fascist Intellectuals" that I did not feel like reading their poems and buying their books anymore, I would have to consider myself racist, since I would have discriminated some poets because they were Italian. And not because they were fascists. Therefore, some renowned intellectual proposes some fallacies, but pretends not to notice.

Translated by Alice Pugliese and revised by Gianluca Pace, students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, interns at the newspaper office of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche.

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Por Simone Varisco*

Desde los primeros momentos del ataque de Rusia a Ucrania, se han evocado páginas dramáticas de la historia del pueblo judío y de todos nosotros. Pero también un posible papel de mediación de Israel. Narraciones en los pliegues, que corren el riesgo de ser silenciadas. Hablo de ello con Sergio DellaPergola, profesor emérito de la Universidad Hebrea de Jerusalén, galardonado con el Premio Marshall Sklare en 1999, comendador de la Orden de la Solidaridad Italiana desde 2005, oficial de la Orden de la República Italiana desde 2006, galardonado con el Premio Michael Landau en 2013. Nacido en Trieste y criado como niño refugiado en Suiza, luego en Milán y graduado en Pavía, hoy se le considera el mayor experto en la población judía mundial, tanto israelí como de la diáspora.

*Este articulo fue publicado en Zenit el 12 de marzo de 2022. 

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