Having trouble viewing this email? Click here March 28, 2022 – 25 Adar 5782

By Adam Smulevich
 
A worldwide celebrated victory for the Ukrainian athlete Valentyna Kiliarska Veretska, winner last Friday of the Jerusalem marathon with a time of just over two hours and 45 minutes. A victory that goes beyond sport since Veretska just a few weeks ago left Ukraine with her 11-year-old daughter Alisa, taking refuge in Poland. Their house was destroyed by the Russians, her husband Pavlo is fighting in their city of Mykolaiv.
"Ukrainians are people who do not give up and I am here to prove it," she said meeting Pagine Ebraiche before the marathon. Words that she transformed into a result with a huge symbolic value: the first edition of this race, one of the most fascinating in its kind around the world, is her. Nobody will take away this immense joy, also celebrated by a few tears of emotion.
The athlete, warmly welcomed into the city by Mayor Moshe Lion, showed herself at the finish with two flags: the Ukrainian and the Israeli. “I feel very positive vibes. Everyone is helping me, demonstrating interest in what I went through”, her words of gratitude. Mayor Lion said he was delighted "to have made your dream of competing in Jerusalem a fact, especially in such a complicated time".
Many have ideally raced alongside Valentyna, waving flags and wearing yellow and blue T-shirts. The athlete was moved by that attention and dedicated her victory "to Ukraine, to those who are suffering, to my families: I hope I have made them proud". Her goal is to return next year and win it again, but this time accompanied by her loved ones.

Twitter @asmulevichmoked

By Daniel Reichel

Arieh, doctor of the Israeli NGO Hatzalah Lelo Gvulot (Rescue without borders), is on the phone. He wants to know if an ambulance is available to take away three Ukrainian refugees. They have to reach Rzeszów, a Polish town ninety kilometres from the border. From here, they will leave for Israel. We will find a solution. The ambulance will be there", replied Rabbi Michael Schudrich.
Since the beginning of the conflict, the Chief Rabbi of Poland has worked non-stop to coordinate the Jewish aid to Ukrainian refugees. "Two of the three people who will go to Israel have survived the Shoah. – explains the Rabbi to Pagine Ebraiche in one of the phone calls – Their passports have expired, but I spoke to the Polish authorities and they said not to worry. This is an example of what we have been dealing with since February 24th".
Rabbi Schudrich, forward-looking, says that he had already alerted all the Jewish world of Poland before the beginning of the conflict. "I don't have prophetic abilities, but when Putin started to place his troops on the Belarusian border, I imagined the worst. And then there were Biden's warnings. Those statements weren't made for fun". Therefore, firstly the Rabbi gathered the different Jewish organizations and asked which structures could get ready to welcome the fleeing people. "We identified four structures and were able to help 300 people. A drop in the middle of the sea. But still 300 people more".
Besides arranging the facilities destined for the reception, a true emergency response centre was created. "When the invasion began, we divided our tasks according to a ten-point checklist. Every Jewish organisation had a task; there were those who dealt with the ambulances, those who dealt with the psychological support, the toll-free number, those who dealt with the collection and distribution of clothes, and so on. It's an improvised and perhaps simple method, but it worked for us, especially the telephone line, which operates with the help of several organizations, and is active almost twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, with volunteers who go above and beyond to meet the needs of those who call".
A channel with experts was opened in order to understand how to respond to different problems. "I contacted the European supervisor of the American Jewish NGO "HIAS". They have been working everywhere and doing an extraordinary job in humanitarian aid for a century. I also invited a supervisor of a local NGO that deals with refugees. Unfortunately, Poland has little experience in reception, what happened on the Belarusian border proves it".  Here migrants from Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Afghanistan were blocked on the border by the Polish government and they have been stuck there in inhuman conditions. "We have openly criticized this attitude, but now, concerting the Ukrainian situation, the government response has been extraordinary. Anyone fleeing the conflict and crossing the border is guaranteed free medical care. This is an incredible effort that involves the whole society".
 
Above, the Chief Rabbi of Poland Michael Schudrich with the delegation of the Israeli NGO Hatzalah Lelo Gvulot.
 
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.

Read more

The pandemic slowed down the project, but the commitment to give Palermo a synagogue never stopped. On the contrary, it recently gained momentum with an international crowdfunding campaign soon to be launched in order to support the initiative. The plan was illustrated during the recent visit to Sicily of the Israel ambassador in Italy Dror Eydar, explains Vice-president of The Union of the Italian Jewish Communities Giulio Disegni. "We showed him the project aimed at renovating the former Oratorio di Santa Maria del Sabato (Oratory of Saint Mary of the Graces of Saturday), given on free loan by the Archdiocese, which is meant to become the synagogue of Palermo and might become a catalyst for Jewish life in Sicily". 
The project officially started with the signing in 2017 of the free loan contracts between Archbishop Corrado Lorefice, the President of the Jewish Community of Palermo Lydia Schapirer, and the referent of Palermo Jewish section Evelyn Aouate.
"Now the building must be renovated and secured", says Disegni, who was among the protagonists of the 2017 document drafting. The structure, he adds, dates back to the XVII century and is located in the ancient areas of Gazzetta and Meschita. "Now the goal is to launch an international fundraising to complete the restorations. There is a lot of interest on this matter, both in Italy, in Israel, and the US".
The crowdfunding campaign, says Marilena Citelli Francesi, "will start shortly. All the necessary steps were taken with the joint presentation of the project and the creation of associations dedicated to fundraising. Our goal is to complete the renovation by September. At that point, after more than five hundred years Palermo will have again a synagogue, a place that will give the city further life".
The discovery of the Jewish roots of the Sicilian capital was also the last stage of Ambassador Eydar's visit to the region, where various institutional meetings were held. The objective was to further tighten relations between Israel and Sicily through developing new collaborations on the academic, economic, and scientific fronts.

From top, the unused Baroque oratory known as Santa Maria del Sabato, located in what used to be the city's Jewish Quarter; from right, Ambassador Dror Eydar with Marilena Citelli Francesi and UCEI Vice -President Giulio Disegni.

Read more

By David Bidussa*

Centuries of modernity, told us years ago Jean Delumeau in his La peur en Occident, have unwrapped in mounting tension between hope and fear. So, along with ostentatious confidences, we saw terrifying monsters everywhere: the devil, the Jew, the witch, the heretic, the ideologic adversary, generally the "other". Is this really a new time?
 
* Social Historian of Ideas

By Laura Manzano*  

Despite its monumental influence on Italian food as we know it today, and despite Jews having lived in Italy for thousands of years, author Benedetta Jasmine Guetta says Jewish-Italian food is a culinary heritage mostly unknown. The population of Jews in Italy today, she says, is just too small. Guetta wrote Cooking alla Giudia ($40) to teach about this storied culinary history, and to help preserve it. "I have visited congregations big and small all around Italy, spoken with home cooks young and old, and I have come across a very sad finding," she says. "A lot of dishes that were once considered standard Jewish fare have already largely been forgotten, treasured by maybe a couple of elderly ladies that can still cook them, but have no children to pass the recipes on to, since the size of the community has faced a continuous drop in the last decades."

*This article was originally published on Martha Stewart on March 18, 2022.

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